Harvey Weinstein accuser Rose McGowan blew the doors wide open on a few behemoths in a shockingly honest interview on Wednesday.
First, McGowan blasted former President Obama for failing to condemn Weinstein as accusations of sexual abuse surfaced last year. (RELATED: Rose McGowan Rips Obama For Silence On Weinstein Scandal)
She also took a swipe at Matt Lauer and upper NBC management, who claimed they had no idea about Lauer’s long history of workplace sexual misconduct. When NBC invited her to speak about her alleged abuse by Weinstein on the “TODAY” show last year, McGowan scoffed at the idea.
“I did not want my rape spoken about over breakfast cereal on the ‘Today’ show,” McGowan revealed to The Hollywood Reporter. “I’d heard about Matt Lauer. You can’t tell me the people at the top of NBC aren’t aware. Come on.”
This runs contrary to NBC’s internal investigation report, which was published Wednesday. In the report, NBC claims it was not aware of any wrongdoing by Lauer until November 27, 2017 — well after Rose McGowan and many more women came forward with allegations against Weinstein. (RELATED: NBC Just Investigated Itself On Matt Lauer. Unsurprisingly, They Don’t Think They Did Anything Wrong)
So instead of taking her story to NBC, McGowan spoke to The New York Times about the incident.
“I was never going to let my story be on NBC, but I wanted to ensure that the Times would do it, and everybody before had folded,” she explained. “So I pitted [Farrow] against the New York Times. I understand how men work and how Hollywood works and how power works. People are going to be much more interested in going down the line with something if they know they’re competing with somebody else.”
It’s worth mentioning that both NBC and MSNBC rejected the Weinstein story when Ronan Farrow first brought it to them. It’s no wonder Rose McGowan refused to chat with the network, and more specifically an accused predator, about her personal brush with sexual abuse.
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