Apparently, Rose McGowan woke up this morning and decided it was a good day to wrap up some unfinished business. Back in February of 2018 while Rose was in the midst of promoting her memoir Brave, she did an interview with Ronan Farrow and disclosed that she had been sexually abused by a “very famous” director when she was 15. At the time she did not say who it was, only that she’d “get to him” when the time was right. Well, today the clock has struck “oh shit” O’clock for Alexander Payne. Rose #TooktoTwitter to make good on her promise, accusing Alexander of statutory rape.
Unlike the day the reviews came out for Downsizing, it’s not all bad news for Alexander. Rose says she does “not want to destroy” him with her revelation, she just wants an apology. Here’s Rose’s accusation, the description of which matches up with what she told Ronan two years ago.
Alexander Payne. You sat me down & played a soft-core porn movie you directed for Showtime under a different name. I still remember your apartment in Silverlake. You are very well-endowed. You left me on a street corner afterwards. I was 15. pic.twitter.com/mVqiN4S9NW
— Rose McGowan (@rosemcgowan) August 17, 2020
I just want an acknowledgement and an apology. I do not want to destroy. This was me at 15. pic.twitter.com/XeNpsrpY4s
— Rose McGowan (@rosemcgowan) August 17, 2020
According to The Daily Beast, Rose told Ronan that she had never considered what had happened to be statutory rape until after his now infamous 2017 #metoo expose in The New Yorker was published. After that, she began to process the alleged encounter differently. Here’s what Rose told Ronan in 2018. (via The Cut)
McGowan then recounted an alleged statutory rape, saying a “very famous” director picked her up when she was 15 years old. “He took me home, after he met me, and showed me a soft-porn movie he’d made for Showtime, under a different name, of course … And then he had sex with me. And then he left me next to Tropical in Silver Lake, standing on a street corner,” McGowan said. She only realized recently that the encounter would qualify as a statutory rape: “I’d been attracted to him, so I always filed it away as a sexual experience,” she began. “Two weeks after your [New Yorker] story came out, I’d processed it, but I removed myself from it.” Now, McGowan says she feels comfortable labeling it as molestation or statutory rape. Farrow confirmed that McGowan had previously revealed the man’s identity to him off the record, but that McGowan would name him publicly when she was ready.
In the immortal words of Tiffany Haddish, she ready. At the time, Rose only hinted at who it was saying “he worked for my rapist and won Oscars,” her alleged rapist of course being Harvey Weinstein and the Oscars were awarded to Alexander for best-adapted screenplay for the Descendants and Sideways. Fittingly, one-time FOH (friend of Harvey) Matt Damon skipped the premiere of Alexander’s latest film, the flop Downsizing, because he was busy avoiding the press after saying men who don’t do rape should get more credit before offering up Matt’s Spectrum of Sexual Assault: From Butt Taps to “Rape” Rape— Let’s Not Get It Twisted! I wonder where Alexander, who would have been 28 when Rose was 15, falls on Matt’s spectrum. Because like it or not, Matt is really the only one who can decide these kinds of things. And he’s got a big backlog of cases to review since he decided to hang up his robe and gavel.
Pic: Wenn.com
