Rose McGowan: Hollywood dumped me after Harvey Weinstein raped me

Rose McGowan needs to give both DMX and Sinead O’Connor a call because she seems to be drawing the same conclusion that the rapper and singer have drawn years ago. McGowan has indicated that the industry used her and then left her when Harvey Weinstein raped her.

Hollywood has done similar things to Courtney Love. She tweeted: “Although I wasn’t one of his victims, I was eternally banned by CAA for speaking out against #HarveyWeinstein #rape.” In 2005, Love was asked, “Do you have any advice for a young girl moving to Hollywood?” She responded:

“I’ll get libeled if I say it. If Harvey Weinstein invites you to a private party at the Four Seasons, don’t go.”[1]

McGowan has said that she took the issue to Roy Price, the head of Amazon Studios, who said that McGowan could not be taken seriously because there was “no proof” that she was raped.

McGowan said: “I was blacklisted after I was raped, because I got raped, because I said something …” In response to Price’s “no proof,” McGowan declared that she had “three surgeries on my wrist and elbow,” which to her is evidence that Weinstein is guilty. McGowan added that Bob Weinstein and Woody Allen are a bunch of liars because they knew what was going on.

Well, long before McGowan has come to the conclusion that Hollywood is a den of thieves and a sex pool, rapper DMX said:

“The industry doesn’t have to do with talent; it’s about playing the game…The industry—money, bitches, hate…The industry is like ‘Wait’! But in the street we’re like, ‘Get them’!

“The industry—if you ain’t got a strong mind—will break you down, [and] it’s a matter of time. The industry vultures with nothing to feast on…The industry plays in the dirt, stays in the dirt—test the wrong one in the industry and you will get hurt.

“The industry wanted, dead or alive, new artists to sell their souls…to survive. The industry don’t give a fuck about you! But the industry couldn’t make a dime without you!”

Sinead O’Connor has come to similar conclusions. When Miley Cyrus’ wrecking ball was creating a huge controversy all over the world, O’Connor, who has been in the industry for years, quickly realized that Cyrus was being pimped either by the music industry or by Miley Cyrus herself. O’Connor wrote an open letter to Cyrus in which she read:

“The music business doesn’t give a shit about you, or any of us. They will prostitute you for all you are worth, and cleverly make you think its [sic] what YOU wanted … and when you end up in rehab as a result of being prostituted, ‘they’ will be sunning themselves on their yachts in Antigua, which they bought by selling your body and you will find yourself very alone.

“None of the men ogling you give a shit about you either, do not be fooled. Many women mistook lust for love. If they want you sexually that doesn’t mean they give a fuck about you.

“All the more true when you unwittingly give the impression you don’t give much of a fuck about yourself. And when you employ people who give the impression they don’t give much of a fuck about you either.

“No one who cares about you could support your being pimped … and that includes you yourself.

“Yes, I’m suggesting you don’t care for yourself. That has to change. You ought to be protected as a precious young lady by anyone in your employ and anyone around you, including you. This is a dangerous world.

“We don’t encourage our daughters to walk around naked in it because it makes them prey for animals and less than animals, a distressing majority of whom work in the music industry and it’s [sic] associated media.

“You are worth more than your body or your sexual appeal. The world of showbiz doesn’t see things that way, they like things to be seen the other way, whether they are magazines who want you on their cover, or whatever … Don’t be under any illusions …

“ALL of them want you because they’re making money off your youth and your beauty … which they could not do except for the fact your youth makes you blind to the evils of show business. If you have an innocent heart you can’t recognise those who do not.

“I repeat, you have enough talent that you don’t need to let the music business make a prostitute of you. You shouldn’t let them make a fool of you either. Don’t think for a moment that any of them give a flying fuck about you.

“They’re there for the money… we’re there for the music. It has always been that way and it will always be that way. The sooner a young lady gets to know that, the sooner she can be REALLY in control.”[2]

The industry takes young and impressionable people and turns them into sluts, whores, pimps and prostitutes. And if you are too old and can no longer make the industry rich, then they are going to dump you somewhere on the planet and replace you with the “new kids on the block.”

In fact, Hollywood has a history of sucking the moral and spiritual life out of actors and actresses and spitting those celebrities out when they can no longer produce the almighty dollar. This is the conclusion of actor John Cusack, who actually played in David Cronenberg’s recent movie, Maps of the Stars.

Cusack said: “The culture just eats young actors up and spits them out. It’s a hard thing to survive without finding safe harbour.”[3] Hollywood, Cusack continued, is “a whore house and people go mad.”[4] “Movie business,” concluded Cusack, “sucks most of the time.”[5]

Julianne Moore, who has a habit of prostituting herself for money, power and fame, would agree: “The longer you live [in the industry], the more empty you become, until there comes a point when you just implode.”[6] Moore, according to the Guardian, “warns us that Hollywood is a cesspool, that nepotism stinks and that the film industry breeds devils.”[7]

Robin Williams seemed to have realized that the hard way.[8] “The Industry,” as we have already suggested, is based on making money, which is to say that people ought to be used not as ends but as instruments or objects. Williams was one of those objects.

When Williams became a major Hollywood A-lister, “The Industry” applauded him and gave him great accolades. In fact, Williams “had won numerous accolades, including two SAG (Screen Actors Guild) Awards.”[9]

Then things started to deteriorate. A Williams movie, according to some critics, began to be seen as the butt of a joke. This led Williams to depression. “Although his name was as famous as ever, the major roles weren’t coming his way in quite manner they once did.”[10]

On top of that, “it seemed that the financial difficulties were pretty severe. ‘All he could talk about were serious money troubles.’”[11] As a result, Williams began to play mediocre roles.

“There was also frustration that Robin expressed at having to take television and movie roles he didn’t want to take, but had for the paycheck. Stories began to emerge that he was so worried about money that he had even started to sell off his beloved fifty-strong bicycle collection.”[12]

So, “The Industry” abandoned Williams in time of troubles. He said of his movies one year before he committed suicide, “The movies are good, but a lot of times they don’t even have distribution. There are bills to pay.”[13] Once movies began to go down the tube, Williams went back to alcohol and drugs, which again got morphed into depression.

“He was on medication for anxiety and depression and had also started taking drugs to combat the early onset of Parkinson’s. Many of these drugs list suicidal thoughts as a possible side effect. A lot of Robin’s friends are convinced that the cocktail of prescription pills he was on somehow contributed to his mental state deteriorating as quickly as it did.”[14]

Williams gave “The Industry” all his energy, but he probably did not count the cost. “It was his manic side that fueled his comedy but it was that same side that made him incapable of finding peace.”[15]

Herbert says that “In actual fact, what really started the initial relapse were concerns about his career. He could scarcely ignore the fact that his films were getting terrible reviews, with a lot of them not doing well at the box office either.”

Herbert dropped the atomic bomb by saying:

“Hollywood could forgive any amount, of sentimentality but it would not accept failure and that was what he was really beginning to fear. It had happened to countless others, after all.

“Yet another of the stresses about being an A-lister is that, when you reach the top, there’s an awfully long way to fall down. Nor is there any lack of distractors happy to kick you as you do so.”[16]

What is the solution to this chaos? Hollywood actors, actresses, producers and directors cannot exclude practical reason from their craft and expect to live happily ever after. Soon or later practical reason will kill them all. That is one reason why McGowan is implicitly reaffirming practical reason when she is condemning people like Weinstein.

As we shall see in an article this weekend, this also shows that the Enlightenment and the sexual revolution failed miserably.

[1] “Courtney Love publicly warned women about Harvey Weinstein way back in 2005,” NY Times, October 16, 2017.

[2] Sinead O’Connor, “Sinead O’Connor’s Open Letter to Miley Cyrus,” Guardian, October 13, 2013.

[3] Quoted in Henry Barnes, “John Cusack: ‘Hollywood is a whorehouse and people go mad,’” Guardian, September 25, 2014.

[4] Ibid.

[5] Ibid.

[6] Quoted in Xan Brooks, “Julianne Moore on Maps to the Stars: ‘The longer you live the Hollywood lifestyle, the more empty you become,’” Guardian, May 22, 2014.

[7] Ibid.

[8]  Quoted in Emily Herbert, Robins Williams: When the Laughter Stops, 1951-2014 (London: John Blake, 2014), kindle edition.

[9] Ibid.

[10] Ibid.

[11] Ibid.

[12] Ibid.

[13] Ibid.

[14] Ibid.

[15] Ibid.

[16] Ibid.