Asia Argento & Alec Baldwin Tweet About Infamous Photo: Actress Says “I Don’t Blame You” But “Must Feel Awful”
The now-familiar 2012 photograph of Alec Baldwin with James Toback interviewing Roman Polanski at the Cannes Film Festival has gotten another high-profile boost in visibility, with Baldwin and actress Asia Argento tweet-discussing the image.
“I found this pic of #romanpolanski #JamesToback and @AlecBaldwin last week,” Argento tweeted just before 2:30 pm ET today. “It’s so wrong it took me days to post it.”
Within an hour, Baldwin had responded, “But you realize I produced that doc and interviewed Roman BEFORE these recent allegations?”
“I do,” responded Argento. “I don’t blame you. I know it must feel awful to see yourself in that picture, not knowing you were chatting with 2 serial predators.”
The photograph was taken at Cannes when Baldwin and Toback were working on Seduced and Abandoned, a 2013 doc produced and directed by Toback, with Baldwin also producing. The inside-baseball doc chronicled the two men as they attempted to sell a film concept at the 2012 Cannes fest, and included a large cast of the actors and directors they encountered and interviewed, among them Ryan Gosling, Jessica Chastain, Martin Scorsese, Francis Ford Coppola, Bernardo Bertolucci – and Polanski.
In the tweet to Argento, Baldwin’s apparently referring to recent allegations from a California woman accusing Polanski of sexually assaulting her when she was 16 years old in 1973. Polanski left the U.S. in 1977 as he was awaiting sentencing for the rape of a 13-year-old girl.
Argento, of course, is one of the numerous women speaking out against Harvey Weinstein with charges of sexual harassment and, in some cases, abuse and rape.
The five-year-old photo of Baldwin, Toback and Polanski during the interview went viral after the October 26 Los Angeles Times article alleging Toback’s long history of sexual harassment. Since the article’s publication, LA Times reporter Glenn Whipp says more than 300 women have contacted him with claims about Toback.
Baldwin has yet to speak publicly about Toback, but yesterday he tweeted a message to Annabella Sciorra – “Reaching out” – the latest accuser of Harvey Weinstein.
“Thanks for reaching out,” Sciorra responded today, with any further conversation, so far, off Twitter.
.@ABFalecbaldwin Thanks for reaching out. https://t.co/8WtwSxyjgV
— Annabella Sciorra (@AnnabellSciorra) October 29, 2017
Reaching out to @AnnabellSciorra
— ABFoundation (@ABFalecbaldwin) October 29, 2017
But you realize I produced that doc and interviewed Roman BEFORE these recent allegations?
— AlecBaldwin (@AlecBaldwin) October 29, 2017
I found this pic of #romanpolanski #JamesToback and @AlecBaldwin last week. It's so wrong it took me days to post it pic.twitter.com/I4TcMaMmZ9
— Asia Argento (@AsiaArgento) October 29, 2017
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