Meryl Streep: 'I wasn't deliberately silent' on Weinstein

Meryl Streep says she did not know Harvey Weinstein was allegedly harassing and assaulting women when they worked together.

Streep says in a statement Monday that Weinstein "needed me much more than I needed him and he made sure I didn't know."

The Oscar-winner says her association with him brought him credibility, which she says he used "to lure young, aspiring women into circumstances where they would be hurt."

Streep says she composed the statement in response to a since-deleted tweet from Rose McGowan, who called out Streep for working with Weinstein. 

"Actresses, like Meryl Streep, who happily worked for The Pig Monster, are wearing black @GoldenGlobes in a silent protest. YOUR SILENCE is THE problem. You'll accept a fake award breathlessly & affect no real change. I despise your hypocrisy," read the missive from McGowan.

McGowan has alleged that Weinstein raped her.

Streep has also been the target of a street art campaign in Los Angeles. Plastered around the city Tuesday were posters that feature a photo of Streep and Weinstein together, with a banner marked "SHE KNEW" pasted over her face.

"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," Streep wrote.

Streep says she's sorry McGowan sees her 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."