My Weinstein rape plea
In one of her tweets to Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, Miss McGowan wrote: “I told the head of your studio that HW raped me. Over & over I said it. He said it hadn’t been proven. I said I was the proof.
“I forcefully begged studio head to do the right thing. I was ignored. Deal was done. Amazon won a dirty Oscar.”
Miss McGowan appeared to be referring to Casey Affleck’s Best Actor Oscar earlier this year for his role in the Amazon studios production Manchester By The Sea.
The executive the actress was referring to appeared to be Mr Price but her agent did not return requests for clarification.
Miss McGowan, 44, a former child star on US television before appearing in the horror movie Scream, claimed that after she spoke about Weinstein, Amazon executives told her a project she was working on with them was “dead”.
She later tweeted to Mr Bezos: “I am calling on you to stop funding rapists, alleged pedos and sexual harassers. I love @amazon but there is rot in Hollywood.”
The sexual harassment allegation against Mr Price was made by Isa Hackett, a producer for Amazon and the daughter of late science fiction writer Philip K. Dick.
Miss Hackett, 50, alleges that Mr Price, 51, repeatedly propositioned her and made lewd comments to her at a party in 2015. Amazon yesterday began an investigation, saying it would “take seriously any questions about the conduct of our employees”.
A spokesman said: “Roy Price is on leave of absence effective immediately. We are reviewing our options for projects we have with Weinstein Co.”
Meanwhile, celebrity gossip website TMZ yesterday alleged that Weinstein’s contract at his company stated that if he treated someone “improperly in violation of the company’s Code of Conduct” he had to pay any cash settlements and a series of fines for his first three violations, and $1million for “each additional instance”.
The payments constitute a “cure” for misconduct and no further action can be taken – meaning he would continue in his job, it said.
Entertainment lawyers predicted that such disclosures could spark a “fire sale” of assets at the company and questioned if it would survive.
The production company’s forthcoming releases include The Current War starring Benedict Cumberbatch.
Former Democrat presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton yesterday said she had no idea about Weinstein’s persistent misconduct.
Weinstein raised about £2million for the Democrats over 30 years. Mrs Clinton vowed to give any of his donations to charity. Among others to break their silence was Quentin Tarantino who made all his movie hits, including Pulp Fiction, with Weinstein. He said yesterday: “I need a few more days to process my pain, emotions, anger and memory and then I will speak publicly about it.”
A spokesman for the shamed movie producer said: “Any allegations of non-consensual sex are unequivocally denied by Mr Weinstein.”