Asia Argento Facts: Jimmy Bennett Says Harvey Weinstein Accuser Sexually Assaulted Him

Italian actress Asia Argento settled an accusation of sexual assault by a former child actor Jimmy Bennett for a sum of $380,000, a few months after she accused producer Harvey Weinstein of rape and sexual assault, The New York Times reported Sunday.

Bennett reportedly sent his demand for money to Argento in November after she spoke out against Weinstein.

“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,” Gordon K. Sattro, Bennett’s lawyer, said.

Argento, a leading #MeToo advocate, was one of the strongest voices against Weinstein. The 42-year-old actress agreed to pay the money to Bennett, who once played her son in the 2004 movie “The Heart Is Deceitful Above All Things” over the course of a year and a half. She reportedly made the first payment of $200,000 in April this year.

According to reports, the alleged incident happened two months after Bennett’s 17th birthday, when Argento was 37 years old. They got close after doing a movie together often addressing each other as mother and son.

They met on May 9, 2013, for a reunion in her room at the Ritz-Carlton in Marina del Rey, California. She forced him to have alcohol and sexually assaulted him there. She also made him click pictures of themselves on the bed, with their unclothed torsos exposed and posted a close up of their faces on Instagram, The New York Post reported.

The legal age of consent is 18 in California, which means Bennett was a minor at the time. He sent Argento a notice of intent last year asking for $3.5 million in damages. Bennett’s lawyer claimed that the incident was an intentional infliction of “emotional distress, lost wages, assault and battery.”

Reacting to the news, Rose McGowan, who herself was one of the first persons to accuse Harvey Weinstein of sexual assault, said her "heart is broken."

Here are some lesser known facts about Nicolodi :

Her mother, Daria Nicolodi, was also an actress and her father Dario Argento was a director. In interviews, Argento said her relationship with her father was confined to film sets, adding that she initially got into acting to gain her parent’s, especially her father’s, attention.

Argento is extremely multi-talented. Apart from acting, she was a model, writer, director and singer. Her talents were described as “alarmingly broad” by Rolling Stone magazine.

Speaking about Argento's relationship with celebrity chef Anthony Bourdain, who took his own life in June this year, McGowan said it was that of "free birds," not being constraints to borders of traditional relationships.

She was very open with the sexual relationships she had with co-stars.

"It's okay while you're shooting the film, especially if you're on location. You're tired; you're stuck with these people. But I would never be able to spend time with them outside the set," she said once.

She is a huge music aficionado. She released a full-length album in 2013, “Total Entropy,” and even has a huge collection of vinyl records at her home. She even DJs for kids sometimes.

Argento is a huge smoker, often describing the habit as "part of her."