Jimmy Bennett, the 22-year-old man who accused Italian actress Asia Argento, 42, of sexual assault in bombshell documents covered by the New York Times, is finally speaking out.
Bennett explained why he did not take his case to the public arena a little sooner and why he accepted close to $400,000 in hush money.
The young actor stated, “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.”
“I was underage when the event took place, and I tried to seek justice in a way that made sense to me at the time because I was not ready to deal with the ramifications of my story becoming public,” Bennett revealed about his fear of a public scandal.
“At the time I believed there was still a stigma to being in the situation as a male in our society. I didn’t think that people would understand the event that took place from the eyes of a teenage boy.”
The Heart Is Deceitful Above All Things director initially denied the allegations and blamed her late boyfriend, Anthony Bourdain, for the payment.
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The mother of two said that the host of CNN’s Parts Unknown agreed to pay the struggling actor as a favor and because he thought the allegations would hurt her standing in the press in light of her prominent role in the #MeToo movement and the case against disgraced Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein.
However, a photo and text messages obtained by TMZ tell a different story. The picture shows a topless Argento in bed with Bennett.
In the texts, the actress also tells a friend that the encounter was consensual and it was just her turning the fantasy of a twelve-year-old boy into a reality.
Sensing that her former supporters have turned against her, Argento went silent and even canceled her plans to be a curator at a Dutch music festival. The event is set to take place in Utrecht in November.
Oscar-winning actress Mira Sorvino, another major figure in the fight for equality, has come out to put some distance between Argento and the #MeToo movement.
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