The already hot water keeps heating up for Asia Argento, an Italian actress and #MeToo movement leader whose most recent claim to fame is accusing disgraced producer Harvey Weinstein of rape.
Or at least, it was until the New York Times broke the news this week that Argento had secretly paid off a 17-year-old boy who’d accused her of sexual assault.
Argento publicly claimed she’d never had sex with Jimmy Bennett, a young actor and musician who was 17 at the time of the alleged encounter. After Bennett accused Argento of sexually assaulting him against his will, records show Argento’s boyfriend, the late Anthony Bourdain, paid $380,000 to settle Bennett’s claim behind closed doors.
But now, TMZ has gotten their hands on a photo from 2013 and some recent texts that tell a totally different story, including a pretty straightforward picture of Argento, then 37, and Bennett topless in bed together. Additionally, a string of messages between Argento and a friend sent this week seem to plainly show Argento admitting that she did, in fact, have a sexual relationship with Bennett (which would’ve been illegal under California law, given his age) and then lied about it.
Now personally, I don’t give one furry end of a rat's behind about who Hollywood celebrities do or don’t sleep with. As far as I'm concerned, the whole town is one giant cesspool filled with all kinds of stuff penicillin can’t cure.
But I do care when grown adults, be they men or women, entice minors into bed. I care when they lie about it and pay someone to shut up. And I very much care when said predators turn around and accuse others of sexual misconduct, all while hiding their own kinky skeletons under the soiled sheets of their California King.
Especially since they love to preach morality at the rest of us.
(Cover Photo: Georges Biard)