Actress Rose McGowan slammed Kevin Spacey Monday for revealing his sexuality while simultaneously claiming no recollection of an alleged incident in which the actor was accused of making a sexual advance toward a then-14-year-old actor.
In a series of tweets, McGowan — who has in recent weeks become one of the most vocal celebrities to call out Hollywood’s apparent mistreatment of women — urged the media to keep the focus on Spacey’s accuser, actor Anthony Rapp, and pointedly wrote that it is Spacey’s “time to cry.”
“Dear fellow media,” McGowan wrote Monday. “Keep focus on #AnthonyRapp BE THE VICTIM’S VOICE. Help us level the playing field.”
McGowan’s tweets came hours after the 58-year-old House of Cards star issued a statement late Sunday night claiming he could not remember an incident alleged by fellow actor Anthony Rapp, who said in an interview with Buzzfeed that Spacey made a sexual advance toward him when Rapp was just 14 years old and starting out in theater.
Specifically, Rapp alleged that Spacey invited him to a party while both actors were working in separate Broadway productions in 1986. When the party had concluded, Rapp claimed Spacey picked him up, placed him on his bed, and proceeded to lay on top of him.
“I’m beyond horrified to hear his story,” Spacey wrote in a message posted to his Twitter account. “I honestly do not remember the encounter, it would have been over 30 years ago. But if I did behave then as he describes, I owe him the sincerest apology for what would have been deeply inappropriate drunken behavior, and I am sorry for the feelings he describes having carried with him all these years.”
In the same statement, Spacey said he has had relationships and romantic encounters with both men and women in his life, but was now choosing to “live as a gay man.”
But McGowan and several other celebrities apparently took issue with Spacey announcing his sexuality at the same time he apologized for the allegations from Rapp. Some accused the actor of attempting to use the announcement of his sexuality as a way to deflect from the allegations.
“Kevin Spacey has just invented something that has never existed before: a bad time to come out,” tweeted television personality Billy Eichner.
Spacey, a two-time Oscar-winner and a Golden Globe winner for Netflix’s hit political drama series, is the latest Hollywood figure accused of sexual misconduct in the wake of an explosive New York Times exposé on movie mogul Harvey Weinstein earlier this month that cleared the way for actresses and other entertainment industry employees to speak about their own mistreatment.
McGowan — who has accused Weinstein of rape — made her first public appearance since the scandal at the annual Women’s Convention in Detroit on Friday, where she called on women in Hollywood to “name” and “shame” industry figures who have harassed or otherwise mistreated them.
“I have been silenced for 20 years. I have been slut-shamed. I have been harassed. I’ve been maligned. And you know what? I’m just like you,” McGowan told attendees at the convention. “Because what happened to me behind the scenes happens to all of us in this society, and that cannot stand and it will not stand.”
Follow Daniel Nussbaum on Twitter: @dznussbaum
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