The fallout from “a sexual battery” was so traumatic that it hindered Mr. Bennett’s work and income and threatened his mental health, according to a notice of intent to sue that his lawyer sent in November to Richard Hofstetter, Mr. Bourdain’s longtime lawyer, who was also representing Ms. Argento at the time.
Ms. Argento, who lives in Rome, subsequently turned to Ms. Goldberg — a prominent lawyer for victims of online attacks — to handle the case. (Mr. Hofstetter is now handling the estate of Mr. Bourdain, who killed himself in June. Although Mr. Bourdain helped Ms. Argento navigate the matter, neither Mr. Hofstetter nor Kimberly Witherspoon, Mr. Bourdain’s longtime agent and now a spokeswoman for his wife, Ottavia Busia, from whom he was separated, would comment for this article.)
Mr. Bennett’s notice of intent asked for $3.5 million in damages for the intentional infliction of emotional distress, lost wages, assault and battery. Mr. Bennett made more than $2.7 million in the five years before the 2013 meeting with Ms. Argento, but his income has since dropped to an average of $60,000 a year, which he attributes to the trauma that followed the sexual encounter with Ms. Argento, his lawyer wrote.
In October, a month before Mr. Bennett sent his demand for money, The New Yorker published an article by Ronan Farrow that included Ms. Argento among 13 women who accused Mr. Weinstein of harassment and rape.
Ms. Argento, whose father, Dario Argento, is a noted director of Italian horror films, began her acting career as a child. She went on to win two David di Donatello Awards, the Italian equivalent of Oscars, and has directed films, written a novel and recorded music.
After she spoke out about Mr. Weinstein, Ms. Argento quickly emerged as a powerful voice for women who have been mistreated by men. In May, she gave a riveting speech at the Cannes Film Festival in which she called the festival Mr. Weinstein’s “hunting ground.” She said he had raped her there in 1997, when she was 21.
The relationship with Mr. Weinstein continued for years afterward and sometimes included sex, The New Yorker reported. Ms. Argento, who had acted in a movie Mr. Weinstein produced, told the magazine that she feared angering him. It was a complicated situation in which she said she felt powerless. “After the rape, he won,” she told Mr. Farrow.
Jimmy Bennett, an actor and musician, claims that Asia Argento sexually assaulted him in a California hotel room months before his 17th birthday. According to the New York Times, Bennett, now 22, struck a deal with Argento where she agreed to pay him $380K over the course of a year and a half, starting with an initial payment of $200,000 that was made this past April.
According to a notice sent to lawyer Richard Hofstetter, the fallout from the “sexual battery” was so traumatic for Bennett that it has reportedly hindered his career and threatened his mental health.
Here’s what you need to know about Jimmy Bennett:
1. He Played Argento’s Son In the Film ‘The Heart Is Deceitful Above All Things’
Bennett was 7 when he was cast in the 2004 drama The Heart Is Deceitful Above All Things. The film, which Argento both directed and starred in, depicts the grim relationship between a drug-addled prostitute and her young son. Argento’s character dresses her son (played by Bennett) as a girl to lure men, and the boy is ultimately raped in the film’s final act.
According to the New York Times, Argento, 42, developed a close relationship with Bennett on the set, serving as both a mentor and a mother figure. Gordon K. Sattro, Bennett’s lawyer, wrote that “Jimmy’s impression of this situation was that a mother-son relationship had blossomed from their experience on set together.”
In addition to The Heart Is Deceitful Above All Things, Bennett has appeared in the 2003 comedy Daddy Day Care opposite Eddie Murphy, the 2005 thriller Hostage opposite Bruce Willis, and the 2009 reboot of Star Trek, where he played a young version of James T. Kirk.
2. The Alleged Assault Took Place at a Ritz-Carlton Hotel In 2013
According to the court documents, Bennett made plans to meet up with Argento at a Ritz-Carlton in Marina Del Rey on May 9, 2013. The young actor has an eye condition that prevents him from driving, so he was driven to the hotel with a family member.
Bennett’s account says that Argento asked the family member to leave so she could be alone with him. She gave him alcohol to drink and showed him a series of notes she had written to him on the hotel stationery. Argento then kissed Bennett, pushed him back on to the bed and removed his pants before performing oral sex. Bennett then states that she climbed on top of him and the two of them had intercourse. Afterwards, Argento reportedly asked him to take photos of her.
The two then had lunch and Bennett headed back home to his parents in Orange County. The actor said that he began to feel “extremely confused, mortified, and disgusted” on the drive home. Later that day, Argento posted a photo of them on Instagram with the caption, “Happiest day of my life reunion with @jimmymbennett xox.” She added that “jimmy is going to be in my next movie and that is a fact, dig that jack.”
3. He & Argento Were Friendly With One Another on Twitter
Leading up to the alleged assault, Bennett and Argento were friendly with one another on social media. Argento often tweeted at Bennett with compliments, referring to the actor as her “son,” and talking about how excited she is to see him again. This was most notable during the month of August 2012.
“@JimmyBennett not sure when I’ll be back but hopefully next time I’ll get to see you,” she tweeted on the 11th. “Even though I might just start crying with happiness.”
Argento tweeted at Bennett again on August 15 with the message: “@JimmyBennett I was just so proud of you and after THIDAAT I didn’t want to let you go on another set without me!” She added a second tweet that read: “Sucks I left LA! I would have followed you everywhere. I wish I hadn’t missed any of your birthdays all these years.”
Argento also posted a message to him on Instagram the day of the alleged assault. “Waiting for my long lost son my love @jimmymbennett in trepidation,” she wrote. “#marinadelrey smoking cigarettes like there was no next week.”
Bennett responded to the post by writing: “I’m almost there! :)” The post
4. He Attributes His Career Decline to His Relationship With Argento
The New York Times reports that Bennett had made more than $2.7 million in the five years before his 2013 meeting with Argento, but that his income has gone down drastically in the five years since. He now makes an estimated $60K a year. Bennett attributes his career decline to the emotional trauma that was inflicted upon him by Argento.
Bennett initially asked Argento for $3.5 million in damages, but they ultimately agreed upon $380K. A letter from Argento’s lawyer Carrie Goldberg to Argento said that the money was to help Bennett with his career. “We hope nothing like this ever happens to you again,” Goldberg wrote. “You are a powerful and inspiring creator and it is a miserable condition of life that you live among sh**ty individuals who’ve preyed on both your strengths and your weaknesses.”
In addition to these claims, Bennett’s parents have reportedly cheated him out of at least $1.5 million. The actor says that his mother and father started a trust that they would periodically deposit his earnings into, and that they eventually barred him from their house, cutting him off from his personal belongings. He filed a lawsuit against his parents in Orange County Superior Court in October 2014. The case was settled by late December, but the terms were not disclosed.
According to Article Bio, Bennett currently has an estimated net worth of $2 million.
Bennett has also pursued a career as a musician. He released his debut single “Over Again” in 2011, and has since collaborated with artists like Sean Chambers (“Handyman”), John Ginty (“Old Shoes”), and the Bruce Katz Band (“Wild About You Baby”). The only two posts on his Instagram account are clips of him performing on his acoustic guitar. Watch them here.
5. He Came Forward Because He Felt That Argento’s Support of the #MeToo Movement Was Hypocritical
Bennett’s lawyer stated that the reason he chose to come forward with his experience is because “seeing Ms. Argento present herself as a victim of sexual assault was too much to bear.” Sattro wrote that: “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.”
While its unclear what the current relationship is between Bennett and Argento, the two have indirectly corresponded via social media. On June 8, 2013, Bennett sent Argento a Twitter message that read: “Miss you momma!!!!” with a photograph of an engraved bracelet she had given as a gift. His Twitter account has since been shut down. On July 17, 2018, Argento liked a photo that Bennett had posted of himself on Instagram (the account has since removed much of its content).
Carrie Goldberg, Argento’s lawyer, has not made an official comment. Bennett’s lawyer, released a statement that read: “In the coming days, Jimmy will continue doing what he has been doing over the past months and years, focusing on his music.”
Harvey Weinstein accuser and #MeToo figurehead Asia Argento secretly paid off a former child star who accused her of sexually assaulting him when he was 17, according to a new report.
Argento, 42, is accused of luring Jimmy Bennett to her Californian hotel room in 2013. Once there, she sent away his chaperone, plied him with alcohol and showed him her love letters before kissing the teen.
The Italian actress, who is 20 years his senior, then pushed him onto the bed where she performed oral sex on Bennett before climbing on top of him and having sex with him, he claimed in his notice of intent to sue the actress.
Bennett, who once played Argento's son in a movie when he was seven years old, filed the notice in November 2017 - just one month after she became one of the first actresses to publicly accuse disgraced Miramax producer Weinstein of sexual assault.
Newly released documents, first obtained by the New York Times, reveal that Argento, who was dating celebrity chef Anthony Bourdain until his suicide in June, settled the claim out of court earlier this year for $380,000.
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Harvey Weinstein accuser and #MeToo figurehead Asia Argento (left) secretly paid off a former child star Jimmy Bennett (right) who accused her of sexually assaulting him when he was 17, according to a new report
Argento posted a photo of herself hugging then-17-year-old Bennett on May 9, 2013, at the hotel where she is accused of sexually assaulting him
She captioned the photo, posted the same day as the alleged assault, referring to Bennett as 'my son' and 'my love'
The original notice, which was sent to the newspaper anonymously from an encrypted email, asked for $3.5 million in damages for the intentional infliction of emotional distress, lost wages, assault and battery.
It was sent to Anthony Bourdain's lawyer, Richard Hofstetter, who was representing Argento at the time.
In it, Bennett's lawyers, who had characterized the hotel encounter as 'sexual battery', claimed the sexual assault was so traumatizing that it had affected their client's acting career.
Argento has not responded to The Times' multiple requests for comment. DailyMail.com has also reached out for comment.
Bennett also declined to comment.
Bennett, now 22, played Argento's son in The Heart Is Deceitful Above All Things in 2004 when he was just seven.
The pair have met up again on several occasions since and often refer to each other as mother and son on social media.
'Waiting for my long lost son my love @jimmymbennett in trepidation #marinadelrey smoking cigarettes like there was no next week,' the Italian actress wrote on Instagram on May 9, 2013.
Bennett, now 22, played Argento's son in The Heart Is Deceitful Above All Things in 2004 when he was just seven years old (pictured together in the movie)
Argento and Bennett often referred to each other as mother and son on social media after they appeared in the movie together (pictured Agento, with Bennett (center) and Dylan and Cole Sprouse in 2004)
Bennett responded: 'I'm almost there!:)'
It was during that reunion, in her room at a Ritz-Carlton in Marina del Rey, California on May 9, that the assault is alleged to have occurred.
According to the notice to sue, Bennett had been taken to the hotel by a family member, but Argento asked them to leave so she could be alone with him.
She then allegedly gave the young actor alcohol and began kissing him. Bennett claims she pushed him onto the bed, removed his pants and performed oral sex on him. She climbed on top of the 17-year-old and the pair had sex, according to the notice of intent.
The age of consent in California is 18.
The document, according to the Times, also included three photos apparently taken by Bennett during the encounter which showed him and Argento, both half naked, in bed together, although only one of the photos showed their faces.
Argento later posted on Instagram that she'd had the: 'Happiest day of my life reunion with @jimmymbennett xox.'
'Jimmy is going to be in my next movie and that is a fact, dig that jack,' she added.
She shared several more pictures of herself and the teen on that day, including a photo of herself hugging the teen in what appears to be the dining room of the hotel.
She captioned it: 'My son my love until I will live @jimmymbennett marina del ray 05.2013.'
Bennett said that as he headed back to his parents' house in Orange County he felt 'extremely confused, mortified, and disgusted.'
Yet a month later, he sent Argento a tweet which read: 'Miss you momma!!!!' along with a photo of an engraved bracelet she had given him to commemorate the movie.
Bennett was just 17 when he claim that Argento performed oral sex on him and slept with him in her California hotel room in 2013. He is pictured that same year at the 'Movie 43' film premiere
Argento, pictured hugging Bennett on the first day of their The Heart Is Deceitful Above All Things shoot, with Winona Ryder in 2004, kept in touch with her former costar, sharing throwback pictures on Instagram (above). The pair would often refer to each other as mother and son
Argento and Bennett kept in touch over social media for years after the movie. Bennett appears to have suspended his social media accounts
In November 2017, Bennett's attorneys sent the notice to sue arguing that the former child actor, who starred in Firewall across from Harrison Ford, had his earning power diminished by the alleged assault because of the psychological damage he's been left with.
It states he earned more than $2.7 million in the five years before the 2013 encounter, but his income has since dropped to around $60,000 a year.
In recent years, he has had smaller roles on TV and on the big screen, with his most recent credit playing Dustin in 2017 movie Heartthrob. Bennett, who reportedly lives with his parents and sister in Huntington Beach, California, also plays guitar and sings on his YouTube channel.
Argento's lawyer Carrie Goldberg sent a letter Argento in April setting out the final details of the settlement, she appeared to console the actress.
'We hope nothing like this ever happens to you again,' Goldberg wrote. 'You are a powerful and inspiring creator and it is a miserable condition of life that you live among shitty individuals who've preyed on both your strengths and your weaknesses.'
A month prior to Bennett's notice, The New Yorker published its bombshell expose featuring 13 women who accused Weinstein of harassment and rape.
Among those 13 was Argento.
The Italian star told the New Yorker that Weinstein raped her in 1997 at a party hosted by Miramax at the Hotel Du Cap-Eden-Roc. She claims the mogul led her to an empty room and asked her to give him a massage.
Argento posted multiple photos of Bennett, and the two of them together on the day of the alleged assault, with fawning captions where she refers to him as her 'son'
Bennett (pictured in recent Instagram photos) claimed his career as an actor had been stymied by the emotional distress he suffered
Argento (pictured this year) settled his sex assault claim earlier this year for $380,000
She reluctantly agreed, and halfway through he began to perform oral sex on her after forcibly lifting up her skirt despite her repeated requests for him to stop.
Argento says that she became suspicious when the party she arrived at was just an empty hotel room, but was assured that people would soon be arriving by Weinstein.
Then, he emerged from the bathroom in a robe and holding a bottle of lotion says the actress, who was just 21 at the time.
'He asks me to give a massage. I was, like, 'Look man, I am no f***ing fool,'' said Argento.
'But, looking back, I am a f***ing fool. And I am still trying to come to grips with what happened.'
ARGENTO'S SPEECH ON SEXUAL 'PREDATORS' AT CANNES Asia Argento made a powerful speech about Weinstein and sexual abuse and harassment in the entertainment industry at Cannes in May. She labelled the festival Weinstein's 'hunting ground'. 'In 1997, I was raped by Harvey Weinstein here at Cannes. I was 21 years old,' Argento said while presenting onstage during the festival's closing ceremony. 'Even tonight, sitting among you, there are those who have still to be held accountable for their conduct against women,' she said. 'You know who you are. But most importantly we know who you are. And we're not going allow you to get away with it any longer. Argento said Weinstein 'will never be welcomed here ever again.' 'He will live in disgrace, shunned by a film community that once embraced him and covered up for his crimes,' she said. 'I want to make a prediction. Harvey Weinstein will never be welcomed here ever again. He will live in disgrace, shunned by a film community that once embraced him and covered up for his crimes.'
The actress, who is the daughter of famed Italian director Dario Argento, said that once Weinstein began performing oral sex on her there was no way for her to stop him because he was so much bigger than her.
'It wouldn't stop. It was a nightmare,' said Argento, who eventually decided to pretend she was enjoying the act in hopes that it would end.
When it was over, Argento said she said on the bed and told her attacked: 'I am not a whore.'
He laughed at her and said he would put that on a shirt according to Argento, who said that Weinstein contacted her for months after the attack and even began offering her expensive gifts.
Argento eventually relented and over time became close to her attacker, and even engaged in consensual relations with him she admits.
She explained the sudden shift by saying that it was a few months before the release of her 1999 film 'B. Monkey' and she was afraid that if she did not agree to Weinstein's advances he might destroy her career.
The following year, Argento released her film 'Scarlet Diva,' which had a scene similar to the one she experienced three years earlier in France.
In that film, a young actress is cornered by a big producer in a room with one crucial difference.
'In the movie I wrote, I ran away,' said Argento.
When she told Weinstein that the character was based on him he simply laughed said Argento.
In has been 20 years now since that encounter, and Argento still struggles, especially when she sees Weinstein.
Argento, who was dating celebrity chef Anthony Bourdain before his death, was one of the first actresses to accuse disgraced Miramax producer Weinstein of sexual assault in October last year
'When I see him, it makes me feel little and stupid and weak,' said Argento. 'After the rape, he won.'
In total, 13 women told the New Yorker that they were sexually harassed or assaulted by Weinstein and three said that they were raped.
The explosive expose empowered dozens more women to come forward and share their allegations of assault, rape and harassment against Weinstein.
The film producer, who was fired from Miramax in the wake of the allegations, turned himself into police in May on multiple rape charges.
'Today Harvey Weinstein will take his first step on his inevitable descent to hell. We, the women, finally have real hope for justice,' Argento tweeted as Weinstein turned himself in.
Weinstein has 'unequivocally denied' all allegations of non-consensual sex.
The 66-year-old disgraced movie mogul was arrested, processed and booked for the alleged sexual assault of two women who previously shared their stories with the New Yorker back in October.
in June, he plead not guilty to charges of sexual assault and rape.
Argento's boyfriend Bourdain had been very supportive and was full of praise for the actress for initially going on record about her Weinstein rape allegations.
'When you went on record, @AsiaArgento you were sure this day would never come, that you would be crushed, that you were alone. And yet you did it anyway. #perpwalk,' he tweeted in May.
Argento was dating celebrity chef and writer Anthony Bourdain until his suicide in June (pictured together in September last year)
Bourdain, 61, and Argento met during the filming of his travel show Parts Unknown in 2016 and began dating a year later.
Shortly before he was found hanged in his French hotel room, a paparazzi caught Argento dancing in a Roman restaurant with French reporter Hugo Clément. They were also pictured holding hands and hugging on the streets of Rome.
Bourdain committed suicide on June 8, five days after the photos first appeared online.
Argento's friend and fellow Weinstein accuser, Rose McGowan, released a statement after his death, saying that the couple were in a 'free relationship' and 'loved without the borders of traditional relationships.'
Argento was devastated by Bourdain's death and released a heartbreaking statement following his suicide, where she described him as 'my love, my rock, my protector.'
'I am beyond devastated. Anthony gave all of himself in everything that he did,' she wrote on Twitter. 'His brilliant, fearless spirit touched and inspired so many, and his generosity knew no bounds.'
