text: Meryl Streep has expressed her disappointment at being slammed by fellow actress Rose McGowan for “happily working with the pig monster,” in reference to producer Harvey Weinstein, who McGowan has alleged raped her. 
   
   On Saturday, McGowan took to Twitter to share her thoughts about reports that actresses including Streep and Jessica Chastain plan to protest sexual harassment by wearing black to the upcoming Golden Globe Awards. McGowan declared the idea a “silent protest.” 
   
   “YOUR SILENCE is THE problem," McGowan wrote in a post that has since been deleted. "You’ll accept a fake award breathlessly & affect no real change. I despise your hypocrisy.” 
   
   In a statement released to ET on Monday, Streep said she was “hurt to be attacked by” McGowan and insisted she knew nothing about Weinstein’s bad reputation. 
   
   “I did not know about Weinstein’s crimes, not in the 90s when he attacked her, or through subsequent decades when he proceeded to attack others,” Streep said. “I wasn’t deliberately silent. I didn’t know. I don’t tacitly approve of rape. I didn’t know. I don’t like young women being assaulted. I didn’t know this was happening.” 
   
   Streep added that she had only visited Weinstein’s office one time in 1998 for a meeting with director Wes Craven for Music of the Heart, and that she had “never in my life been invited to his hotel room.” 
   
   She also pointed out that Weinstein was more of a producer and marketer of movies, rather than a filmmaker, meaning that not every actor associated with him knew details about his personal life. 
   
   Streep went on to share her hopes that a legal defense fund for harassment victims would help “bring down the bastards,” and revealed that she had attempted to reach out to McGowan, but heard nothing from the actress. 
   
   “Rose assumed and broadcast something untrue about me, and I wanted to let her know the truth," Streep said. “Through friends who know her, I got my home phone number to her the minute I read the headlines. I sat by that phone all day yesterday and this morning, hoping to express both my deep respect for her and others’ bravery in exposing the monsters among us, and my sympathy for the untold, ongoing pain she suffers.” 
   
   “And, I hoped that she would give me a hearing,” she continued. “She did not, but I hope she reads this. I am truly sorry she sees me as an adversary, because we are both, together with all the women in our business, standing in defiance of the same implacable foe: a status quo that wants so badly to return to the bad old days -- the old ways where women were used, abused and refused entry into the decision-making, top levels of the industry. That’s where the cover-ups convene. Those rooms must be disinfected, and integrated, before anything even begins to change.” 
   
   After Streep’s statement was released, McGowan tweeted again, this time apologizing for at her dig at Weinstein’s estranged wife’s fashion line, Marchesa. She has made no further mention of Streep, but deleted the tweet that mentioned the Oscar winner. 
   
   The Marchesa line was beneath me and I’m sorry for that. Seeing that picture of Alyssa Milano with GC has ignited something in me that I can’t quite articulate. There is no map for this road I’m on, I will fuck up. Peace be with you, go with Goddess. — rose mcgowan (@rosemcgowan) December 18, 2017 
   
   McGowan is one of more than 50 women who have accused Weinstein of sexual misconduct in recent months. He has denied all allegations of non-consensual sex. 
   
   RELATED CONTENT: 
   
   NEWS: Rose McGowan Fires Back at Actresses' Plans to Wear Black at Golden Globes to Protest Harassment 
   
   NEWS: Meryl Streep Says She's Dealt With 'Real Physical Violence' -- and One Time, Cher Was There 
   
   Related Gallery ||||| Tweet with a location 
   
   You can add location information to your Tweets, such as your city or precise location, from the web and via third-party applications. You always have the option to delete your Tweet location history. Learn more ||||| Responding to repeated Tweets from Rose McGowan that called her a hypocrite for planning to wear black at the Academy Awards to show unity with women who have been sexually assaulted and abused, actress Meryl Streep just sent out a public statement telling McGowan that they are actually on the same side “standing in defiance of the same implacable foe.” 
   
   McGowan’s series of tweets over the weekend also took Streep to task for calling disgraced mogul Harvey Weinstein’s behavior “disgraceful” instead of calling it “a crime” and for remaining silent and continuing to work for the man. Streep won a Best Actress Oscar for The Iron Lady which was a film from The Weinstein Co. She also worked on TWC’s August Osage County. The three-time Oscar winner said she wasn’t “deliberately silent” but did not even know of Weinstein’s behavior. 
   
   Here is Streep’s statement in full: 
   
   “It hurt to be attacked by Rose McGowan in banner headlines this weekend, but I want to let her know I did not know about Weinstein’s crimes, not in the 90s when he attacked her, or through subsequent decades when he proceeded to attack others. 
   
   I wasn’t deliberately silent. I didn’t know. I don’t tacitly approve of rape. I didn’t know. I don’t like young women being assaulted. I didn’t know this was happening. 
   
   I don’t know where Harvey lives, nor has he ever been to my home. 
   
   I have never in my life been invited to his hotel room. 
   
   I have been to his office once, for a meeting with Wes Craven for “Music of the Heart” in 1998. 
   
   HW distributed movies I made with other people. 
   
   HW was not a filmmaker; he was often a producer, primarily a marketer of films made by other people- some of them great, some not great. But not every actor, actress, and director who made films that HW distributed knew he abused women, or that he raped Rose in the 90s, other women before and others after, until they told us. We did not know that womens’ silence was purchased by him and his enablers. 
   
   HW needed us not to know this, because our association with him bought him credibility, an ability to lure young, aspiring women into circumstances where they would be hurt. 
   
   He needed me much more than I needed him and he made sure I didn’t know. Apparently he hired ex Mossad operators to protect this information from becoming public. Rose and the scores of other victims of these powerful, moneyed, ruthless men face an adversary for whom Winning, at any and all costs, is the only acceptable outcome. That’s why a legal defense fund for victims is currently being assembled to which hundreds of good hearted people in our business will contribute, to bring down the bastards, and help victims fight this scourge within. 
   
   Rose assumed and broadcast something untrue about me, and I wanted to let her know the truth. Through friends who know her, I got my home phone number to her the minute I read the headlines. I sat by that phone all day yesterday and this morning, hoping to express both my deep respect for her and others’ bravery in exposing the monsters among us, and my sympathy for the untold, ongoing pain she suffers. No one can bring back what entitled bosses like Bill O’Reilly, Roger Ailes, and HW took from the women who endured attacks on their bodies and their ability to make a living.. And I hoped that she would give me a hearing. She did not, but I hope she reads this. 
   
   I am truly sorry she sees me as an adversary, because we are both, together with all the women in our business, standing in defiance of the same implacable foe: a status quo that wants so badly to return to the bad old days, the old ways where women were used, abused and refused entry into the decision-making, top levels of the industry. That’s where the cover-ups convene. Those rooms must be disinfected, and integrated, before anything even begins to change.”
target: – Meryl Streep says she is "truly sorry" that Rose McGowan seems to see her as an "adversary," because they are on the same side against movie industry "bastards" like Harvey Weinstein and other "entitled bosses." In a public statement issued in response to McGowan's attack on a plan to wear black to the Golden Globes in protest, Streep stresses that she was not "deliberately silent" about Weinstein's attack on McGowan in the '90s or his other crimes, Deadline reports. "I don't tacitly approve of rape. I didn't know," she writes. "I don't like young women being assaulted. I didn't know this was happening." She says she has never been to Weinstein's home or hotel room and has only visited his office once. Weinstein, Streep writes, distributed movies she made with other people, and he "needed me much more than I needed him and he made sure I didn't know." She adds that she has been hoping to speak to McGowan to express her "deep respect for her and others' bravery in exposing the monsters among us." She says a legal defense fund is being assembled "to bring down the bastards, and help victims fight this scourge within." In a now-deleted tweet, McGowan called Streep a hypocrite for "happily working" with the "Pig Monster." She has not publicly responded to Streep's statement, though she tweeted Monday that she is sorry about suggesting celebrity protesters should wear Marchesa, the fashion line co-founded by Weinstein's estranged wife, Entertainment Tonight reports.