Asia Argento has been one of Harvey Weinstein’s most high-profile accusers and victims. Argento was one of the first women to tell her story to Ronan Farrow in detail, not as an anonymous source, but with her name attached. Weinstein raped her in a European hotel and after Farrow’s reports came out, Argento was blasted by the Italian tabloids and basically had to leave her home. As it turns out, the entire time she was telling her story of victimhood, she was withholding a different story, a story about the time she raped a 17-year-old boy.
Asia Argento, a #MeToo activist and one of Harvey Weinstein‘s most high-profile accusers, agreed to pay $380,000 to her own accuser, according to a bombshell report by The New York Times. Citing documents sent to the newspaper anonymously and verified with three people familiar with the case, the report says that in the months after her allegations against Weinstein last October, the 42-year-old Italian actress reached a financial settlement with Jimmy Bennett, who once played Argento’s son in 2004’s The Heart Is Deceitful Above All Things. (Argento also directed and co-wrote the film.)
The actor and musician, now 22, claimed that in 2013, then-37-year-old Argento sexually assaulted Bennett in a California hotel room two months after he turned 17, the report says. (In California, 18 is the age of consent.) Bennett claimed in the documents that Argento kissed him before performing oral sex on him and engaging in intercourse at the Ritz-Carlton in Marina del Rey, California, according to the Times.
An agent for Argento did not immediately respond to PEOPLE’s request for comment, and the Times says Argento and her reps did not respond to multiple requests leading up to the story’s publication on Sunday.
Reps for Bennett did not respond to PEOPLE’s request for comment. Though he declined an interview with the Times, the outlet reports that Gordon K. Sattro, Bennett’s attorney, told the newspaper, “In the coming days Jimmy will continue doing what he has been doing over the past months and years, focusing on his music.”
Argento’s late boyfriend, Anthony Bourdain — who died of suicide on June 8 — “helped Ms. Argento navigate the matter,” the Times reports, though additional details about his involvement were not available.
[From People]
To me, Asia Argento and Rose McGowan’s friendship has always made sense because there was always a vein of performance to what they were doing, and an off-putting sense of “I am the only one who knows this deep pain.” Which isn’t to say that any victim is perfect, and we need to get out this “perfect victim” mentality. I believe Asia was victimized by Weinstein and I believe she terribly abused a teenage boy. Both things can be true and are true in this case. I also believe she had no business putting herself out there as a #MeToo advocate or activist – she knew her own abusive past would eventually come back to haunt her, and that when the information came out, her association with the movement would hurt the movement. The amount of cognitive dissonance here is astounding and pathetic.
Photos courtesy of WENN.
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