E!, Bunim/Murray Productions, and actress, singer, and “Person of the Year” Rose McGowan celebrated the New York premiere of a five-part documentary special, Citizen Rose, at the Whitby Hotel on Friday evening.
Citizen Rose follows Rose McGowan as she tries to make sense of the world around her. McGowan was the first of the 80+ Harvey Weinstein accusers, and one of the most vocal proponents of sexual assault awareness and activism. She exposes the “machine” of Hollywood, from uber-personal monologue shots in her bathtub to clips of her speech at the Detroit Women’s Convention in 2017, which can be watched in full below.
Rose McGowan rose to stardom in the Pauly Shore comedy Encino Man in 1992, and went on to star in The Doom Generation, Scream, and the television show Charmed. She modeled since childhood, became the face of Bebe in 1998, and has won a number of awards, including Best Supporting Actress in 2009 for Planet Terror.
In October 2017, the New York Times reported a $100,000 settlement between McGowan and the film mogul Harvey Weinstein, one of eight settlements that the paper revealed. On October 12, McGowan declared that she had been raped in a private hotel room in 1997 during the Sundance Film Festival. She is adamant that others in Hollywood knew and turned a blind eye.
Since the start of her campaign to go against the Hollywood machine, McGowan has been arrested, has met with former President Barack Obama, and has become one of TIME Magazine’s “People of the Year.” She has also started her own campaign of activism that she calls #ROSEARMY, not after her name, but because “we have thorns.”
The documentary series is intimate, heartbreaking, and emotively invigorating. Executive Vice-President of Development and Production at E!, Amy Introcaso-Davis, said that McGowan’s courage “ignited a conversation and inspired other women to speak out against their abusers.”
“You are formally invited into my mind and world. I am thrilled to partner with E! to amplify my message of bravery, art, joy and survival,” McGowan said. “As I ready my book, BRAVE, I realized I wanted to show how we can heal through art even when being hounded by evil.”
The cover of McGowan’s new “memoir/manifesto”, set for publication later this spring. [photo via rosearmy.com]
Pre-order BRAVE here.
First NYT article on Harvey Weinstein accusers, 5 Oct. 2017
TIME’S Person of the Year 2017: The Silence Breakers
