During the last few days, it’s been said that actresses attending the 2018 Golden Globes would be banning together to all wear black as a silent protest against the sexual harassment of women both in Hollywood and around the globe. While no stars or stylists confirmed the reports, the rumors were enough for actress Rose McGowan to take to Twitter to blast any actress willing to take part.

In a tweet, which has since been deleted, McGowan said, “Actresses, like Meryl Streep, who happily worked for The Pig Monster, are wearing black @goldenglobes in a silent protest. YOUR SILENCE is THE problem. You’ll accept a fake award breathlessly & affect no real chance. I despise your hypocrisy. Maybe you should all wear Marchesa.”

While Amber Tamblyn was one of the first actresses to come out and slam McGowan for her tweet, calling it “beneath” McGowan to do, she would not be the last. On Monday, Meryl Streep, the target of McGowan’s tweet, came out with a lengthy statement both defending herself, and further lending her support to McGowan.

“It hurt to be attacked by Rose McGowan in banner headlines this weekend, but I want to let her know I did not know about Weinstein’s crimes, not in the 90s when he attacked her, or through subsequent decades when he proceeded to attack others,” Streep said in a statement shared with HuffPost by her publicist Leslee Dart.

Streep further added that she “wasn’t deliberately silent” about Weinstein and his horrific crimes simply because she didn’t know.

According to Streep, she didn’t have a friendly relationship, or any relationship, with Weinstein through the years. She explained that like most people whose films were distributed by Weinstein she had only a tangential tie to the man and never truly knew him.

“…Not every actor, actress, and director who made films that HW distributed knew he abused women, or that he raped Rose in the 90s, other women before and others after, until they told us,” She said. “We did not know that women’s silence was purchased by him and his enablers. HW needed us not to know this, because our association with him bought him credibility, an ability to lure young, aspiring women into circumstances where they would be hurt.” In a meaningful line Streep added, “He needed me much more than I needed him and he made sure I didn’t know.”

Streep added that now that she, and everyone, knows, a legal defense fund for victims is being assembled to which, “hundreds of good-hearted people in our business will contribute, to bring down the bastards, and help victims fight this scourge within.”

She ended her statement by expressing her sorrow that McGowan sees her as an adversary, rather than a friend. Instead of further fractioning Streep said she hopes all women in the entertainment business can stand together “in defiance” of the same enemy: “a status quo that wants so badly to return to the bad old days, the old ways where women were used, abused and refused entry into the decision-making, top levels of the industry. That’s where the cover-ups convene. Those rooms must be disinfected, and integrated, before anything even begins to change.”

Below, Streep’s full statement:

It hurt to be attacked by Rose McGowan in banner headlines this
weekend, but I want to let her know I did not know about Weinstein’s
crimes, not in the 90s when he attacked her, or through subsequent
decades when he proceeded to attack others. I wasn’t deliberately
silent. I didn’t know. I don’t tacitly approve of rape. I didn’t know.
I don’t like young women being assaulted. I didn’t know this was
happening. I don’t know where Harvey lives, nor has he ever been to my
home. I have never in my life been invited to his hotel room. I have
been to his office once, for a meeting with Wes Craven for “Music of
the Heart” in 1998. HW distributed movies I made with other people. HW
was not a filmmaker; he was often a producer, primarily a marketer of
films made by other people—some of them great, some not great. But not
every actor, actress, and director who made films that HW distributed
knew he abused women, or that he raped Rose in the 90s, other women
before and others after, until they told us. We did not know that
women’s silence was purchased by him and his enablers. HW needed us
not to know this, because our association with him bought him
credibility, an ability to lure young, aspiring women into
circumstances where they would be hurt. He needed me much more than I
needed him and he made sure I didn’t know. Apparently he hired ex
Mossad operators to protect this information from becoming public.
Rose and the scores of other victims of these powerful, moneyed,
ruthless men face an adversary for whom Winning, at any and all costs,
is the only acceptable outcome. That’s why a legal defense fund for
victims is currently being assembled to which hundreds of good hearted
people in our business will contribute, to bring down the bastards,
and help victims fight this scourge within. Rose assumed and broadcast
something untrue about me, and I wanted to let her know the truth.
Through friends who know her, I got my home phone number to her the
minute I read the headlines. I sat by that phone all day yesterday and
this morning, hoping to express both my deep respect for her and
others’ bravery in exposing the monsters among us, and my sympathy for
the untold, ongoing pain she suffers. No one can bring back what
entitled bosses like Bill O’Reilly, Roger Ailes, and HW took from the
women who endured attacks on their bodies and their ability to make a
living.. And I hoped that she would give me a hearing. She did not,
but I hope she reads this. I am truly sorry she sees me as an
adversary, because we are both, together with all the women in our
business, standing in defiance of the same implacable foe: a status
quo that wants so badly to return to the bad old days, the old ways
where women were used, abused and refused entry into the
decision-making, top levels of the industry. That’s where the
cover-ups convene. Those rooms must be disinfected, and integrated,
before anything even begins to change.

Related Content:

Amber Tamblyn Slams Rose McGowan for ‘Shaming’ Actresses Planning to Wear Black to the Golden Globes
#MeToo Founder Tarana Burke on What Needs to Happen After the Hashtag
MeToo: Thousands of Women Share Stories of Sexual Harassment and Assault on Twitter

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