Asia Argento
— one of the most prominent activists of the #MeToo movement against sexual harassment by men — is now revealed to have settled a complaint filed against her by a young actor and musician who says she sexually assaulted him when he was 17.
NEW YORK — Italian actress Asia Argento — one of the most prominent activists of the #MeToo movement against sexual harassment — recently settled a complaint filed against her by a young actor and musician who said she sexually assaulted him when he was 17, the New York Times reported.
Argento, 42, settled the notice of intent to sue filed by Jimmy Bennett, who is now 22, for $380,000 shortly after she said last October that movie mogul Harvey Weinstein raped her, the Times reported.
Argento and Bennett costarred in a 2004 film called “The Heart Is Deceitful Above All Things.”
Bennett says in the notice that he had sex with Argento in a California hotel in 2013. The age of consent in California is 18. The notice says the encounter traumatized Bennett and hurt his career, the Times reported.
The newspaper said it received court documents that included a selfie of Argento and Bennett in bed. Three people familiar with the case said the documents were authentic, the Times reported.
In a statement to The Associated Press on Monday, a lawyer for Bennett said the actor “does not wish to comment on the documents or the events” at this time.
The statement asked for privacy and noted that Bennett would take “the next 24 hours, or longer, to prepare his response.”
Argento became one of the most well-known activists of the #MeToo movement after she told the New Yorker magazine that Weinstein raped her at the Cannes Film Festival in 1997 when she was 21. Argento told the magazine that she continued to have a relationship with Weinstein because she was afraid of angering him.
Weinstein has been indicted on sex crime accusations involving three women, but not including Argento.