Meryl Streep Claims She Was Not “Deliberately Silent” About Weinstein In Wake Of Rose McGowan Criticism

One of the more disturbing parts of Hollywood’s many sexual assault controversies is discovering which big name celebrities knew about these crimes but chose to stay silent. In a now-deleted tweet that was posted last week, Rose McGowan called out one of the biggest names in Hollywood for “hypocrisy” — Meryl Streep. The legendary actress has now issued a statement about Harvey Weinstein, saying that she was not “deliberately silent” about the sexual misconduct and assault allegations surrounding the producer.

McGowan, who has become the face of this wave of sexual assault allegations as well as the #MeToo movement, wrote about Streep’s connection to Weinstein and criticized the actress’ decision to wear black to the Golden Globes as a form of silent protest. The now-deleted tweet said, “Actresses, like Meryl Streep, who happily worked for The Pig Monster, are wearing black @GoldenGlobes in a silent protest,” McGowan wrote. “YOUR SILENCE is THE problem. You’ll accept a fake award breathlessly and affect no real change. I despise your hypocrisy. Maybe you should all wear Marchesa.”

In a statement released to The Huffington Post, Streep claimed she didn’t know about the accusations against Weinstein. “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,” she wrote.

Streep also revealed that she wasn’t particularly close with the producer. She recalls once going to his office for a meeting with Wes Craven about the movie Music of the Heart, but refers to Weinstein as a person who “distributed movies I made with other people.” The actress also speculated that Weinstein and the people around him kept Streep in the dark about the accusations because “He needed me much more than I needed him and he made sure I didn’t know.”

“I am truly sorry [Rose McGowan] 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,” the statement issued through Streep’s publicist, Leslee Dart, read. “That’s where the cover-ups convene. Those rooms must be disinfected, and integrated, before anything even begins to change.”

You can read Streep’s statement in full here.