Italian actress Asia Argento has been axed from 'X Factor Italy' after claims emerged that she sexually abused a 17-year-old former child actor who once played her son. Photo / AP
Italian actress Asia Argento has been axed from 'X Factor Italy' after claims emerged that she sexually abused a 17-year-old former child actor who once played her son. Photo / AP
Asia Argento has been axed from X Factor Italy after claims emerged that she sexually abused a 17-year-old former child actor who once played her son.
The Italian actress was due to appear as a judge on the new series of the talent show which begins airing September 6.
But sources at Sky Italia and FremantleMedia Italia told Variety that they had decided to pull her following a report that she paid former child actor and musician Jimmy Bennett a US$380,000 hush money settlement after they allegedly had sex when he was just 17 and she was 37.
Argento has since admitted the payout, which she said was made by her former boyfriend Anthony Bourdain, but denied she ever had sex with Bennett, claiming that the money was to help his career.
Sky Italia and FremantleMedia had previously issued a statement saying if Bennett's allegations were proven to be true, they "would have no choice but to take note of it and put an end to the collaboration".
X Factor has not released any official comment yet.
Argento will still appear in the first seven seven episodes of X Factor, which have already been filmed, and include the auditions stage.
There has been growing calls in Italy for Argento to be scrapped as judge but Sky Italia was reportedly in a difficult position because axing the actress from the show entirely would have meant that the 40,000 people who had attended the castings with her would have to re-audition.
Asia Argento and the late Anthony Bourdain at the 2017 Creative Arts Emmy Awards at Microsoft Theater on September 9, 2017 in Los Angeles. Photo / Getty
Instead, she will be replaced with a new judge for the live portion of the show, which begins October 25.
The judge set to replace her looks likely to be Italian singer Morgan - her ex-husband.
Argento has not commented on her removal from X Factor.
The move comes less than a week after Argento was forced to pull out of an appearance at Le Guess Who music festival in the Netherlands last weekend.
She cancelled hours after the publication of text messages that were allegedly sent by the director and actress to a friend on Monday that reveal that Argento did in fact have sex with Bennett.
TMZ published the texts, including one that reads: "It wasn't raped but I was frozen. He was on top of me. After, he told me I had been his sexual fantasy since was 12."
One day later, Argento denied ever having sex with Bennett in a statement while suggesting the young man extorted her and late boyfriend Anthony Bourdain, who paid out the settlement.
TMZ also published an image reported to be a post-coital photo of the two taken in May 2013.
Argento also allegedly claims to have been unaware that Bennett was a minor when they had sex in 2013 in the texts, despite raving about how talented the boy was when they met in 2003 on the set of The Heart is Deceitful Above All Things on Twitter just months before their encounter.
In that tweet, posted in August 2012, she wrote: "At 7 you were already one of the most accomplished actors I'd ever met."
"The public knows nothing, only what NYT wrote. Which is one-sided. The shakedown letter. The horny kid jumped me," reads one text.
When asked if it was rape, the person reported to be Argento responds: "I had sex with him and it felt weird. I didn't know he was a minor until the shakedown letter."
The other person, who is not identified, then asks why she did not report the incident, which she responds to by saying she "always felt bad for this Hollywood failed child actor, a casualty of the machine, of his parents".
Then, in a move that seems to be directly out of the Harvey Weinstein's playbook, Argento allegedly reveals that a private investigator was hired by Bourdain to follow the boy and there are "80 pages" of notes in a text.
Argento also speaks of her plans should she lose work for this incident, stating that she would "move to Africa or the Amazon forest" in one text.
This alleged text conversation took place just after the New York Times published its piece on Argento's settlement with Bennett.
"I strongly deny and oppose the contents of the New York Times article," said Argento in a statement on Tuesday.
"I am deeply shocked and hurt by having read news that is absolutely false. I have never had any sexual relationship with Bennett."
She goes on to state that Bennett went after her because of her relationship with Anthony Bourdain, a "man of great perceived wealth" who "had his own reputation as a beloved public figure to protect".
Bourdain paid the settlement despite the fact that it represented almost half of his cash and savings at the time, with court papers submitted after the chef's death revealing $425,000 of his $1.2 million estate was in cash.
"Anthony personally undertook to help Bennett economically, upon the condition that we would no longer suffer any further intrusions in our life," writes Argento in her statement.
She says that at the request of both Bourdain and Bennett, the matter was settled privately
Argento has been at the forefront of the #MeToo for almost a year now after claiming she had been sexually assaulted by disgraced mogul Harvey Weinstein.
Argento's texts
Friend: As in what does the public know and not know?
Like which things are facts or not facts? It's an annoying question but I need to have a clear vision on what angles we have to send some folks to get good intel for us
Argento: The public knows nothing, only what NYT wrote. Which is one sided. The shakedown letter. The horny kid jumped me
F: So it was rape? Or an attempted secual action?
A: I has sex with him it felt weird. i didn't know he was a minor until the shakedown letter.
