The actor Rose McGowan has alleged that Harvey Weinstein raped her and that Amazon Studios ignored her complaints and dropped her show after she spoke up.
McGowan is one of the most prominent women to accuse the disgraced movie mogul of sexual misconduct, and although she was named in the recent New York Times investigation as an accuser, her tweets Thursday were the first time she publicly alleged that Weinstein raped her.
“I told the head of your studio that HW raped me,” she wrote in a tweet to Amazon’s CEO, using Weinstein’s initials. “Over & over I said it. He said it hadn’t been proven. I said I was the proof.” She further claimed Amazon had “won a dirty Oscar” while “funding rapists”.
McGowan spoke last year about being raped by an unnamed studio head, but did not name Weinstein. The producer reached a settlement with McGowan when she was 23 years old after “an episode in a hotel room” during a film festival, according to the New York Times piece. McGowan declined to comment for that story and she did not immediately respond to the Guardian’s request for comment on Thursday.
Weinstein has apologized for causing “pain”, but has said he denies many of the sexual harassment allegations in the New York Times. After a New Yorker piece reported on multiple accusations of sexual assault and his rape, his spokesperson said: “Allegations of non-consensual sex are unequivocally denied.”
In her latest tweets, McGowan said she had sold a script to Amazon, which was in development, when she learned a “Weinstein bailout was in the works”.
“I forcefully begged studio head to do the right thing. I was ignored. Deal was done. Amazon won a dirty Oscar,” she wrote.
“I called my attorney & said I want to get my script back, but before I could, #2 @amazonstudios called to say my show was dead,” she continued in her tweets directed at Amazon founder and CEO Jeff Bezos.
Bezos has not responded on Twitter and multiple Amazon spokespeople did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
It’s not clear what script McGowan is referring to, but in September 2016 she told an audience at a film festival in Brooklyn: “I just sold my show to Amazon, that I wrote and [will direct].”
McGowan did not reveal the subject matter, but she has previously talked about her desire to make a show about her early experience in the Children of God cult, from which her family fled in 1980.
Amazon won two Oscars this year for Manchester By The Sea, including Best Screenplay and Best Actor, which went to Casey Affleck.
Affleck was sued for sexual misconduct in 2010 by two female colleagues who worked with him on mockumentary I’m Still Here. Cinematographer Magdalena Gorka and producer Amanda White alleged that Affleck verbally and sexually harassed them, propositioning and grabbing White and sliding into Gorka’s bed uninvited. Affleck denied wrongdoing and settled both claims in 2010.
The Weinstein Company, which fired Harvey Weinstein over the weekend, is working with Amazon on two upcoming series. In the wake of the scandal, the executive producer credit for Weinstein is being removed from the series and Amazon is considering severing ties with The Weinstein Company altogether.
“We are reviewing our options for the projects we have with the Weinstein Co,” Craig Berman, VP communications at Amazon Entertainment, said in a statement on Tuesday.
McGowan’s tweets came just as the television producer Isa Hackett accused Amazon’s programming chief, Roy Price, of sexual harassment in the Hollywood Reporter. An Amazon spokesperson confirmed to the Guardian that Price was “on leave of absence effective immediately”.
The company spokesperson did not respond to questions about McGowan. Price declined to comment to the Hollywood Reporter.
McGowan had earlier tweeted “fuck off” to actor Ben Affleck and accused him of lying about his knowledge of Weinstein’s history of sexual misconduct. She criticized him after he released a statement, saying he was “saddened” Weinstein “used his position of power to intimidate, sexually harass and manipulate many women over decades”.
Twitter subsequently suspended McGowan’s account after she posted a screenshot that had a phone number in it. Twitter reinstated her account after she deleted the message, saying in a statement that it was “proud” to provide a platform to people who “speak truth to power”.
Ben Affleck has since been forced to apologize for groping actor Hilarie Burton on air in 2003 after video resurfaced this week.
If you have stories to share about Weinstein or sexual misconduct in Hollywood, contact sam.levin@theguardian.com