Asia Argento: Weinstein accuser ‘paid off' child actor over alleged sexual assault
Asia Argento – a leading #MeToo activist – has reportedly settled an accusation of assault made against her by a former child actor.
According to documents obtained by the New York Times, the actor and director agreed to pay musician Jimmy Bennett a total of $380,000 over the course of a year and a half after allegedly assaulting him in a California hotel room when he was just over the age of 17 years old. The state’s legal age of consent is 18.
As part of the document, Italian actor Argento – who was 37 at the time – appears in a selfie taken in the hotel room's bed, the authenticity of which has been confirmed by three people familiar to the case.
Her lawyer, Carrie Goldberg, said: “We hope nothing like this ever happens to you again. You are a powerful and inspiring creator and it is a miserable condition of life that you live among s****y individuals who’ve preyed on both your strengths and your weaknesses.”
The documents report that Bennett was initially planning to sue Argento for $3.5m in damages citing emotional distress, lost wages and assault. He claims that his income dropped from $2.7m to $60,000 following the alleged assault which is said to have occurred after he played her son in 2004 film The Heart Is Deceitful Above All Things.
Representatives for both Argento and Bennett did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Argento was one of the 13 women to be featured in the first report detailing the alleged sexual harassment and assault history of disgraced film producer Harvey Weinstein. In May, she condemned him in a powerful speech at the Cannes Film Festival where she declared he will “live in disgrace.”
Rose McGowan, another leader of the #MeToo movement, has responded to the reports on social media. She wrote: "I got to know Asia Argento ten months ago. Our commonality is the shared pain of being assaulted by Harvey Weinstein. My heart is broken. I will continue my work on behalf of victims everywhere."
She found herself in the news in June after her boyfriend, Anthony Bourdain, died by suicide. The Times piece reports that Bourdain “helped Ms. Argento navigate the matter,” though the extent of his involvement is unclear.
