Harvey Weinstein Scandal Updates: Who is Asia Argento?
While Hollywood is still unsettled on the controversy caused by a New York article that exposed movie mogul Harvey Weinstein as a supposed sexual assaulter, some people still don't know much about one woman who claims to have been one of Weinstein's victims, too: Asia Argento.
The New York Times shook Hollywood last week when it ran an article about Weinstein's supposed sexual assaults on several women for decades. While the article featured confessions from Ashley Judd and Rose McGowan among some others who also claimed to have experienced sexual coercion from the movie mogul, Argento has recently come out and said that she, too, was allegedly raped by Weinstein in 1997 by forcing her to perform oral sex on him in his hotel room in France.
While Argento's story is not different from those who came out to tell their experience with the now beleaguered movie industry big boss, not so many people know who she really is, apart from being the girlfriend of celebrity chef Anthony Bourdain.
A post shared by asiaargento (@asiaargento) on Sep 28, 2017 at 5:34am PDT
However, Argento is not just Bourdain's girlfriend as she is an Italian actress and filmmaker, too. In fact, according to the actress, her movie "Scarlet Diva" is about her sexual encounter with Weinstein.
According to Argento, she eventually agreed to have a consensual relationship with Weinstein in the five years following the incident because the movie mogul sounded like he was her friend and was appreciative of her. Additionally, Argento revealed that she was of two minds exposing Weinstein because of her fear of what he can do, considering his influence in the movie industry.
"I know he has crushed a lot of people before. That's why this story—in my case, it's twenty years old, some of them are older—has never come out," Argento said in an interview with The New Yorker.
Meanwhile, apart from commending Argento's bravery to come out and tell her story, Bourdain has also called on other celebrities to speak up against Weinstein, including Matt Damon and designer Donna Karan, who even said that Weinstein's victims may have asked for the supposed sexual assaults to happen.
Heinstein has already been fired by the board of the company that he co-founded, The Weinstein Company, following his sexual assault and rape controversy.