Rose McGowan has spent the past few weeks telling her story about Harvey Weinstein in bits and pieces. She did not participate in either of Ronan Farrow’s New Yorker articles, nor was she a named source in any of the New York Times reporting in the first weeks of the controversy. Then, this past weekend, Rose did sit down with the NY Times for an interview, to tell her side… but not everything. Which is her right, by the way – no victim should feel required to tell their story, or tell every single piece of their story. McGowan has made references to Weinstein raping her, but she’s never talked about what exactly happened on that night at the Sundance Film Festival and that’s her right. McGowan told the NYT that Weinstein’s people got in touch with her a few months ago and offered her hush money, which she refused. You can read the full NYT piece here.
As the Weinstein story has unfolded over the past month, it’s become clear just how influence Weinstein had in areas beyond “what films got made.” Weinstein’s sphere of influence involved the New York and Los Angeles media entirely, various power players in the LAPD, NYPD, LA County DA’s office, NY County DA’s office and likely international law enforcement as well. So what do you make of this?
An arrest warrant was issued for Rose McGowan for felony possession of a controlled substance. The warrant, obtained by the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority Police Department, was issued on Feb. 1, according to the Associated Press. Police launched an investigation after they allegedly found traces of narcotics in personal belongings left behind on a United flight arriving at the Washington Dulles International Airport on Jan. 20, the AP reports.
A spokesman for the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority Police Department, Rob Yingling, told Deadline investigators believe the personal belongings were McGowan’s.
“Our police have attempted to contact Ms. McGowan so that she can appear in a Loudoun County Virginia court to respond to the charge,” Yingling said.
Here’s the thing: a year ago, two years ago, I would have said that it’s completely crazy to think that one of Weinstein’s last, desperate power plays was to have an arrest warrant put out on one of his accusers. But given everything we’ve heard about Weinstein’s connections and all of the damaging information he had stockpiled on everyone… is it really crazy to think that he’s behind this? Rose tweeted this yesterday: “Are they trying to silence me? There is a warrant out for my arrest in Virginia. What a load of HORSESH-T.” Yeah, it does feel… coordinated. Odd.
Photos courtesy of Getty.
I would think it would be more suspicious if the warrant came out this summer and not February. But yea I think the timing of the STORY is to discredit her.
Agreed. Publicizing this is meant to smear her.
I agree. There is a definite smear campaign against Rose.
Agree, why now if the warrant was issued Feb 1? It’s Harvey people retaliating and threating her to shut up. Especially interesting that the Harvey people just a few weeks ago tried to silence her with the promise of more money.
Totally.
It’s coming out after she named other predators too. The timing is very suspicious. And I’m going to have to look up who David Geffen and this ‘Ancier’ person are.
This is terrifying
Agree.
Yes. This is scary and i hope she stays safe. And i also wish Corey Fieldman stays safe.
Just when you think one chapter is over… And you are preparing your stomach for the next…
Amazing that there is a warrant out for her arrest but Weinstein, Cosby, Allen, Polanski, and many others continue to walk free with little chance of ever going to prison.
But the warrant was issued Feb 1st… or am I misunderstanding the time line? Was Weinstein aware of the coming exposes 8 months before they were published? Were the authors even doing the research or interviews at that point?
Since Ronan Farrow was working on the story for 10 MONTHS I am sure HW was aware of it at the time, since he threated him early on if I recall correctly. This is his work, I am so freakin sure of it.
Ok, the caps-lock on “10 month” seems a bit aggressive, but thank you anyway for the clarification on when the investigations began.
Its clear as day, that they want this woman silent. The time line is spot on. If Rosie was offered money so where others. There are people out there working for Harvey, still to this day because they believe that Harvey is coming back. Just watch how a lot of them will disappear from public view.
Keep speaking Rosie, the world is watching.
Great point. Also, when did she turn down the hush money?
Didnt mean to be aggressive towards you, sorry! I am just enraged by HW and his dirty tactics!
There were “trace amounts” of a narcotic found on something she mistakenly left behind?? Why would they even be testing personal belongings for narcotics? This smells to high heaven!!!
Yeah, a felony possession charge for TRACES of narcotics? You know what that could be? Could be hydrocodone. Could be anything narcotic, including PRESCRIPTION narcotics.
Geez. Seems a bit desperate and sketchy. I’m Team Rose on this. Ridiculous.
It’s coke. Still… It is all too convenient.
Oh, FFS! It could have been cocaine traces on a dollar bill (especially since ~90% of dollar bills have it). Good luck trying to prove it was exclusively Rose’s. It’s all too convenient, and frankly, disgusting.
Exactly.
Because she apparently left personal items on the plane. Assuming we’re talking a bag or something and not like, trash, it’s a completely normal security procedure to check that out thoroughly.
A lot of people ‘forget’ to take things off the plane when they suddenly get scared about being caught with drugs. They’re usually high, so they aren’t thinking clearly enough to realise they’re leaving things behind that will immediately give away their identity.
Actually they regularly check for narcotics in bags. See the actor from Stranger Things getting busted for the same thing and being denied entry in the US
Yes, but he was simply denied entry for the exact same thing – *trace* amounts. Yet she has a warrant out for felony possession??
That’s what I was thinking. He COULD have been charged though. A drug dog could have alerted on it like they did with Charlie. It seemed like he withdrew his application for entry and went back to the UK instead of being charged.
I really don’t think this is some big conspiracy. The timing of this story in particular could be questionable – but if she did have traces of narcotics on her luggage – she’s taking a risk.
They do check suspicious luggage for drug traces, and not just in the US. They actually have a kind of machine, at airports, which can determine which drug it is too. I didn’t know this, but I watched a program about custom controllers on TV.
The date on the warrant means this probably isn’t about Harvey, unless he got law enforcement to bear down on her now, rather than let it go.
I would imagine this would be hard case to prove considering Rose was not in possession of the bag when narcotic traces were found, a good defence lawyer could argue their was reasonable assumption that the traces could have come from soneone else eho may have had temporary custody of the bag
I agree- why would they test articles left on a plane? Is every article left on a plane by random people tested? This is a smear campaign.
And they’re not even sure it’s hers? Looks like the “drug war” is escalating, and at the very least the timing of this story has Harvey’s stench all over it.
That’s such bullshit. Literally everybody in Hollywood does drugs.
So what? Doesn’t it means it isn’t illegal
I feel so badly for this woman.
#TeamRose #FreeRose
I don’t know…it was issued on Feb 1st. If Weinstein knew this was happening 8 months ago, I’m thinking he would have done things much differently than plant ONE felony possession against ONE of his accusers. I’m thinking this is legit.
@ Neha, I’m kinda thinking the same thing. My first thought after reading the preface of this article (about Harvey’s connections) was “but everyone is distancing themselves from Harvey now. Who does he still have in his pocket to curry these kind of favors?”. That’s my main reason for hesitating to believe he is behind this.
HOWEVER, I think he is delusional, petty and desperate enough to employ his old MO 1-want to get back at his loudest and most consistently vocal detractor, 2- to make her an example to discourage other women from coming forth or proceeding. (If I were her I would be inclined NOT to publicize this or insinuate he was behind it for that reason alone. Why give women more reason to feel the need to be silent? IJS). The thing is though, does he really have any more connections willing or capable of doing that for him at this point? If he does……..then yeah, this is totally believable.
Oh yeah, because all items left behind everywhere are routinely swabbed for narcotics. That is effing scary power.
Not everywhere. On a plane? Yeah, that’ll happen most of the time. People don’t tend to forget to grab anything notable on a plane, because everyone getting their bags at once is a pretty great reminder to grab your stuff. So when people leave things behind, it gets checked out because there’s usually a reason.
I am not a traveller, I had no idea they tested luggage if left behind. I figured it happens frequently on public transportation . I’ll have to YouTube that documentary.
don’t care about a Virginia warrant. it’s the usual discredit the victim agenda bs that these old farts got do. new era old goats! even if it was true, it doesn’t mean she wasn’t raped by the fat pig predator .
The timing stinks, and I hope this is cleared up quickly, for her and the sake of other victims.
That said, has she clarified her comments regarding what a kind and gentle man convicted pedophile Victor Salva is? or how is convictions and abuse are none of her business?
Didn’t think so.
She doesn’t need to do it for me, for you, for anyone other than the victims whose pain and suffering and torment she reduced to nothingness. Abuse is everyone’s business.
She has the right message, but until she at least publicly addresses her past comments, she gets nothing from me, and I will talk about her hypocrisy until she does, however I can.
Because she reduced victims of sexual crime to nothing.
@ArchieGoodwin, tbh, I don’t see jow this legal hiccup impact the other victims. It’s not like Rose is a legitimate leader to a movement. Yes, calling people out keeps the story alive, but nobody, not the victims nor their supporters are organizing and mobilizing to effect actual change. Everyone in Hollywood continues to operate like islands, exvept when it comes time to get comfort from the public. That why some people, including myself, have doubts that anything will change.
How about this: there’s way more to come out and if you speak up you will end up in jail or overdose or in an accident?
It’s what mafia does.
Completely agree Archie. That soured me on her forever. Apparently it’s only sexual abuse when it happens to Rose and isn’t done by someone she likes.
This sounds like a stretch. They’re claiming she left something behind which had trace amounts of natcotics. If it was left behind they can’t prove the trace amounts were there when it was in her possession. Okay so they found it, tested it, found trace amounts then put out an arrest warrant? Seems like an awful lot of work to put into for trace amounts of narcotics. No? I don’t see how a good lawyer couldn’t get this thrown out immediately. Is it possible to backdate a warrant?
@Michelle: Exactly and well said.
So she leaves drugs or trace drugs on a plane. Arrest warrant issued… There’s a big gap in details on this.
So was issued a long time ago and not enforced. She just found out about it and somehow is claiming she’s being silenced? That’s not how being silenced works.
Don’t the dates line up with the Women’s March in Washington? Did Rose speak/march? I’m more likely to believe the initial warrant was issued because her name was in the news around that time and some gung-ho investigator/prosecutor had visions of a high-profile case swirling in their head. The timing of the world learning about the warrant is another matter. That seems extremely sketchy.
Rose was a no one back then. There were way more high profile people than her there.
It’s probably a simple case of the warrant just getting there. The world learned of it because she announced it on twitter. A friend of mine had a felony speeding warrant in Texas that he didn’t hear about until almost 2 years later. He just ignored it.
Rose McGowan has been talking badly about a lot of people lately, so it’s not necessarily Weinstein’s black hand involved. Could be that anyone tipped off some PR person that a warrant existed about her (and it’s not the first time I’ve heard of her and drugs, by the way) and they leaked this story now to discredit her.
Charges for traces of narcotics are not uncommon, depending on what narcotic it is, especially in certain states.
That being said, the only thing you need to discredit her is to remind everyone that she publicly defended a convicted pedophile and child pornographer in 2011 and chose to dismiss the allegations against him as not knowing the whole story. I feel for her as a Weinstein victim, but she’s also a hypocrite.
If she has a drug problem, it may be related to the powerful and ugly feelings brought on from being a victim of sexual violence
Where is Weinstein’s arrest warrant?
Ka-Boom. Exactly.
HW probably has had his people try to dig up info on Rose to try and discredit her. This warrant may be legit but it was at best a footnote until she decided to come forward with what HW did to her. I’ll be surprised if this is the only time we hear that “new” dirt on some of his victims has come to light. I think I heard that Corey Feldman recently had some legal trouble in Louisiana after a routine traffic stop…that may or may not have been an attempt to shut him up also.
The problem with finding traces is that nowadays probably everybody has traces….Our paper money is contaminated enough that when someone was demonstrating a new more sensitive detector, everybody had traces on their fingers and they could not have all been druggies. I’m sure there are other ways to pick up “traces” as well.
The word “trace” is the problem, since drug detecting machines are so sensitive today. Too easy to neutralize someone with that kind of accusation.