Sudden turn of events…
As we reported, Asia Argento paid off former costar Jimmy Bennett after he accused her of sexual assault in a California hotel room when he was 17.
Related: Rose McGowan Makes New Statement!
Fast forward to Tuesday, the actress says SHE was assaulted by the actor on the day in question!
Her lawyer Mark Jay Heller told TMZ that her texts — where she allegedly admits to sleeping with Bennett — tell the real story.
One of the messages allegedly read:
“The horny kid jumped me… I had sex with him it felt weird.”
Additionally, Argento then goes on to reportedly say that she felt “frozen” when he was on top of her.
According to her attorney:
“Asia chose at the time not to prosecute Bennett for sexually attacking her.”
After the initial story broke, Argento released a statement denying Bennett’s sexual assault accusations, saying, “I have never had any sexual relationship with Bennett.”
Heller says this statement is true because their fling was a one-time encounter, and does not constitute a relationship.
The lawyer also claims that Bennett tried to extort Argento when he found out she was dating Anthony Bourdain. Heller says the actor “chose to intrude on that relationship and demand financial payment from Bourdain in consideration for not embarrassing Asia and indirectly Bourdain…”
Heller says Bourdain agreed to pay Bennett $380K even though Argento did nothing wrong. Although Bourdain ended up paying $250k, Argento will not cough up the balance.
The attorney added:
“Asia does not intend to prosecute Bennett for his conduct and recognizes that his unfortunate past, his stalled acting career, and a lawsuit against his own parents for allegedly misappropriating more than a million and a half dollars from his account might explain his desperation to seek money from Asia and Bourdain for this falsely alleged incident that took place more than 5 years ago.”
Last month, Bennett released a statement to the New York Times saying he “would like to move past this event” and “to move forward, no longer in silence.”
[Image via IPA/WENN.]
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