Baldwin, 59, admitted he and others heard rumors about the mogul's alleged attack on her for 'decades' but nothing was done to address it. Photo / Getty Images
Baldwin, 59, admitted he and others heard rumors about the mogul's alleged attack on her for 'decades' but nothing was done to address it. Photo / Getty Images
Rose McGowan lashed out at Alec Baldwin on Saturday after the actor admitted hearing a "rumour" for decades that she had been raped by Harvey Weinstein but doing nothing about it along with the rest of Hollywood.
Baldwin, 59, has been accused of "victim blaming" for telling PBS in an interview on Friday that it was "for" McGowan to bring shamed sex pest Weinstein to justice when he allegedly attacked her, reports The Daily Mail.
He also came under fire for suggesting that cash settlements between alleged attackers and their victims, of the type McGowan accepted from Weinstein in 1997, set back the course of justice.
In his interview, Baldwin said he, along with others in Hollywood, were not complicit in Weinstein's treatment of actresses and industry insiders but that they were aware of his alleged assault on McGowan.
"You heard the rumour that he raped Rose McGowan. You heard that over and over. We have heard that for decades.
"But what happened was that Rose McGowan took a payment of $100,000 and settled her case with him. And it was for Rose McGowan to prosecute that case," he said.
McGowan, who has led an unrelenting commentary on the Weinstein sexual assault scandal since it erupted last month, responded furiously to his remarks.
"Told you everyone knew. No one cared. Men ran the show. Women toed the line. No more," she said.
Explaining why no one else spoke up, he said it was because it remained an unproven rumour and argued that "everyone" in every type of industry gives colleagues and employers "the benefit of the doubt".
"Where do you draw that line, meaning we all go to work and assume... we give people the benefit of the doubt," he said.
Baldwin, who earlier this week admitted treating women in a sexist way himself, went to say it was an "issue" that women accepted cash in return for silence.
"Do the settlement of these cases hurt the cause of exposing and bringing us to a place of real change?
"When women take money and are silenced by that money... does it set back the cause of change?
"That's an issue, I think," he said.
He acknowledged that women who take the settlements had been ill-advised that it may harm their careers if they did not, saying: "they were told, beyond the money, it was the right thing for them to do, keep quiet, don't make too many waves, it is going to hurt your career."
Towards the end of his PBS interview, Baldwin said the "innately different" treatment of women by men must end. "A man, all men, during the course of their lives...treats women differently than they treat men unconsciously.
"You don't mean to. You're not sitting there going, well, this woman is less than me, her ideas are less valid, this person is less valuable to the process we're doing.
"We just innately treat women differently, because men have typically been in charge. I have certainly done that in my life. And that's something I think needs to change."
McGowan accepted $100,000 from Weinstein in 1997 after an alleged encounter in hotel room. It was part of an agreement that the case would not be prosecuted further but was not an admission of guilt on Weinstein's part, according to The New York Times, which viewed a legal document detailing the agreement.
After a handful of women aired claims that Weinstein had either harassed or raped them at the start of October, McGowan claimed on Twitter that she had been raped by "HW".
She did not use his name but said she told Amazon studio head Roy Price about the attack and said nothing was done to help her. Price has been fired by Amazon in light of separate claims he sexually harassed a lesbian TV producer.
Baldwin was accused of 'victim blaming' for suggesting that cash settlements between abusers and victims stalls the course of justice
On Saturday, McGowan's fans supported her criticism of Baldwin and his remarks.
"Finds a way to blame women. Not rapist,"said one.
"Leave it to Alec Baldwin to perpetuate the victim blaming. Now it's Rose McGowan's fault that Harvey Weinstein kept assaulting women."
"The money is NOT the reason they don't speak out and Alec Baldwin is victim blaming," another quipped.
Baldwin's fans defended him, saying his comments were not aimed at the victims and that he was offering a wider commentary on the mere existence of such cash settlements as those he described.
"Mr Baldwin is not blaming anyone. He's pointing out that women are cornered to accept these settlements," said one.
In an interview with the Wall Street Journal, Baldwin reflected on the Weinstein scandal and acknowledged there was a wide pool of victims and alleged predators in the industry.
He suggested the only reason Weinstein, 65, has been exposed with such volition was because he is an "unlikable" character.
"There was a pool of gas on the ground. It's interesting to me how the match that was struck was struck on Harvey. If Harvey wasn't so unlikable, would it have had the velocity that it has and the intensity? I think what enabled this was Harvey was somebody that many people, not myself, but many people were just itching to bring down," he said.
Baldwin, who recently announced he is expecting his fourth child with wife Hilaria, added that while he was not the subject of any accusations, he needs to "improve" his treatment of women.
"I have been guilty of playing into that, where women's opinions and women's analysis and women's participation and contributions are slightly less than men's. I don't think I do that much now, but in the past."
It echoed his earlier apologetic admission that he had treated women in a sexist way in the past.
''I certainly have treated women in a very sexist way.
"I've bullied women. I've overlooked women. I've underestimated women. Not as a rule, [but] from time to time I've done what a lot of men do, which is ... when you don't treat women the same way you treat men. You don't.
"I'm from a generation where you really don't and I'd like that to change. I really would like that to change," he said.
McGowan took a $100,000 settlement from Harvey Weinstein over an alleged incident in a hotel room in 1997. The pair are pictured in 2007. Photo / Getty Images
Weinstein is hiding out in Arizona where he may be arrested any day and extradited to New York to face charges.
The NYPD announced this week that it believed it had credible and sufficient evidence to issue a warrant for his arrest.
He is also being investigated in London and Los Angeles over separate sexual assault and harassment claims.
The exposure of Weinstein by the New York Times and New Yorker last month has led to an avalanche of accusations against other men across Hollywood and in other industries.
Baldwin's representatives declined to comment on the PBS interview and his remarks when contacted by DailyMail.com on Saturday.
