Asia Argento is threatening to sue Rose McGowan for saying she slept with an underage Jimmy Bennett

Erin Donnelly
·Yahoo Life Senior Editor

Will two women who once bonded over their shared experiences with Harvey Weinstein face each other in a courtroom?

On Monday morning Asia Argento issued a warning via tweet to Rose McGowan. Both women have accused Weinstein of rape but have since fallen out after Argento was accused of sexual assault by actor Jimmy Bennett stemming from an alleged 2013 encounter when he was 17. Argento has since admitted that she and then-boyfriend Anthony Bourdain agreed to pay Bennett a settlement, but she claims that it was Bennett who “sexually attacked” her.

McGowan, meanwhile, issued a statement in August distancing herself from her former #MeToo ally. The former Charmed star claimed that Argento admitted sleeping with Bennett when he was 17 and had been receiving “unsolicited nudes” — which she allegedly didn’t reject or try to stop — for years before that. McGowan identified her source as her romantic partner, model Rain Dove, who has also had conflicts with Argento since making their conversations public.

The two actresses and #MeToo allies in 2005. (Photo: J. Vespa/WireImage)
The two actresses and #MeToo allies in 2005. (Photo: J. Vespa/WireImage)

“[Dove] said that they had been texting with Asia and that Asia had revealed that she had indeed slept with Jimmy Bennet [sic],” McGowan said in her statement after addressing her former friendship with Argento, with whom she has matching tattoos. “Rain also shared that Asia had stated that she’d been receiving unsolicited nudes of Jimmy since he had been 12. 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.”

Now Argento is threatening to take “immediate legal action” if McGowan doesn’t apologize for the “horrendous lies” her statement allegedly included.

McGowan — last seen hitting the runway during Nicholas Kirkwood’s London Fashion Week show — has not yet publicly responded to the Italian star’s threat. Will she back down or call her lawyer?

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