Rose Protests Prop 8 in California
November 2008

An estimated 5,000 people gathered in West Hollywood last night to oppose Proposition 8. Though they were meant to stay on the sidewalks, the crowd broke onto the street and snarled traffic, but remained mostly peaceful throughout. Police did arrest a few rogue activists, including one who jumped on a police car.
It wasn't just gays out on the street last night. Actress Rose McGowan made an appearance and Towleroad reports that Wanda Sykes came out to show some love. West Hollywood mayor Mayor Jeffrey Prang and a number of other politicians later took to a stage down the road and pledged their support to the movement. In addition, Councilman John Duran urged gays to work with other groups to achieve total unity.

'Women in Chains!' to Fill Networks' Long-Standing Rose McGowan/Mud Wrestling Vacuum
by Defamer.com, May 28, 2008

Even though Rose McGowan and Robert Rodriguez have yet to shoot their planned Barbarella remake - which is going to start any day now if McGowan's recent fantasy promise holds- they're wasting little time moving forward with their next classy genre collaboration: Women in Chains! No, seriously, that's what they're actually calling it.

Director Robert Rodriguez is shopping around Women in Chains! a violent drama set at a woman's prison starring his fiancee, Rose McGowan. ...

McGowan is set to play one of five chained women at the center of the show, which Rodriguez is expected to direct. The two first worked together on last year's Planet Terror, Rodriguez's homage to 1970s exploitation flicks.

The new show also is rumored to be fashioned with a 1970s exploitation sensibility, with such staples like mud wrestling.

We're told there are scripts circulating - with dialogue and exposition in actual English - at networks including NBC and FX, where the market for prime-time exploitation dramas apparently surged when we weren't looking. We didn'tt think anything could shake McGowan from her single-minded alien ambitions from a month ago, but! Seeing as those Barbarella spaceships are only half-built and she can make a mud pit in about 15 minutes flat, we can't really blame her for compromising. A woman - even one in chains - has gotta eat, right?

Essentially Rose
By Phil Villarreal
Pvillarreal@azstarnet.com
Tucson, Arizona | Published: 2.28.2008

To read the rest of Rose Mcgowan's interview got to: http://www.azstarnet.com/sn/aznightbuzz/226841.php

Rose The Riveting
January 2006 - Bust Magazine-By Molly Simms

BUST’s December/January issue is here, featuring none other than the charming Miss Rose McGowan in a bewitching cover interview that’s not to be missed! The Charming actress Rose McGowan, opens up about her dark past and exposes her bright side. 

Rose McGowan is hot!
March 29, 2005 
CBS has provided IGN FilmForce with more exclusive still photos from their forthcoming event miniseries, Elvis.

The twelve new shots include the first look at Antonia Bernath as Elvis Presley's (Jonathan Rhys-Meyers) wife Priscilla, Rose McGowan as Hollywood starlet and Elvis' lover Ann-Margret (Rose McGowan), and Randy Quaid as Elvis' notorious manager, Col. Tom Parker. The miniseries recounts Elvis' relationship with teenage Priscilla even as he fell for Hollywood starlet Ann-Margret (Rose McGowan). The production filmed for a day at the Memphis estate of the late rocker; the rest of the production is being filmed in New Orleans. Elvis airs May 8th and 11th.

Rose’s Charmed life
Source- Sun News Services, Nov. 29, 2004

Rose McGowan can't believe it. Four years after “orbing” onto Charmed to fill the void left by Shannen Doherty’s contentious departure, McGowan continues to entertain audiences with her quirky, funny and sexy portrayal of Paige Matthews. 

Paige, for those not leading Charmed lives, is the half-sister of Phoebe (Alyssa Milano) and Piper Halliwell (Holly Marie Combs), and together the trio of good witches defends Earth from evildoers.

“I thought I’d be here about a year,” McGowan says as she slips onto a chair in her trailer. “It’s shocking to me that I’m still here.

“Thank God, it’s gotten much easier,” says McGowan, who is all porcelain skin and wide brown eyes, her petite body poured into an ultrashort miniskirt and matching tank top. 

“The schedule was totally out of control for a while. We still work incredibly long hours, but they’ve found a way to speed up the process and maximize our time.

McGowan knew a little something about cult stardom long before Charmed came into her life, thanks to such films as Scream, Jawbreaker and Monkeybone, not to mention her press-friendly romance with shock-rocker Marilyn Manson. 

Nonetheless, she professes to be amazed at the fervor of the fans who regularly visit Charmed websites to post or read episode spoilers, fan fiction and up-to-the-minute news about their favorite leading ladies.

“Believe me, I love that there are fans and I appreciate that they’re there,” McGowan says. 

“But it’s true — people do feel, if you’re in their living room, that you’re their friend. That’s why, when I run into people, so often they’ll say that I’m so different from Paige, because they expect me to be like her. And I just say, ‘I’m only like that if I’m being paid, sorry.’

“I have a friend who’s always traveling,” she says, “and he calls me from all these different places. He called recently, and he was in Yemen.

He says, ‘OK, I walk into my hotel room and the first thing I do is turn on my television. And there you are, on the television, dubbed in Yemeni. That’s hot!’

“And other friends of mine just went on their honeymoon in Bangkok,” the actress continues.

“The first thing they did was turn on the television, and there I was. So it’s so interesting, the worldwide aspect of it. Charmed is huge in America, but it’s really huge abroad, and huge in places you’d never expect.”

The question is, why? What is it that fans love so much about the show, which is now into its seventh season?

“I think the thing people like about it is the bond between the sisters,” McGowan says. “And certainly they like all the bizarre situations we find ourselves in.

“I thought the broadest section of fans would be 11-year-olds,” she adds, “and it’s not that at all. People come up to me all the time, and they’re 60-year-old cab drivers, 50-year-old women. A lot of great queeny gay guys and nonqueeny gay guys are into it. Female African-Americans love Charmed.

“It’s so broad, and that’s what I love about it.

“No pun intended, but that's the charm of the show.” 

Much Love Animal Rescue Day
4/16/04 -  LA, California
Rose McGowan and her little friends, Silver Spoon Dog and Baby Buffet, come out in the sun to raise money for the Animal Rescue. Many other stars, such as Jason Priestly, and their best friends came out to enjoy the day viewing products and other dogs.

Rose Speaks Out in Femme Fatales Magazine
June 2003
Spend more than five minutes with Rose McGowan and you come to one simple conclusion: This woman gets bored easily. This becomes obvious whether she's discussing the reasons that she abruptly dyed her hair red ("I got bored of looking like me") or the frustrations of toiling in episodic television ("It feels like a long plane ride that I can't get off of"). Given her background, it hardly seems surprising.

Joining this world on September 5, 1975, McGowan was born in Florence, Italy to an Irish father and French mother. Being hippies, her parents raised Rose in an Italian commune known as the Children of God. When she was 10, she and her family relocated to Oregon, though they remained a part of the organization. Five years later, McGowan quit the commune and survived on her own, eventually making her way to Los Angeles. There, she scored a bit part in 1992's 'Encino Man' before landing a starring role in the independent film 'The Doom Generation'. Although she has since appeared in such mainstream efforts as 1996's 'Scream', most of her resume is filled with co-starring roles in low-budget, independent films. Why she ultimately chose to play Paige, little Wiccan sister to Piper (Holly Marie Combs) and Phoebe (Alyssa Milano) is anyone's guess. One might as well try to get a more concrete answer out of her about the aforementioned dye job on her hair than the sudden shift in media.

"I've always had long, dark hair and sort of got tired of it," she says matter-of-factly. "But I did speak to the producers about it. Last season I showed them pictures of me with this hair and the color I had for a movie, and they approved it. But they wanted me to wait until the next season, because with dying and all, they couldn't fit a hair change into the story. It was my suggestion -- when they asked how they would explain such a thing -- that I did a spell, it blew up, and my hair turned red. I figured if I could get giant boobs [in one episode], my hair could turn red." Explanations you seek, explanations you receive.

One would imagine that the actress' life has gone through a shift, segueing from one film to another with little, if any restrictions, to where she is now, being required to be on a set at a certain time about nine months out of the year.

"I have major commitment issues," she laughs, "and this is a major commitment for me. I just try to think, 'One day at a time,' because if I looked at anything in terms of the rest of my life, I would just freak out. Before this, a lot of life was big bursts of work, and now it's all work and small bursts of life. I will say that it's sharpened my focus on what I love. I do love films, and I think the pace is more for me, but I wouldn't have known that unless I'd done this. I get bored very easily. I have a real problem with that. It's mostly just mental stimulation. I have to learn so many lines that I can't read books as much as I want to, which is my escape. I don't have that and that sucks. I have to go to bed at 9:30. It seems like I'm complaining, but I'm not. It's depressing, but it's nothing to do with this show. If it was shooting in Hollywood, maybe I would feel different, but since I have to drive in traffic really far to get to the studio, it's not the same. I was thinking the other day, I'm like a regular person commuting to a job. I'm a total commuter."

One thing that she thinks would make life in television something more interesting is greater exploration of her character. "I told them at the end of last season that it seemed the characters were mostly focused on talking about Phoebe and her problems," McGowan notes. "I told them that I was one of eight brothers and sisters who I adore, but I don't talk about them all the time. So she had to get a life. They promised to give me more of a life, and that seems to be happening."

Although she enjoys the fact that, as a series, 'Charmed' represents the empowerment of women, she is still frustrated at the sexism apparent at the beginning of the season, when she spent a great deal of time getting wet.

"It looked like I was in a wet T-shirt contest," she says. "A lot of our audience are women, so I don't know if they care to seem me in a wet T-shirt contest. It's all men writing the show -- we have female writers, but the majority are men -- and we have typical girl things: She must be scantily clad. Men can be dressed as Nanook of the North, but women must wear bikinis. So, yes, to an extent this reflects female empowerment in the real world, but there are still male actors [in Hollywood] who can get away with so much stuff that, if a girl tried even an iota of [it], she would be done. You don't get that many chances if you're a girl. You really have to toe the line. Luckily, I pretty much don't do anything. I'm incredibly boring. In that way, I think I've dealt with some big things in life, so the small things I really don't care about. I don't care if my trailers and inch small than somebody else's. I simply don't care.

"I think that attitude may come from my Hollywood period," McGowan closes, "the Hollywood chapter of my life."

  JANE MAGAZINE
December issue
Rose McGowan - What a cutie. Rose's retainer article on page 170. Also, "No, You Pull Up My Pants". Stephaine Trong and Claudine Ko get driven around by Rose McGowan, page 124.

"No, you pull up my pants." Rose McGowan shows Stephanie Trong and Claudine Ko a good time. 

Pity the actors who work on gimmicky projects, because journalists will exploit those to the fullest. If you play an astronaut, pack up, we're going to NASA training camp for the story. Or perhaps an alcoholic -- hey, welcome to AA. And if you're interviewing Rose McGowan, who replaced Shannen Doherty to become a third of the magical sisters on the WB's Charmed this season, it's all about the power of three. So we, Stephanie and Claudine, brave the land of fake boobs to join the Goth pinup hellion who loved Marilyn Manson for a lovely afternoon threesome in L.A. Of course, she wasn't expecting the both of us. 

"Do you normally do it this way?" asks Rose, after arriving at the trendy cafe she picked out. She looks kind of goofy in neon D&G wraparound sunglasses, a faded t-shirt, platform flip flips and, like, techno-y orange sport pants. Okay, she did mention something about coming straight from her boyfriend's and looking a little off because of that. "I'm not easily intimidated," she says. "I adjust to any situation." She's not lying. After we realize the tape recorder can't pick up our conversation over the Sunday-brunch din, she offers, "I can go to Taco Bell, 'cause that's what I'm craving." She then slaps down a 20 on the table for our drinks, including her weird frothy-green concoction, and we're off. 

"Two bean burritos, no onions, add sour cream, small Diet Pepsi...and can you throw in two things of hot sauce?" We're sitting at the drive-thru in a phat, leather-upholstered black Range Rover owned by Rose's new man. "So who's your boyfriend...er, I mean, how did you meet him?" Claudine asks, feeling like a sleazy journalist for initially assuming he's famous. "His cousin is a friend of mine," she says over the AC. "His name's Omet, like comet without the c. He's super great." From the backseat, Claudine hears: "His name's No Comment, capital C." Stephanie, riding shotgun, knows Rose's breakup with ex-fiancé Marilyn Manson last January must be a touchy subject and assumes Claudine's abrupt silence is a sign to shut up. You can still see the ball we dropped bouncing somewhere along Sunset Boulevard. So much for the power of three. 
We're heading to Chinatown to pick up decorations so Rose can turn her Charmed trailer into a "Chinese bordello." We mention it's Steph's first time visiting. "Here's the thing," Rose quickly says, while squeezing hot sauce on her burrito at a red light. "L.A. can look like a big cement pile of ugh, but what I love is that you can see the sky. I get really depressed in gray weather. I lived most of my life in places with gray weather." [She pauses] "I spent most of my life depressed." Rose was born 26 years ago into the Children of God group in Italy. And then it gets spotty: At about 10, her dad ran off with the nanny, so her mom moved her and her six brothers and sisters to Oregon. Next come Rose's crazy teen years, which she spent partly in Seattle: forced into rehab (she's said she hadn't taken drugs), vagrancy (she'd spend nights in gay dance clubs to be safe), rejection (in school, guys would call her ugly), random jobs (one as an extra in Encino Man). Later, while visiting a friend in L.A., a film producer spotted her waiting in front of a gym and cast her as The Doom Generation's sex and speed fiend Amy Blue. After that, she dies dangling from a garage door in 1996's Scream and gets to play popular bitch Courtney Shayne in 1999's Jawbreaker. 

"How much is this?" Rose is holding up a gold piggy bank in a chintzy Chinatown gift shop. The lady at the register says, "Eight dollars." Rose, a self-described fast shopper, bargains her down to six bucks within five seconds and swiftly moves on to an Oriental sword at the back of the store. "What would I need a giant sword for? Take that, carjacker!" she sarcastically jokes, unsheathing it and spearing the air. By the end of her spree, the total damage is $152.82. It was like watching a contestant on the old-school Wheel of Fortune pick out her prizes. Walking back to the car in the 80-degree weather, Rose awkwardly tilts her head so her new $1.50 sun hat can shade her pale-ass arm, which matches the rest of her impeccable skin. Meanwhile, her pants have fallen past her hips, exposing a black thong. "Let me get your bags so you can fix that," Claudine says. Instead, Rose just tells her to pull them up. Stephanie, wielding the sword, laughs hysterically.

"I prefer women," she says. We know what you're thinking. We'd actually asked, Do you prefer working with women or men? "But you know," Rose continues, "that's such a mixed bag. Every set has such a different energy. 
That's why I'm so incredibly happy right now." We bet Rose's costars, Alyssa Milano and Holly Marie Combs, are happy these days, too. After Shannen Doherty pulled a 90210 and jumped ship, producers hired Rose to fill the "funky, feisty, sexy edge" they lost. Is Shannen's bailout a touchy subject among the cast and crew? "Nobody really talks about it, and I don't ask," Rose says. "I think everyone has a clear sense of the past and the future. The girls are amazing, and I just kind of show up and try to have the most amount of fun I can. "Alyssa's really funny and sweet, and I think it's cute that she's going out with that guy Brian [Krause], who's on the show. Every time he has to kiss Holly, I make fun of Alyssa. And Holly cracks me up because she is the funniest little sourpuss. She does not buy into anything Hollywood-y. Her getting in high heels is akin to a national tragedy. And they don't understand how I can be happily wearing my Callaghan boots for 15 hours a day. I'm like, 'They look good. Yes, my feet feel like they're gonna fall off, but that's not the point.' 
 
Rose entered the show as Alyssa and Holly's long-lost half-sister Paige, whom Rose describes as "a free spirit," even though she hates that term. "I don't have a boyfriend on the show. They're turning me into the hussy. There are, like, 10 different guys now [that her character has hooked up with]. It's kind of funny because it always happens at, like, six in the morning; 'Hi, nice to meet you -- snog.' " Suddenly, we pull up right behind a number-3 city bus. Oooooh.

"Blame it on me, dude," Rose says after Claudine tells her she's trying to avoid the ever-present Starbucks while she's in town. "I'll take you somewhere else if you want, but I have to tell you, for the ease in knowing what you're gonna get, there's nothing better." Rose pulls into the coffee-widget factory's parking lot. "I applied at a Starbuck's when I was 15, and the bastards didn't hire me." she says as we walk in. "I can pretty much dot all of Seattle by places that either didn't hire or fired me." The list includes a movie theater, a dry cleaner and a flower shop. She orders a tall, nonfat, sugar-free vanilla latte and pays for all of our drinks again. That's like 80 bucks or something. After getting 10 grand (pretax) for her role in The Doom Generation, she went back to Seattle, finished her last two months of beauty school and then went solo to Paris for 10 days. "I like going to movies by myself," she says. "I like going to eat by myself. "I try to be single, but I have a knack for meeting great people," she tells us. Do you usually break it off with your boyfriends? "Yes," Rose says. "Always. It's like I needed this person at that time for this period of growth, and now I'm onto the next cycle of growth." Rose issued a public statement after the breakup of her two-year-long engagement to Marilyn Manson, saying: "There is great love, but our lifestyle difference is, unfortunately, even greater." 
She never mentions her rock-star ex by name, but clearly she's speaking of him when she says, "You really absolutely cannot change anybody. If they're going to do stuff that's self-destructive, you can say, 'I'll be here to help you when you're ready to change, but until then I have to go off and do my own thing.' " How does she feel about marriage now? Rose stops and looks down for a long time. When she finally raises her gaze again, her eyes are glassy. She tilts her head back slightly and wipes away the tears before they fall. "I don't know. I don't know." She pauses again. "I think I definitely always will be open to it. It was weird to me that I was open to it before," she says, laughing, trying to put us all at ease again. "It kind of fascinates me. I've seen so many divorces in my family...I still think marriage is the ultimate compliment." 

"I'm super happy. Possibly more than I think I've ever been,." Rose says this just before she has to go memorize her lines in time for her 4:45 a.m. wake-up tomorrow. "I've certainly done a lot of crying to get to that place. But I think life rewards you when you take chances. That sounds really lams." We ask her to list five reasons she's happy. "I am healthy, I have a quick mind, love my brothers and sisters, amazing friends, rad boyfriend that makes me laugh hysterically, funniest person I've ever met [we later learn it's Ahmet Zappa. Of course she's dating a Zappa]. I'm really pretty damn comfortable in my own skin, 90 percent of the time. The other times, hopefully, it's PMS and that day will pass." Before Rose chauffeurs us back to our car, still parked where we met three hours ago, we ask her how things are going to change now that she's hit prime time. "I'm building walls around my house," she says. How high? "As high as they'll go, honey."