Ben Affleck DENIES Rose McGowan ever said she was raped

Ben Affleck claims that Rose McGowan never told him she was sexually assaulted at the 1997 Sundance Film Festival.

The Oscar-winning actor and director revealed this in an email sent to Harvey Weinstein that has been seen by DailyMail.com. 

‘She never told me nor did I ever infer that she was attacked by anyone. Any accounts to the contrary are false,’ wrote Affleck in the email. 

‘I have no knowledge about anything Rose did or claimed to have done. Accounts otherwise are lies.’

The subject line in the email was ‘Roe McGowan.’ 

McGowan has stated multiple times that she told Affleck about her assault immediately after while the two were at a photo call for their film Phantoms, claiming that he responded to the news by stating: ‘Goddammit, I told him to stop doing that.’

That email was also sent in July, almost three months before the release of The New York Times and New Yorker exposes of Weinstein. 

Affleck’s rep did not respond to a request for comment. 

Brave: McGowan (above on Tuesday) has stated multiple times that she told Affleck about the alleged assault immediately after it happened during a photo call for the film Phantoms

Jill Messick, McGowan’s manager at the time whom the actress has accused of profiting off her silence and settlement by getting a plum position at Miramax, also emailed Weinstein to deny the actress’ claims.

‘When we met up the following day, she hesitantly told me of her own accord that during the meeting that night before she had gotten into a hot tub with Mr. Weinstein,’ wrote Messick, in an email that was seen by DailyMail.com.

‘She was very clear about the fact that getting into that hot tub was something that she did consensually and that in hindsight it was also something that she regretted having done.’

Weinstein’s lawyer released a statement as well on Tuesday night, the same day that McGowan’s memoir Brave hit bookshelves and just hours before the premiere of her new reality series, Citizen Rose.

‘As a general matter, Harvey Weinstein and his attorneys have refrained from publicly criticizing any of the women who have made allegations of sexual assault against Mr. Weinstein despite a wealth of evidence that would demonstrate the patent falsity of these claims,’ said Ben Branfman. 

‘Watching the “performance” by Rose McGowan as she looks to promote her new book however, has made it impossible to remain quiet as she tries to smear Mr. Weinstein with a bold lie that is denied not only by Mr. Weinstein himself, but by at least two witnesses.’

Affleck was one of the last stars in Hollywood to respond to the allegations being made about Weinstein back in October, waiting five days before releasing a statement that read: ‘I am saddened and angry that a man who I worked with used his position of power to intimidate, sexually harass, and manipulate women over decades. This is completely unacceptable.’

McGowan responded by tweeting: ‘”GODDAMNIT! I TOLD HIM TO STOP DOING THAT” you said that to my face. The press conf I was made to go to after assault. You lie.’

Just before that she had writted: ‘Ben Affleck f*** off.’

McGowan revealed in an interview on Tuesday that Harvey Weinstein called her just three days after she was raped, and claimed to be having a relationship with Gwyneth Paltrow.

‘I checked my voice mails in my apartment and somebody gave him my number,’ said McGowan. 

‘I won’t mention the other names, but Gwyneth has already talked about it. He said, “She’s my special friend. You’re my new special friend. I slid down the wall and threw up on myself.’

That claim was quickly rebuffed by a representative for Weinstein, who said: ‘Mr. Weinstein vehemently denies these accusations and has never stated he slept with Gwyneth Paltrow.’

The rep went on to state: ‘It’s ridiculous that anyone would believe a talented woman, an Academy Award winner, provided sexual favors in exchange for roles she earned based on her talent and brilliant work. It’s simply not true.’ 

When asked if she told anyone about her alleged assault, specifically her manager, McGowan said: ‘Yes, but she got a job with him for seven years right afterwards.’ 

That was a reference to Messick, who allegedly arranged the appointment between McGowan and Weinstein and later went on to take a job at Miramax as vice president for development. 

It was also Messick who headed up the settlement talks according to the lawyers from Addis-Wechsler & Associates, who said that they were asked by her to meet with Weinstein.

McGowan spoke about telling Messick last year in an interview with The New York Times, claiming it was her manager and actor Ben Affleck who were two of the first to know that day.

‘She held me. She put her arms around me,’ said McGowan.

The actress also said she did not want to settle with Weinstein, something that Messick’s assistant at the time confirmed to the paper.

‘I remember that Rose was extremely upset and did not want to settle. She wanted to fight,’ said Anne Woodward.

And, as McGowan has claimed many times in the past, every single person she encountered told her it was pointless to try and fight Weinstein.

‘It was an emotionally shocking way to see a woman being treated,’ said Woodward. 

‘That’s what stuck with me.’

Woodward said she was further shocked when just a few months after the settlement her boss went to work for Weinstein.

‘Everybody knew,’ McGowan said earlier in the day while appearing on Good Morning America to promote her new memoir Brave.

She also revealed that on that same day she was being followed around the festival.

‘There was a camera following me for MTV, a day in the life of Rose McGowan,’ she told GMA host Robin Roberts.

‘So that did turn out to be a day in the life Rose McGowan.’

Later in the interview she said that she believes there are far more Weinstein victims out there, telling Roberts: ‘I would probably estimate there’s got to be over a thousand [victims], maybe 2,000 because this is a lifelong career of rape for this man.’

‘The machinery was set up in every country he would go to for the handlers to hand him the victims,’ said McGowan.

‘Starting with the agents and managers.’

She also tried to explain why she and so many other women would ever agree to audition in a hotel room, something many have criticized the women for by arguing they should have known better. 

‘One of the things people don’t understand about the hotel room specifically is people think it’s like you open the door and there is a bed. These are people with the entire presidential suite,’ said McGowan. 

‘That means it’s the entire top floor of a hotel. Usually three offices, and so it was not unusual, I’ve auditioned in many hotel rooms, the director comes and sits and that’s how it goes.’

McGowan did not detail the actual assault as she does in Brave, but did describe the overall experience of the attack.

‘A lot of victims and survivors will say they detach, you know, and you really do,’ McGowan told Roberts.

‘You float up above your body because you’re trying to figure out – my brain was literally, when he grabbed me, I was thinking: Oh, I hope I still have lipstick on for the camera. So your brain is in another place and all of the sudden your body is like what, what, what.’

She then added: ‘This is not what I expected at 10:00 in the morning.’

Soon after is when McGowan claims she told Ben Affleck, her co-star in the film Phantoms that was playing at the festival. 

‘I looked at him and I must have had tears in my eyes because I remember shaking and I said, “I just came from a meeting with him” and I said his name and he goes, that’s when he said, “Goddamn it, I told him to stop doing that,”‘ said McGowan. 

‘It’s like you file it away for a later date to pick through but you analyze every single move that happened and the complicity machine and I started hammering that word three years ago.’

McGowan went on to state that her goal now is to improve the world by 10 percent and enact real and positive change. 

She also said that by telling her story she hopes to help others come forward or believe the stories they hear from victims rather than cast suspicion or question their claims.

‘You know, nobody talks, but to me, the truth isn’t revolutionary. It’s just the truth and I figure if other people – I’m not that unique,’ said McGowan. 

‘So if I’m thinking it, I’m pretty sure other people are thinking it, but a lot of people are like maybe this isn’t real because there’s such gas lighting in this culture.’

McGowan writes in Brave that she had an appointment Weinstein on the day of her assault, arriving at the designated hotel to learn her breakfast meeting had been moved to his hotel suite.

Once she got to the suite, she claims that Weinstein tore off her clothing, made her sit on the edge of the Jacuzzi in his suite and proceeded to perform oral sex on the actress while masturbating himself to completion.

‘Mr. Weinstein denies Ms. McGowan’s allegations of non-consensual sexual contact,’ said Weinstein’s rep in a statement.

‘Mr. Weinstein has further confirmed that there were never any acts of retaliation against any women for refusing his advances.’

Soon after this alleged assault, McGowan received a $100,000 settlement from the disgraced mogul.  

‘I freeze, like a statue,’ writes McGowan of the moments just before the alleged assault.

Weinstein proceeded to strip naked according to McGowan, and directed her towards the Jacuzzi while ripping off her clothes.

She details how the encounter ended that day at the Stein Eriksen Lodge in Deer Valley, writing: ‘He moans loudly; through my tears I see his semen floating on top of the bubble.’ 

McGowan’s alleged attack was remarkably similar to the one Asia Argento claims she endured at the Cannes Film Festival just a few months later in 1997. Like Argento, McGowan writes that she faked having an orgasm in hopes of quickly ending the encounter.