Rose McGowan alleges Bill Maher made crude ‘huge c**k’ comment, slammed for being politically motivated
Actor Rose McGowan, who was a prominent face of the #MeToo movement, accused comedian and television host Bill Maher of being inappropriate on May 9. Taking to Twitter, McGowan wrote, “@BillMaher Here’s a memory I’d like to share with you. I bet you don’t remember, but I sure do. I was so excited to be on your show and get to flex my mind instead of my face. Here’s what happened. All I can say, Bill, you got the face you deserved.”
Her story, that she narrated below in an image, read: “I was on your show Politically Incorrect in the late 90s- as the show returned from a commercial break, you leaned over to me & whispered in my ear, 'my parents didn't give me a good face, but they did give me a huge c***’.”
McGowan continued, “I could feel your hot breath on my ear as an image of both your hideous face and alleged big c*** flashed in my mind. Both turned my stomach. I've always wondered what you say and do to the girls that aren't famous.”
McGowan's accusation against Maher came after Friday’s episode of Maher’s show ‘Real Time’ where he discussed Tara Reade, the former U.S. Senate staffer who has accused former Vice President Joe Biden of sexual assault. The former Senate aide, in March, said that Biden sexually assaulted her in 1993 when he was a Delaware senator. “What the f***?" asked Maher on the show. “We're letting this person change the subject from Donald Trump, lethal incompetent, to Joe Biden, sex monster?”
In his long tirade on the show, Maher said, “You waited 27 years. You think it couldn't wait a few more months? That's what I'd like to ask Miss Reade. Why now? I'm not saying why not 27 years ago. I understand it can take victims years to come forward. I'm saying, why not before Super Tuesday? Why not last fall when we still had a dozen other candidates to choose from? Why wait until Biden is our only hope against Trump and then take him down?”
McGowan’s stance on Reade has been a clear one. In a recent interview, McGowan said, “I relentlessly went after the New York Times starting about four weeks ago for sitting on Tara Reade’s interview. They interviewed Tara Reade, Joe Biden’s accuser, a year ago. They’ve sat on it for a year and then they finally waited until he was basically the presumptive nominee to release it so everyone could say ‘Why did she wait until now?’”
“She didn’t. She was a woman who was not famous like me. She didn’t have access to microphones. She’s been a lifelong Democrat,” McGowan added. “We have a window of opportunity. We have a window to get the [expletive] to drop out… I think it's incumbent on all of us to fight it.”
McGowan’s accusation on Twitter, however, was met with mixed reactions. Many claimed that this wasn’t shocking. A Twitter user wrote, “Bill Maher having his own #MeToo moment (probably 1,000 of them) is the least shocking thing I've ever heard. He's always been garbage.” Another noted, “Probably the single most believable story you will ever hear about Bill Maher. I literally heard his voice as I was reading the quote.”
Another Twitter user said, “Of course, an Islamophobic racist is also a sexual predator. When we talk about intersectionality, we’re not talking about identities. We’re talking about interlocking systems of domination. Thank you for sharing this hard memory @rosemcgowan.”
But there were also those who seemed to believe that McGowan only narrated this story because of Maher’s comments on Reade. A Twitter user wrote, “You have a grudge with Maher that you waited over 20 years to address. You choose a.) to make us all part of it and 2.) distract from inexplicable timing and motives of Tara Reade. Cuz it's all about you. How very TRUMP. I thought our core was NOT to objectify people. Take a break.”
Another posed the question, “Was this because he called out Tara Reade and said her damage shouldn’t outweigh everyone else in America’s? Just wondering...I mean, why not call them all out at the same time or are we just supposed to wait until someone pisses you off? Asking for everyone else…”
Another pointed out, “This is now getting uncomfortable [because you] never felt the need to out Maher before. But now, [because you're] disagreeing with him politically, his sexual pass is being labeled predatory. Did he not take [you're] no as a no? Did he put his hands on [you]? Did he say you had to put out to be guest. No.”