Weinstein uses emails from Affleck, Messick to deny claim

Disgraced Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein has gone public with emails from Rose McGowan's former manager and actor Ben Affleck as evidence to deny claims of sexual misconduct levelled by the actress.

Weinstein has chosen to defend himself this time as McGowan started her press tour to promote a show as well as the publication of her book "Brave", reports deadline.com.

McGowan has long maintained that Weinstein raped her. In her book, she has written of an assault by Weinstein at the 1997 edition of the Sundance Film Festival.

Weinstein's lawyer Ben Brafman disputed McGowan's version of what happened in that hot tub being non-consensual, and what happened in its aftermath. He has offered as evidence emails from Messick and Affleck.

McGowan said she told Affleck of the assault moments after it happened and he responded with anger.

Affleck's email was sent to Weinstein on July 26, long before the New York Times broke stories on the several allegations made by actresses and assistants.

"As a general matter, Harvey Weinstein and his attorneys have refrained from publicly criticising 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," read a statement from Brafman.

Brafman has called McGowan's comments a "publicity stunt" pulled to promote her new book.

He claims that McGowan had described her 1997 experience with Weinstein as a "consensual" act of "sex" to her own manager whom she self-admittedly confided in after the alleged assault.

"In an email to Mr. Weinstein regarding the encounter, Jill Messick says the following, '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.

"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'," read the statement.

"Ben Affleck expressed the following in an email to Mr. Weinstein, 'She never told me nor did I ever infer that she was attacked by anyone. Any accounts to the contrary are false. I have no knowledge about anything Rose did or claimed to have done'," Brafman added.

--IANS

ks/rb/bg