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Rose McGowan details alleged sexual assault by Harvey Weinstein in new book

San Jose Mercury News - 1/29/2018

Jan. 29--In her upcoming book, Rose McGowan refers to Harvey Weinstein only as "the Monster," the moniker she has used consistently since accusing the former Hollywood mogul of rape.

McGowan, 44, for the fist time provides details -- in graphic terms -- of the alleged sexual assault she suffered under Weinstein in "Brave," which the New York Times reviewed on Monday.

The actress said she believed she was going to meet Weinstein during the 1997 Sundance Film Festival at an exclusive Park City, Utah, restaurant to discuss her career. When she arrived at the restaurant, the host told her Weinstein had been stuck on a call and directed McGowan to his suite.

"I was certain we would be working together for many years to come, and we were here to plot out the grand arc of my career," she says in the book.

Inside Weinstein's suite, McGowan said he pushed her into a room with a Jacuzzi and took off her clothes. "I freeze, like a statue," McGowan writes. McGowan then alleges Weinstein put her on the edge of the Jacuzzi and performed oral sex as he masturbated while inside the Jacuzzi.

McGowan's account is similar to that of actress-director Asia Argento, another of Weinstein's accusers, according to the Times. Dozens of women have accused Weinstein of sexual abuse, which led to his ouster from his own studio, the Weinstein Company.

After the alleged assault, McGowan said she was taken to a photo-op with Ben Affleck, her co-star in the Weinstein-co-produced film "Phantoms." Affleck noticed that McGowan was visibly shaken, and It was then that he supposedly said, "Goddamn it. I told him to stop doing that."

McGowan writes that she contacted a criminal lawyer only to be told no one would believe her story. She also says other people "counseled me to see it as something that would help my career in the long run."

According to reports, Weinstein paid McGowan a financial settlement of $100,000 over the Park City incident. McGowan says he tarnished her name in Hollywood by telling producers not to hire her.

"It seemed like every creep in Hollywood knew about my most vulnerable and violated moment," she says in the book. "And I was the one who was punished for it."

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