Rose McGowan Accuses Ben Affleck of Lying About Weinstein Sexual Harrassment

Rose McGowan (L) and Ben Affleck (R) (Getty Images)

Rose McGowan accused Ben Affleck of lying about his knowledge of sexual harassment by Harvey Weinstein in a Twitter message on Tuesday.

The actress wrote that Affleck had told her, “I told him to stop doing that!” at the press conference which she “was made to go to after assault.”

“You said that to my face,” McGowan wrote. “You lie.”

The actress confirmed to New York Times that she told Affleck that Weinstein harassed her and that she was accusing Affleck of lying for not mentioning his knowledge of the assault in his public statement.

“I am saying exactly that,” the actress wrote to the Times.

New York Times and The New Yorker published bombshell investigative reports on decades of alleged sexual assault by Weinstein, a Hollywood mogul with the power to make or break a career.

US film producer Harvey Weinstein poses during a photocall as he arrives to attend the De Grisogono Party on the sidelines of the 70th Cannes Film Festival, at the Cap-Eden-Roc hotel in Antibes, near Cannes, southeastern France, on May 23, 2017. (YANN COATSALIOU/AFP/Getty Images)

Weinstein was fired from his the company he co-founded after the Times article sent shockwaves through Hollywood. Since then, Hollywood actresses Gwyneth Paltrow and Angelina Jolie have come forward to reveal that Weinstein assaulted them.

Weinstein played a role in making Affleck a Hollywood star. Affleck appeared in the 1997 movie “Good Will Hunting” with Weinstein’s help, according to the Times.

In her message, McGowan was addressing the statement  Affleck issued on Oct. 10, several days after the Times article was published.

Co-Chairman of Creative Artists Agency Bryan Lourd, director Ben Affleck and co-chairmen of The Weinstein Company Harvey Weinstein attend the 18th Annual Critics' Choice Movie Awards held at Barker Hangar on Jan. 10, 2013 in Santa Monica, California. (Christopher Polk/Getty Images for BFCA)

“I am saddened and angry that a man I worked with used his position of power to intimidate, sexually harass and manipulate women over decades. The additional allegations of assault I read this morning made me sick.” Affleck wrote, referencing accusations of rape by several women in the New Yorker article.

“We must support those who come forward,” he continued, and “condemn this type of behavior when we see it.”

Affleck and McGowan appeared in two films together in 1997 and 1998, around the time that McGowan settled a lawsuit for $100,000 with Weinstein over a sexual assault in a hotel room during the Sundance Film Festival.

File photo. 10/11/99 Hollywood, CA. Rose McGowan at the Los Angeles premiere of Walt Disney Pictures'' "The Straight Story." (Brenda Chase Online USA, Inc.)

McGowan was one of at least eight women who settled lawsuits with Weinstein over the course of three decades, according to the Times.

Matt Damon, who worked with Affleck on a number of films told Deadline on Tuesday that he knew nothing of Weinstein’s behavior. Damon was accused by a former Times writer for helping bury a sexual harassment story about Weinstein in 2004. He defended himself by saying he did not know about the nature of the story when he called the writer to vouch for an associate of Weinstein who had been accused of similar things.

“This type of predation happens behind closed doors and out of public view,” Damon said. “If there was ever an event that I was at, and Harvey was doing this kind of thing and I didn’t see it, then I am so deeply sorry, because I would have stopped it.”

From NTD.tv