Argento tweeted Monday morning, “Dear @RoseMcGowan. It is with genuine regret that I am giving you 24 hours to retract and apologise for the horrendous lies made against me in your statement of August 27th. If you fail to address this libel I will have no option other than to take immediate legal action.”
Dear @RoseMcGowan. It is with genuine regret that I am giving you 24 hours to retract and apologise for the horrendous lies made against me in your statement of August 27th. If you fail to address this libel I will have no option other than to take immediate legal action.
— Asia Argento (@AsiaArgento) September 17, 2018
Argento’s tweet — and lawsuit threat — come after McGowan released a statement on August 27th that their mutual friend Rain Dove told her that Argento admitted to having sex with former child actor Jimmy Bennett.
“Asia, you were my friend,” McGowan wrote. “I loved you. You’ve spent and risked a lot to stand with the #MeToo movement. I really hope you find your way through this process to rehabilitation and betterment. Anyone can be better – I hope you can be, too. Do the right thing. Be honest. Be fair. Let justice stay its course. Be the person you wish Harvey could have been.”
The New York Times reported on August 19 that Argento had arranged for $380,000 to be paid to her accuser. Bennett alleged that the 37-year-old Argento had sexually assaulted him in a hotel room just two months after his 17th birthday. The actress denied the claim that she had arranged to quietly pay Bennett and said that her late boyfriend Anthony Bourdain was involved in paying Bennett.
#MeToo activists have been distancing themselves from Argento and expressing that the accusations against her shouldn’t undermine the movement. Amber Tamblyn retweeted a Los Angeles Times headline asking, “Do the claims against Asia Argento invalidate the #MeToo movement?” and said, “Nah. You don’t get to destroy two decades worth of the work @TaranaBurke has done for the #metooMVMT because of this woman’s actions. Don’t you even dare.”
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