Rose McGowan is a very important person who loudly advocates for abuse victims, regularly calls out Hollywood’s toxicity, and stands up to industry bullies. None of this precluded her and former Charmed costar Holly Marie Combs, however, from taking at least one more petty swipe at the current-day CW reboot, which premiered in 2018. When a video surfaced of McGowan proclaiming that the current iteration of her flagship series “sucks” (before admitting that she’s never watched it which, on its own, is perfectly fine), reboot star Sarah Jeffery defended her show, calling the continued hostility from Combs and now McGowan—who previously stated that she had “zero reboot issues”— “sad and quite frankly pathetic.” Combs quickly deemed Jeffery’s assertion “bullshit” and accused the star of speaking out for “personal gain.”
And it probably should have just stopped there, as this is already a lot of strife over a show that has been renewed for a third season. But rather than let it the hell go, McGowan recently responded to Jeffery with an Instagram post where she states that she “[does] not care” that the WB network remade the witchy classic, even though the rest of the statement points to her caring just a little, if her commenting at all wasn’t enough evidence of that. “Dear Sarah Jeffery, I honestly had no idea who you were til you tweeted,” McGowan began. “I have been too busy fighting monsters & fighting for a massive cultural reset to notice who is in the reboot.” She then denies that her criticism had anything to do with Jeffery and her castmates Melanie Diaz and Madeleine Mantock being women of color. “Absolutely nothing to do with race, that’s quite a stretch you took,” McGowan refuted. “I’m beyond glad any WOC has a well-paying job. Hell yes to that. I’m sure you’re a great actress.”
McGowan’s condescension statement continues: “My quibble (google it) is about execs & producers & WB network trading on years of my work & name in such a cynical & obvious way—a money grab to cash in on the Charmed name. I do not care that they remade it, I have far bigger things I’m dealing with. I do not nor will I watch a show I disagree with on principle. This is not my ego trashing the reboot, this is a criticism of the creators (those are the ones who should be embarrassed) with little to no imagination making bank off of years of us busting our ass to create a legacy that you are actually profiting off of as well.”
Aside from Jeffery, Combs, and McGowan, the only other past or present Charmed star to come close to saying anything is Mantock, who tweeted on Monday, “Every time they ask me what I think of them and I don’t... think of them.” That seems like a decent example for everyone to follow at this point.
McGowan’s full statement can be viewed over at EW.
UPDATE, 12:13 P.M.: Here’s an instance where we are happy to be just a little wrong about something. As it turns out, another Charmed alum actually has spoken out since this back-and-forth began—Shannen Doherty. The former Halliwell sister threw her support behind Jeffery and her fellow costars in a statement delivered exclusively to EW. “What’s old is new… and I think it’s wonderful a new generation can connect with three strong, powerful women, not to mention the many jobs the show provides,” Doherty said. Jeffery even showed mutual support, posting a picture of the time Doherty visited the new Charmed set.