Rose McGowan issued a lengthy statement Monday, distancing herself from Asia Argento’s sexual harassment allegations and urging Argento to “do the right thing” and to “be the person you wish Harvey [Weinstein] could have been.”
McGowan and Argento both became prominent figures of the Me Too movement, as two women who accused disgraced movie producer Harvey Weinstein of sexual assault. However, Argento has been accused of “hypocrisy” after it was revealed earlier this month that she paid actor Jimmy Bennett $380,000 after he accused her of sexually assaulting him in 2013, when he was 17.
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In her new statement, McGowan said she is not “affiliated with this incident or being complicit.”
McGowan claimed she received text messages and calls from the person she has been dating, Rain Dove, claiming that Argeno admitted to sleeping with Bennett. Dove said Argento was receiving “unsolicited” nude images of Bennett since he was 12. Argento never took action, and there are other details McGowan said she could not make public.
“Rain also shared that Asia had stated that she’d been receiving unsolicited nudes of Jimmy since he had been 12,” McGowan wrote. “Asia mentioned in these texts that she didn’t take any action on those images. No reporting to authorities, to the parents, or blocking of Jimmy’s social media. Not even a simple message ‘Don’t send me these images. They are inappropriate.’ There were a few other details revealed as well that I am not at liberty to mention in this statement as investigators do their job.”
Dove told McGowan that she and Argento were planning to go to the police, but they wanted to make McGowan aware of their decision first. McGowan said she told them, “You have to. You must.”
“It wasn’t hard to say or support,” McGowan wrote. “What was hard was the shell shock of the realisation that everything the MeToo movement stood for was about to be in jeopardy. An hour after our conversation was finished Rain Dove confirmed that they had turned over the texts and were in conversation with officers. Almost 48 hours later the texts were in the press.”
Later, McGowan wrote, “At this current moment it may be easy to focus on the drama of the situation. The conspiracy. But the real focus should be on supporting justice. Supporting honesty. And supporting each other. We can not let this moment break the momentum of a movement that has freed so many people. We must use it to allow us to become stronger. More compassionate. More aware. And More organised.”
In the end, McGowan included a message to Argento, telling her to “be better” than Weinstein.
“Asia you were my friend. I loved you. You’ve spent and risked a lot to stand with the MeToo movement,” she wrote. “I really hope you find your way through this process to rehabilitation and betterment. Anyone can be be better- I hope you can be, too. Do the right thing. Be honest. Be fair. Let justice stay its course. Be the person you wish Harvey could have been.”
This is not the first time McGowan has spoken out since the allegations against Argento came to light.
“I got to know Asia Argento ten months ago. Our commonality is the shared pain of being assaulted by Harvey Weinstein,” she tweeted on Aug. 20. “My heart is broken. I will continue my work on behalf of victims everywhere.”
Bennett accused Argento in a letter he sent to Argento and her late boyfriend, Anthony Bourdain. According to the New York Times, Argento paid Bennett $380,000. Argento denied having a sexual relationship with Bennett, and said the payment was made by Bourdain.
Bennett, now 22, broke his silence on the allegations last week, explaining that he “believed there was still a stigma to being in the situation as a male in our society. I didn’t think that people would understand the event that took place from the eyes of a teenage boy.”
