Report: Weinstein Accuser Paid Off Own Sex Assault Accuser
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork/AP) -- 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 co-starred in a 2004 film called "The Heart Is Deceitful Above All Things" in which Argento played Bennett's prostitute mother.
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.
Representatives for Argento could not be immediately reached by The Associated Press for comment. Through a representative, Bennett declined to comment to the Times.
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.
On May 25, she tweeted, "Harvey Weinstein ain't smiling now."
Weinstein has been indicted on sex crime accusations involving three women, but not including Argento.
Argento was the girlfriend of late celebrity chef Anthony Bourdain, 61, who was found dead June 8 in an apparent suicide in his hotel room in Kaysersberg, France. She was not mentioned in his will.
After Bourdain's death, she wrote on Twitter: "Anthony gave all of himself in everything that he did. His brilliant, fearless spirit touched and inspired so many, and his generosity knew no bounds."
(© Copyright 2018 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)
