Our thanks to a number of people for this. The start of the piece:
Asia Argento – a leading #MeToo activist – has reportedly settled an accusation of assault made against her by a former child actor.
According to documents obtained by the New York Times, the actor and director agreed to pay musician Jimmy Bennet a total of $380,000 over the course of a year and a half after allegedly assaulting him in a California hotel room when he was just over the age of 17 years old. The state’s legal age of consent is 18.
As part of the document, Italian actor Argento – who was 37 at the time – appears in a selfie taken in the hotel room’s bed, the authenticity of which has been confirmed by three people familiar to the case.
Her lawyer, Carrie Goldberg, said: “We hope nothing like this ever happens to you again. You are a powerful and inspiring creator and it is a miserable condition of life that you live among s****y individuals who’ve preyed on both your strengths and your weaknesses.” [J4MB: Pot, kettle, black?]