Posters claim Meryl Streep knew about Weinstein scandal

Posters claiming Meryl Streep 'knew' about Harvey Weinstein pop up around LA after Oscar winner denied any knowledge - and was blasted by accuser Rose McGowan

Posters feature a photo of Streep and Weinstein together with the words 'She Knew' emblazoned over the Oscar winner's face

Began appearing in LA on Monday after Streep, 68, insisted she didn't know about Weinstein's past of sexual misconduct

'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,' she said

Streep said she'd been moved to speak out after Weinstein accuser Rose McGowan accused of her feigning ignorance about the director

The 44-year-old accused Streep and her contemporaries of putting on an act to ride the current wave of standing behind assault victims

Published: 02:18 EST, 20 December 2017 | Updated: 11:45 EST, 22 December 2017

Posters claiming Meryl Streep knew about the Harvey Weinstein sexual abuse and harassment allegations have appeared all over LA.

The design feature a photo of Streep and Weinstein together with the words 'She Knew' emblazoned over the Oscar winner's face.

They began appearing in Los Angeles on Monday after Streep released a statement insisting she had no idea about the allegations of rape, sexual assault and harassment against the disgraced producer.

'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, 68, told the HuffPost.

Posters claiming Meryl Streep knew about the Harvey Weinstein sexual abuse and harassment allegations have appeared all over LA

Streep has appeared in a number of Weinstein-backed films (pictured with him in 2012). When she won the Golden Globe for her role in the film, Streep jokingly called Weinstein 'god' in her acceptance speech

Streep said she'd been moved to speak out after Weinstein accuser Rose McGowan accused of her feigning ignorance in a now-deleted tweet which branded her a hypocrite for planning to wear black to the 2018 Golden Globe Awards in a silent protest against sexual harassment.

'YOUR SILENCE is THE problem,' wrote McGowan, one of the first women to accuse Weinstein of sexual misconduct, who added that Streep, and other actress, 'happily worked for The Pig Monster.'

'You'll accept a fake award breathlessly & affect no real change,' McGowan said, adding, 'I despise your hypocrisy.'

McGowan later backtracked, saying she 'did not accuse' Streep of knowing what crimes Weinstein committed, tweeting: 'F off .@vogueAustralia I did not accuse her of that. Step back.'

But it appears that someone in LA agrees with McGowan's earlier tweet, and has been posting the She Knew posters all over town.

The posters have had a mixed response online where some have thanked the anonymous creator for attacking the 'Weinstein apologist' while others have demanded to know why people are targeting a woman before Weinstein or even Matt Damon who said recently he had heard things about the director.

Streep has appeared in a number of Weinstein-backed films, including 2011's The Iron Lady in which she played Margaret Thatcher. When she won the Golden Globe for her role in the film, Streep jokingly called Weinstein 'god' in her acceptance speech.

She has not yet responded to the posters.

Meryl Streep (right) has responded to Rose McGowan's (left) criticism of her after being accused of feigning ignorance regarding accusations of sexual misconduct against Harvey Weinstein

McGowan, 44, tweeted on Saturday calling out Streep and the actresses who are planning to wear black to the 2018 Golden Globe Awards to protest sexual harassment

But she insists she had no idea about the Weinstein allegations.

In her Monday statement, she also addressed McGowan specifically, and said that she'd passed along her phone number to the actress in the hopes that she'd call so Streep could defend herself and commend McGowan for her bravery.

'Rose assumed and broadcast something untrue about me, and I wanted to let her know the truth,' she wrote. 'I am truly sorry she sees me as an adversary, because we are both, together will all the women in our business, standing in defiance of the same implacable foe.'

Streep also praised the legal defense fund being set up by the Hollywood talent agency CAA to assist workplace harassment victims across all industries in hopes that it will 'bring down the b******s'.

McGowan - who was one of the first of 84 women to accuse Weinstein (pictured together, late 1990s) of sexual misconduct, claiming the producer raped her in 1997 - said that Streep and her contemporaries were putting on an act to ride the current wave of standing behind assault victims

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

Weinstein's rep has said repeatedly that 'any allegations of nonconsensual sex are unequivocally denied by' the producer.'

The bold statement came out days after a source told People that 'all female actresses attending the Globes are protesting by just wearing black gowns.'

MERYL 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 women's 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 b******s, 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.