Rose McGowan, an actress, claims Harvey Weinstein promised her $1 million (£760,000) in exchange for silence.
Weeks before many allegations of sexual assault against the disgraced tycoon appeared, McGowan, who has accused Weinstein of raping her in a hotel room in 1997, told the New York Times that she had received the offer in late September from a person related to the disgraced mogul.
The actress asserts that she and Weinstein previously reached a $100,000 settlement about the incident, but this summer she discovered that the agreement lacked a secrecy clause.
McGowan asserts that she considered the offer because she needed the cash to finish writing her upcoming book, Brave. McGowan, who has since stopped acting, believes that her relationship with Weinstein hurt her career.
In order to support her art, she said, “I had all these people I pay telling me to accept it.”
The actress said that she responded with $6 million.
She said, “I believed I could have brought him up to three.” In contrast, I thought, “Ew, gross, you’re disgusting, I don’t want your money, it would make me feel filthy.
McGowan was one of eight women who allegedly made hidden settlements with Weinstein, according to a report that ran in the New York Times on October 5. Following the publication of that article, The New Yorker carried out additional research and gathered 13 additional allegations of the producer’s alleged sexual assault or harassment. Since that time, 82 women have come forward to report producer-related sexual assault or harassment. Star Annabella Sciorra recently asserted that Weinstein broke into her apartment and abused her sexually in the 1990s.
In a response, Weinstein said that the original New York Times piece regarding her settlement was “saturated with false and defamatory allegations” and that “No corporation ever talks about settlements, so I don’t know how the Times arrived to this conclusion.”
