Rose McGowan Says ‘Fuck Him and His Lies’ as Alexander Payne Denies Statutory Rape Claim

Rose McGowan has once again spoken out against filmmaker Alexander Payne, whom she has accused of statutory rape. Payne, who has directed films including Sideways, Nebraska, and Election, denied the allegations Thursday in a guest column for Deadline. When Variety asked McGowan for a response, the actress said, “Fuck him and his lies is my comment.”

In his guest column, Payne called McGowan’s accusation that he showed the actress a soft-porn movie he’d directed under another name for Showtime and had sex with her when she was 15 “simply untrue.” He denied having directed anything for Showtime or under a pseudonym and said he did not meet McGowan until 1991 when she auditioned for a comic short he was directing for Playboy Channel. “Although she did not get the part, she left a note for me at the casting desk asking that I call her,” Payne said. “I had no reason to question how old she was, since the role she read for required an actor who was of age. We later went out on a couple of dates and remained on friendly terms for years.”

In her statement to Variety McGowan said, “I told Payne to acknowledge and apologize, he has not. I said I didn’t want to destroy, now I do. Why do these men always lie? I will now make it a mission to expose him. I am not the only one.”