Brendan McDermid/Reuters
The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department said Monday that detectives are “reaching out” to the young actor who’s accused Asia Argento of sexual assault, The Los Angeles Times reports. According to Capt. Darren Harris, the department has not received a report but is looking into the matter in an attempt to “interview the parties involved.” The New York Times reported that Argento paid her accuser $380,000 after he alleged that she sexually assaulted him in a California hotel room in 2013. The actor, who worked with Argento in The Heart Is Deceitful Above All Things, was 17 at the time of the alleged incident, and the age of consent in California is 18.
Argento became a prominent voice of the #MeToo movement after alleging that she was raped by disgraced producer Harvey Weinstein when she was 21. “This development reveals a stunning level of hypocrisy by Asia Argento, one of the most vocal catalysts who sought to destroy Harvey Weinstein,” a statement from Weinstein’s attorney, Benjamin Brafman, read. A lawyer for Argento’s accuser, Gordon K. Sattro, said that his client needed “some time and space... to prepare his response” to the report. Since the news of her settlement broke, other prominent #MeToo voices have distanced themselves from Argento.