Actress Rose McGowan Says She was Raped by Hollywood 'Studio Head'

Revealing tweets shared in aftermath of Donald Trump's comments about women

By Zulekha Nathoo, CBC News


Actress-turned-musician Rose McGowan is becoming known for calling out Hollywood on sexist practices and revealed on Twitter she was raped by a 'studio head.' (Mario Anzuoni/Reuters )

Warning: graphic language in tweets

Actress and singer Rose McGowan says she was sexually assaulted by a Hollywood executive, who she only refers to as a "studio head."

In a series of tweets to her 635,000 followers, the Grindhouse and Charmed star said the assault had been "an open secret in Hollywood" and she didn't report it after being discouraged by a lawyer.

"A [female] criminal attorney said because I'd done a sex scene in a film I would never win against the studio head," she wrote in one tweet posted Thursday.

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 rose mcgowan ✔ @rosemcgowan
a (female) criminal attorney said because I'd done a sex scene in a film I would never win against the studio head. #WhyWomenDontReport
5:19 PM - 13 Oct 2016
  310 310 Retweets   536 536 likes

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 rose mcgowan ✔ @rosemcgowan
because it's been an open secret in Hollywood/Media & they shamed me while adulating my rapist. #WhyWomenDontReport
5:20 PM - 13 Oct 2016
  382 382 Retweets   784 784 likes

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 rose mcgowan ✔ @rosemcgowan
Because my ex sold our movie to my rapist for distribution #WhyWomenDontReport
5:21 PM - 13 Oct 2016
  329 329 Retweets   662 662 likes

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 rose mcgowan ✔ @rosemcgowan
It is time for some goddamned honesty in this world.
5:27 PM - 13 Oct 2016
  276 276 Retweets   765 765 likes

Using the hashtag #WhyWomenDontReport, McGowan is one of many women speaking out about sexual assault following the release of a tape last week which caught Donald Trump making comments about groping women.

A day after the Trump tape was leaked, Canadian writer Kelly Oxford, who has more than 700,000 followers, asked women to tweet their "first assaults," using the hashtag #notokay.

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 kelly oxford ✔ @kellyoxford
Women: tweet me your first assaults. they aren't just stats. I'll go first:

Old man on city bus grabs my "p***y" and smiles at me, I'm 12.
4:48 PM - 7 Oct 2016
  13,862 13,862 Retweets   19,552 19,552 likes

What followed was a flood of responses: Oxford reported that 30 million people had read or contributed to her feed within a five-day span.

At one point, the L.A.-based author and screenwriter said she was receiving 50 tweets per minute from people about their experiences.

View image on Twitter
View image on Twitter
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 kelly oxford ✔ @kellyoxford
Over 30 million people have read or contributed to my Twitter feed since I tweeted #notokay last Friday.
11:11 AM - 12 Oct 2016
  696 696 Retweets   3,818 3,818 likes

While Oxford maintains the #notokay campaign isn't affiliated with a political organization, McGowan is an active supporter of a social media movement called #WomenCanStopTrump. She has also become known in Hollywood for calling out sexist and questionable, but accepted, practices.

Can there be any doubt that both the USA and Canada need national inquiries into sex abuse and child sex abuse? 

Lady Gaga also spoke in support of the hashtag, having previously revealed how she was raped by a music producer when she was a teenager.

She says that reading tweets from rape surivors was like "re-living it all over again."

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 JOANNE ✔ @ladygaga
Check out&trend #WhyWomenDontReport to have a better understanding. For me, it was like re-living it all over again. I applaud these women.👏
6:05 PM - 13 Oct 2016

  4,038 4,038 Retweets   11,417 11,417 likes


Amber Tamblyn

McGowan's declaration followed a similar confession by fellow actress Amber Tamblyn.

In a lengthy Instagram post on Sunday, Tamblyn revealed a former boyfriend (who she did not name) was abusive and detailed a night in which he assaulted her at a club, forcefully grabbing her by her genitals. The caption is under a photo of Trump kissing pageant queen Olivia Culpo.

“Without going into all the of the details, I will tell you that my ex did show up, and came up to me in the crowd," the actress wrote. "He’s a big guy, taller than me. The minute he saw me, he picked me up with one hand by my hair and with his other hand, he grabbed me under my skirt by my vagina— my p----?— and lifted me up off the floor, literally, and carried me, like something he owned, like a piece of trash, out of the club. His fingers were practically inside of me, his other hand wrapped tightly around my hair. I screamed and kicked and cried."

Tamblyn went on to say that others intervened and stopped anything further from happening, and she was physically and emotionally scarred by the event.


Gretchen Carlson

It also came at the end of a week in which multiple women lodged sexual-assault complaints against Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump and one month after former Fox News anchor Gretchen Carlson won a $20 million settlement in her sexual-harassment lawsuit against ex-CEO Roger Ailes. 

Though he was forced out of the top job at Fox News, he still reportedly walked away with twice the amount of money Carlson received.

Of course he did. Can you say 'the culture of rape'?

McGowan says she was fired from her talent agency after posting audition instructions for a film last year that asked women to wear something that "shows off cleavage."

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 rose mcgowan ✔ @rosemcgowan
casting note that came w/script I got today. For real. name of male star rhymes with Madam Panhandler hahahaha I die
8:42 PM - 17 Jun 2015
  3,642 3,642 Retweets   4,024 4,024 likes