Asia Argento — who helped launch the #MeToo movement against Harvey Weinstein and other Hollywood sexual predators — has been accused of paying off actor Jimmy Bennett over claims that she’d seduced him at a Marina del Rey hotel in 2013, when he was just 17 years old and under the age of consent in California. In a disturbing twist, Asia had first met Jimmy when she cast him to play her 7-year-old son in the 2004 film “The Heart Is Deceitful Above All Things,” with the character later dressing like his mother to seduce a grown man played by shock-rocker Marilyn Manson! The New York Times published the bombshell claims that Asia had made a $380,000 payment to Jimmy to cover up the encounter, shortly after she came forward in 2018 to accuse Weinstein of a 1997 sexual assault. The revelation has left Asia’s supporters feeling betrayed, and also furious that her doomed boyfriend Anthony Bourdain had gotten caught up in the scandal right before his suicide!
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Legal documents covering the Nov. 2017 payoff show that Asia was using attorney Richard Hofstetter to work out the deal — who had also served as Anthony's longtime lawyer. The former child actor was claiming that Asia had seduced him in 2013, when the actress and director was 37 years old.
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Photo credit: Getty Images
But now insiders are reporting
that beloved CNN star Anthony was working closely with Asia to negotiate the settlement. It's a shocking development, since the celebrity chef had gone to social media to praise his girlfriend for going public over the Weinstein scandal, and even said that he wanted to see the Oscar-winning producer get “beaten to death.”
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Photo credit: Mega
"People wanted to protect Asia," said a source working on one planned tribute to Bourdain, who committed suicide on June 8, 2018. "Anthony was really loyal to her, and nobody was going to mention that she'd been seen running around with another man right before Anthony hanged himself. But now that Asia's left Anthony in a #MeToo coverup, that can't be ignored as part of what he went through at the end."
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Photo credit: Mega
Asia's been a controversial figure in the #MeToo movement, threatening to sue Italian newspaper Libero over a headline noting she'd dated Weinstein for five years after the alleged assault — and claimed their true relationship was “prostitution, not rape.” Added the insider: “Some people were concerned that Asia really had Anthony under her spell, and it's possible that's going to become a big part of looking back at his final days.”
Legal documents covering the Nov. 2017 payoff show that Asia was using attorney Richard Hofstetter to work out the deal — who had also served as Anthony's longtime lawyer. The former child actor was claiming that Asia had seduced him in 2013, when the actress and director was 37 years old.
But now insiders are reporting
that beloved CNN star Anthony was working closely with Asia to negotiate the settlement. It's a shocking development, since the celebrity chef had gone to social media to praise his girlfriend for going public over the Weinstein scandal, and even said that he wanted to see the Oscar-winning producer get “beaten to death.”
Photo credit: Getty Images
"People wanted to protect Asia," said a source working on one planned tribute to Bourdain, who committed suicide on June 8, 2018. "Anthony was really loyal to her, and nobody was going to mention that she'd been seen running around with another man right before Anthony hanged himself. But now that Asia's left Anthony in a #MeToo coverup, that can't be ignored as part of what he went through at the end."
Asia's been a controversial figure in the #MeToo movement, threatening to sue Italian newspaper Libero over a headline noting she'd dated Weinstein for five years after the alleged assault — and claimed their true relationship was “prostitution, not rape.” Added the insider: “Some people were concerned that Asia really had Anthony under her spell, and it's possible that's going to become a big part of looking back at his final days.”
