Rose McGowan on Monday responded to the New York Times report that actress Asia Argento — a fellow Harvey Weinstein accuser — had herself paid a young actor $380,000 following an accusation of sexual misconduct.
“I got to know Asia Argento ten months ago,” McGowan wrote on Twitter. “Our commonality is the shared pain of being assaulted by Harvey Weinstein. My heart is broken,” she added. “I will continue my work on behalf of victims everywhere.”
In a later tweet, she added, “None of us know the truth of the situation and I’m sure more will be revealed. Be gentle.”
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Late Sunday, the Times reported that Argento arranged to pay a settlement last November to Jimmy Bennett, a now-22-year-old actor-musician who played Argento’s son in the 2004 film “The Heart Is Deceitful Above All Things.”
The documents obtained by the paper indicate that Bennett met Argento in a California hotel room in May 2013 — when he was just two months after his 17th birthday — where he said she sexually assaulted him.
Bennett’s lawyer, Gordon K. Sattro, had sent Argento an intent to sue her for $3.5 million in damages for the infliction of emotional distress, lost wages, assault and battery.
McGowan first met Argento in 2003 and has been a vocal supporter of the fellow #MeToo advocate, particularly since the June death of Argento’s boyfriend Anthony Bourdain.
“Do NOT do the sexist thing and burn a woman on the pyre of misplaced blame,” she wrote.
McGowan added that Argento herself shared some of the same mental health issues that contributed to Bourdain’s death. “Through a lot of this last year, Asia did want the pain to stop,” she wrote. “But here’s the thing, over their time together, thankfully, she did the work to get help, so she could stay alive and live another day for her and her children.”