Weinstein accuser admits sex with boy
Asia Argento changes her story after celebrity website publishes texts saying she was ‘jumped’
Asia Argento, the actress accused of sexual assault on an underage boy, has privately admitted having sex with the former child actor despite having issued a public denial. Argento, 42, was one of the first women to accuse Harvey Weinstein, the movie mogul, of abuse last October. However, Jimmy Bennett, who starred in a film with Argento as a child, has accused her of sexual assault by having sex with him in 2013, when he was 17, under the age of consent in California.
ASIA ARGENTO, the Hollywood actress and “Metoo” activist accused of sexual assault on an under-age 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 under the age of consent in California, which is set at 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 furious 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”.
However, in a statement to The New York Times last night, Bennett said: “My trauma resurfaced as she came out as a victim herself. I have not made a public statement in the past days and hours because I was ashamed and afraid to be part of the public narrative.”
He continued: “Today I choose to move forward, no longer in silence.”
Argento had claimed in her 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.”
She 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 because she “felt bad” for the “failed child actor”.
She said when the “shakedown” letter arrived she wanted to talk publicly but her boyfriend, the late chef Anthony Bourdain, wanted to pay Bennett off. She claimed Bennett kept sending her nude images, and she has 80 pages of detail on him from an investigator Bourdain hired. TMZ published a photograph of Argento and Bennett apparently in bed together and a note from Bennett to Argento which said: “Asia, I love you with all my heart.” Existence of the image had been reported before it was published. In her messages, sent in the early hours of Monday, Argento said such a picture did not mean anything and was misleading as Bennett was actually standing up.
Argento agreed to pay $380,000 (£294,000) to Bennett after he threatened to sue her for having sex with a minor. She paid in the months after she made public her allegations against Weinstein, leading the movie mogul’s lawyers to accuse her of hypocrisy.
Other actresses who have accused Weinstein of sexual misconduct said Argento must be held accountable if the allegations against her were true. Mira Sorvino said “child sexual assault is a heinous crime” and Ashley Judd said: “We hold any and every abuser accountable.”
Argento’s representatives did not reply to a request for comment. n Kevin Spacey is being investigated by Los Angeles prosecutors over a second report of sexual assault, it emerged last night. Spacey has been accused by at least 15 people, and police in London are investigating six cases.