THE BEAST

Marilyn Manson has voiced his concern about how the ongoing #MeToo movement could "turn the whole world's attention from the artistic element of Hollywood," saying that he believes some of the allegations will "ruin a lot of people's lives" unnecessarily.

During a recent interview with U.K.'s Channel 4 News, the shock rocker was asked about ex-fiancée Rose McGowan, who was among the names mentioned in the New York Times report which first broke the Harvey Weinstein scandal that led to the ongoing effort to purge men who've been accused of sexual misconduct from Hollywood. The actress has kept the fight going by becoming one of the prominent famous voices in the movement.

Beginning by saying that he was "not surprised" by McGowan's allegations but adding that he "didn't really know much about it" when he was with her, Manson drew a distinction between alleged incidents that are "serious" and "not as serious." "When someone starts complaining about something that happened that seems a little bit not as serious as really sexual assault, I think that's insulting to people that have been sexually assaulted," he said. "And it pisses me off that when someone says, 'Someone gave me an inappropriate gift.' That's not the same as being harmed."

In those cases where the allegations are serious enough to warrant action, Manson believes that the accusers "should say it to the police and not to the press. That's what I would do. But the things that happened to me growing up as a kid is nothing that I'm gonna talk about or complain about. I mean, I'm guilty as charged when it comes to writing a book and talking about my childhood, but I'm not trying to make it into a crazy thing where I can't turn on my phone every day without someone being accused of something," he said. "Now maybe it's all men are bad, or all men can't do anything inappropriate. It makes you feel you can't even say… or if I meet her [motions to woman off camera] and if I look at her the wrong way, I'm gonna be accused of something wrong.

"I think the world needs to balance itself out with what's a proper way of dealing with this type of situation," he added. "And I don't disagree with how ex-fiancée is handling it, I just disagree with the entire snowball effect that's happened with it, that it could really ruin a lot of people's lives that don't need to be ruined."

Watch the response in the video interview below. The question about McGowan comes at the 31-minute mark.

Manson fired Jeordie White (a.k.a. Twiggy Ramirez) in October after the singer's longtime bassist was publicly accused of rape by White's former girlfriend, Jessicka Addams of the riot grrrl band JACK OFF JILL.

White later responded to the accusations, saying that he did "not condone non-consensual sex of any kind." He added that he would be "taking some time" to spend with his family and focus on maintaining his several years of sobriety.

Weinstein's career was brought to a halt after dozens of women in the entertainment industry — including Gwyneth Paltrow and Angelina Jolie — accused him of varying degrees of sexual misconduct over the years.

Within a month after a New York Times exposé reported decades of alleged sexual harassment by Weinstein, he was ousted from the Television Academy, banned for life from the Producers Guild of America and voted out of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. He is also facing suspension and disciplinary charges from BAFTA and the Directors Guild of America.

A spokeswoman for Weinstein has repeatedly denied allegations "of non-consensual sex." Weinstein has also apologized for "the way I've behaved with colleagues in the past." Via Blabbermouth