It’s been a while since we’ve heard anything from the #MeToo movement and in particular the Harvey Weinstein case, but it was probably only a matter of time before something awful emerged around it to knock it all on its head.
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Whilst this story regarding Weinstein accuser Asia Argento probably won’t derail the movement completely, it’s certainly going to throw up some more questions about just what the hell is going on up in Hollywood. The short of it is this: 43 year old Argento has been accused of paying off actor James Bennett to the tune of $380,000 for a sexual assualt that occurred when he was just 17 and she was 37.
The full story appeared in the New York Times on Sunday and here are a couple of the key paragraphs. The pair had previously appeared in the 2004 movie The Heart is Deceitful Above All Things in which a seven year old Bennett had played Argento’s son. Yuck:
The document lays out Mr. Bennett’s account: Ms. Argento asked the family member to leave so she could be alone with the actor. She gave him alcohol to drink and showed him a series of notes she had written to him on hotel stationery. Then she kissed him, pushed him back on the bed, removed his pants and performed oral sex. She climbed on top of him and the two had intercourse, the document says. She then asked him to take a number of photos.
Later that day she posted a close-up of their faces on Instagram with the caption, “Happiest day of my life reunion with @jimmymbennett xox,” and added that “jimmy is going to be in my next movie and that is a fact, dig that jack.” That post and others were included with the notice of intent, along with three photos apparently taken by Mr. Bennett that depict him and Ms. Argento in bed, their unclothed torsos exposed. (Only one of the photos taken in bed shows both their faces.)
The two had lunch, and Mr. Bennett headed home to Orange County, where he lived with his parents. As he was driven home, according to his claim, he began to feel “extremely confused, mortified, and disgusted.
For Mr. Bennett, seeing Ms. Argento present herself as a victim of sexual assault was too much to bear, his lawyer wrote, and called up memories of their hotel reunion. “His feelings about that day were brought to the forefront recently when Ms. Argento took the spotlight as one of the many victims of Harvey Weinstein,” Mr. Sattro wrote in the notice of intent to sue.
But in the months that followed her revelations about Mr. Weinstein last October, Ms. Argento quietly arranged to pay $380,000 to her own accuser: Jimmy Bennett, a young actor and rock musician who said she had sexually assaulted him in a California hotel room years earlier, when he was only two months past his 17th birthday. She was 37. The age of consent in California is 18.
I mean that is a grim story and obviously there’s some degree of uncertainty, but you need to believe survivors and the fact that Argento paid him off would go some way to making you believe that it was true. It’s just really grim and weird that Argento would be so vocally against Weinstein when she was doing pretty much exactly the same thing. Not really sure what to make of it to be honest.
For more of the same, check out everything that’s gone down with Harvey Weinstein. A veritable feast there.