Rose McGowan sues Harvey Weinstein, his lawyers and a company she says spied on her
Yesterday in Los Angeles, actress Rose McGowan filed a lawsuit against Harvey Weinstein and his lawyers and investigators, “accusing them of carrying out a plot to discredit and silence her,” according to The Los Angeles Times. The “Charmed” actress’ complaint also zeros in on a 1997 incident where McGowan claims that Weinstein raped her – an allegation that the disgraced film producer has denied.
“Harvey Weinstein was able to perpetrate and cover up decades of violence and control over women because he had a sophisticated team working on his behalf to systematically silence and discredit his victims,” McGowan said in a statement. “My life was upended by their actions, and I refuse to be intimidated any longer.”
McGowan has said that Weinstein raped her in a hotel room during a business meeting at the 1997 Sundance Film Festival. Her lawsuit states that when Weinstein learned that she was writing a book detailing her rape, that Weinstein and his associates conspired to ensure that her book would never get published, according to The BBC. Her claims against Weinstein and his associates include accusations of racketeering, invasion of privacy and fraud.
The suit says: “This case is about a diabolical and illegal effort by one of America’s most powerful men and his representatives to silence sexual-assault victims. And it is about the courageous women and journalists who persisted to reveal the truth.”
The lawsuit claims that Weinstein, his lawyers David Boies and Lisa Bloom, and a private investigation company, Black Cube, hired by Weinstein to spy on and discredit McGowan, “used spies posing as women’s rights advocates and journalists to obtain a copy of the memoir, illegally recorded her conversations, and smeared her to those in the entertainment industry who were working on projects with her,” according to NBC News.
McGowan is not the only woman that Weinstein has allegedly sexually assaulted, or tried to silence or discredit.
The former Hollywood film exec and movie producer is reported to have compiled a lengthy list of his sexual assault victims – and others – who may have potential information regarding his sexual misconduct. He was having his victims, women who were accusing him of sexual harassment, investigated in an effort to keep them quiet regarding their accusations, according to a November 18 report from Fox News.
Following sexual harassment allegations levied against Weinstein by at least 30 women, most television and film organizations, including the Weinstein Company which Weinstein helped create, cut all ties with the former media mogul.
The Guardian reported that Weinstein’s hit list of names he wanted to silence totaled 91 names of actors, publicists, producers, financiers – and included McGowan, Laura Madden and Zelda Perkins. Reportedly, those three names were marked and highlighted in red, an indication that Weinstein considered them to be targets of high importance. The 91 names of Hollywood insiders were being investigated by Weinstein, “because of potential information they may have had regarding his alleged sexual assault(s),” according to The Guardian.
The 67-year-old Weinstein goes to trial at the beginning of 2020 on “charges alleging that he raped an unidentified woman in his Manhattan hotel room in 2013 and performed a forcible sex act on a different woman in 2006.” The former film executive is on record as saying that he has consistently denied all allegations that he had nonconsensual sex.
(Rose McGowan, Cover image credit: rosemcgowan / Instagram)
~ Posted by: Richard Webster, Ace News Today / Follow Richard on Facebook and Twitter
