National Post (National Edition)
#Metoo leader admits to sex with minor
Unfolding events shake movement
WASHINGTON • Asia Argento, the actress and “Metoo” activist accused of sexual assault on an underage boy, has privately admitted having sex with the teenage actor despite issuing a public denial.
Argento, 42, became a figurehead for the campaign against sexual harassment after she was one of the first women to accuse Harvey Weinstein, the movie mogul, of abuse last October.
Former child actor Jimmy Bennett has accused her of sexual assault by having sex with him in 2013, when he was 17 and under the age of consent in California, which is 18. The pair met in 2004 when Argento cast Bennett, then just seven, to play her son in The Heart is Deceitful Above All Things.
The allegations, which have shocked the #Metoo movement, were first reported by The New York Times.
It led to an initial denial from the Italian actress, who claimed she “never had any sexual relationship” with Bennett. But last night TMZ, the celebrity website, revealed text messages between Argento and a friend in which she admitted a sexual encounter, though she said the teenager “jumped me.”
Argento also claimed in the text messages that she did not know Bennett was a minor until she received a “shakedown” letter from his lawyer demanding money.
She reportedly wrote: “I had sex with him, it felt weird. I didn’t know he was a minor until the shakedown letter. The public know nothing, only what the NYT wrote. The shakedown letter. The horny kid jumped me.”
The actress added: “It (sic) wasn’t raped. but I was frozen. He was on top of me. After, he told me I had been his sexual fantasy since he was 12.”
Argento said in the messages that she didn’t report the incident at the time because she “felt bad” for the “failed child actor.”
She said when the “shakedown” letter arrived she wanted to talk publicly about being extorted but her boyfriend, the late chef Anthony Bourdain, wanted to pay Bennett off. She claimed Bennett kept sending her nude images, and that she has 80 pages of information on him from a private investigator Bourdain hired.
TMZ published a photograph of Argento and Bennett apparently in bed together and a note from Bennett to Argento that said: “Asia, I love you with all my heart.”