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NYT: #MeToo Leader Asia Argento Paid Off Her Sexual Assault Accuser

HeadlineAug 21, 2018

The New York Times reports Italian actress Asia Argento recently quietly paid former co-star Jimmy Bennett $380,000 after he accused her of sexually assaulting him in 2013, when Bennett was 17 and Argento was 37. The age of consent in the state of California is 18. Argento emerged as a leader in the #MeToo movement after she was one of the first of more than 100 women to accuse disgraced Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein of rape and sexual harassment. She paid off Bennett months after she spoke out publicly against Weinstein. On Monday, Tarana Burke, the founder of the #MeToo movement, tweeted, “Sexual violence is about power and privilege. That doesn’t change if the perpetrator is your favorite actress, activist or professor of any gender.”

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