Harvey Weinstein has blasted Rose McGowan for trying to "smear" him with a "performance" to promote her new book.
The disgraced movie mogul has stayed largely silent since he was hit by a wave of allegations of sexual misconduct in October 2017, but he has now issued a statement to refute the ‘Charmed’ star’s claims in her memoir ‘Brave’ that he raped her at the Sundance Film Festival in 1997.
His lawyer said in a statement: "As a general matter, Harvey Weinstein and his attorneys have refrained from publicly criticizing any of the women who have made allegations of sexual assault against Mr. Weinstein despite a wealth of evidence that would demonstrate the patent falsity of these claims.
"Watching the ‘performance’ by Rose McGowan as she looks to promote her new book however, has made it impossible to remain quiet as she tries to smear Mr. Weinstein with a bold lie that is denied not only by Mr. Weinstein himself, but by at least two witnesses, including Ms. McGowan’s own Manager at the time who Ms. McGowan claims to have confided in the day after the alleged assault and an A-list actor Ben Affleck who Ms. McGowan claims to have also told about her encounter with Mr. Weinstein shortly after the incident she now describes as ‘rape’, but which in 1997 she described to her Manager as a ‘consensual’ act of sex."
To support his denial, Weinstein published emails from Ben and the 44-year-old actress’ former manager, Jill Messick.
The statement continued: "In an email to Mr. Weinstein regarding the encounter, Jill Messick says the following, ‘When we met up the following day, she hesitantly told me of her own accord that during the meeting that night before she had gotten into a hot tub with Mr. Weinstein. She was very clear about the fact that getting into that hot tub was something that she did consensually and that in hindsight it was also something that she regretted having done.’
"Ben Affleck expressed the following in an email to Mr. Weinstein, ‘She never told me nor did I ever infer that she was attacked by anyone. Any accounts to the contrary are false. I have no knowledge about anything Rose did or claimed to have done.’ "
According to Deadline, Ben’s email was sent last July, before the scandal broke.
The ‘Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice’ actor said in November that he believed and supported Rose.
Meanwhile, the ‘Scream’ actress has hit back at Weinstein’s statement in a Twitter post.
She ranted: "F**k you you f***ing douche bag loser from hell. You will burn. You will be an empty suit coffin. You go fall off the planet you f**k. #RoseArmy BREATHE FIRE let motherf***er but (sic)"
Harvey Weinstein slams Rose McGowan
