Rose McGowan Wants Lisa Bloom Disbarred

Kate Aurthur

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“She Said,” Jodi Kantor and Megan Twohey’s account of reporting their New York Times investigation of Harvey Weinstein that helped reignite the #MeToo movement, will be published on Tuesday — but a story about the book in the New York Times on Sunday has already set off a firestorm on the internet.

In an interview with Variety, Rose McGowan said that the revelations about her from the news story were “deeply wounding.”

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The story, by Alexandra Alter, revealed previously unreported details about how the orginal Weinstein investigation was sourced, and included the duplicitous ways the famous executive and his representatives tried to kill it.

Some of the most shocking instances involve a plan to smear McGowan, who has alleged that Weinstein raped her at the 1997 Sundance Film Festival, and who received a $100,000 settlement from him afterward.

McGowan, an activist and firebrand, was one of Weinstein’s first public accusers.

“What these people have done to my standing in the world has been systematic — it’s been evil,” McGowan said. “It’s one of the worst cases of gaslighting I’ve ever heard, and it’s starring me.”

In “She Said,” which Variety has obtained, lawyers Lisa Bloom and David Boies emerge as ruthless advocates on behalf of Weinstein. Kantor and Twohey include a damning memo from Bloom to Weinstein from December 2016 that is a six-point plan for him to fight McGowan, and also to repair his reputation.

Toward the end of the memo, Bloom wrote, “A reminder: would you please connect me with David Boies so that I can get retained?”

McGowan was the first person Kantor interviewed off the record, as is revealed in the book.

Weinstein knew McGowan was writing a memoir, and was positive she was going to expose him, which is why Bloom focused on undermining the actor.

Alter’s story quotes from Bloom’s memo: “I feel equipped to help you against the Roses of the world, because I have represented so many of them.” Bloom also adds: “We can place an article re her becoming increasingly unglued, so that when someone Googles her this is what pops up and she’s discredited.”

Bloom, the daughter of feminist attorney Gloria Allred, had made a name for herself before representing Weinstein as a victim’s right’s advocate.

But in Susan Faludi’s New York Times review of “She Said,” also published on Sunday, she wrote, “Maybe the most appalling figure in this constellation of collaborators and enablers is Lisa Bloom, Allred’s daughter.”

“Her email is staggering. Staggering!” McGowan said. “This woman should never work again.”

“Lisa Bloom should be disbarred. So should David Boies,” McGowan added.

Bloom did not respond to Variety’s request for comment, but did tweet in response to the New York Times story, and apologized: “To those who missed my 2017 apology, and especially to the women: I am sorry.”

On Monday, a spokesperson for Boies said: “David Boies is focused among many things on reforming the country’s electoral college voting system — big argument tomorrow in Boston — and deeply committed to his work representing the leading voices of victims of Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell’s horrific international sex trafficking operation. Ms. McGowan is unquestionably entitled to her deeply held beliefs and opinions but her suggestion regarding David’s bar status is a bridge too far for any reasonable conversation.”

McGowan now lives in London, and feels she is still blacklisted in Hollywood — even though it was the disgraced Weinstein who instigated the blacklist. She has been working on her “Planet 9” art/music project, and recently performed at Edinburgh Festival Fringe.

She looks forward to the publication of “She Said.”

“I hope this book will go a long way to exonerating me and the other victims who’ve dealt with slander and mental assault for years now,” McGowan said. “As for me, in Hollywood I suppose I’ll continue not working. It doesn’t make any sense, and it’s really hurtful.

“But in my own life, I’m incredibly happy now and feeling very balanced. And that’s something they can’t take from me.”

This story was updated with a comment from David Boies’ spokesperson.

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