Rose McGowan has canceled an appearance at the Tallgrass Film Festival in Kansas just 24 hours before she was to be honored with the event’s Ad Astra Award.
The festival made the announcement on its site, attributing McGowan’s decision to “compounding factors surrounding recent revelations in the Harvey Weinstein sexual harassment case.”
“While we’re disappointed that Rose cannot be here with us in person, we understand that her well being is the priority. We support her and our thoughts are with her. We’ll seize this opportunity to amplify her message and celebrate all the women filmmakers with works here at the 15th annual festival,” Tallgrass Creative Director Lela Meadow-Conner said in a statement. “The whole world is now aware, in large part due to Rose’s efforts, about the rampant sexual harassment within the entertainment industry, and so in her honor, we have pulled together a panel of women filmmakers who will be attending the festival with their films, for a frank conversation, because the message doesn’t stop here.”
In the past two weeks — in reports by the New York Times, the New Yorker and on social media — more than 40 women have accused Weinstein of rape, sexual harassment or assault over a period of nearly three decades, McGowan among them.
On October 12, McGowan detailed her accusation against Weinstein, identifying him only by his initials, on Twitter for the first time in a comment directed at Amazon’s Jeff Bezos, whose studio head, Roy Price, had just been the target of an accusation of his own. Price has since resigned.
“1) @jeffbezos I told the head of your studio that HW raped me,” she wrote. “Over & over I said it. He said it hadn’t been proven. I said I was the proof.”
A spokeswoman for Weinstein denied rape allegations in a statement provided to CNN.
“Any allegations of non-consensual sex are unequivocally denied by Mr. Weinstein,” the statement read. “Mr. Weinstein has further confirmed that there were never any acts of retaliation against any women for refusing his advances.”
Neither Price or Bezos have responded to McGowan’s tweets.
CNN has reached out to McGowan’s representative for comment.
CNN’s Sandra Gonzalez contributed to this report.
