She’s following the first rule of crisis PR: When things look really bad, blame it on your now-dead boyfriend who just committed suicide.
Argento’s going to force #MeToo observers to wrestle with a hard question. Why should they give other sexual-assault victims the benefit of the doubt on their accusations but not her alleged victim? Is it a matter of numbers, i.e. there are 100 women accusing Harvey Weinstein versus one lone man accusing Argento? Or is it a matter of Argento supposedly being more credible because she’s spoken out passionately on victims’ behalf?
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Jimmy Bennet (Left), John Robinson and Asia Argento at "The Heart is Deceitful Above All Things" wrap party in 2003. |
Neither one works. It can’t be that extolling #MeToo is a talismanic presumption of innocence on assault charges in the court of public opinion or else every pervert in the world will suddenly be a cheerleader for #MeToo. And it can’t be a pure numbers game, or else anyone who’s accused of assaulting “just” one person is exempt from the “Believe the victims!” rallying cry.
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Asia Argento and Anthony Bourdain |
If you want to beat back an accusation, explain with particulars why it’s false. She doesn’t do that here. What she does — and tell me if this sounds familiar — is attack the alleged victim as a greedy blackmailing liar looking for an easy payday.
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEidbabkokIiOCQzAqNyalzrE-yZMQbsF1UWP8YfjnqxEJ5uRuhtpclSsy6S2o9haOh4bZp9Hg_BqgcNUXvdzTJSozn2zxEWvwlht7UL9mWXiI6VsilwrGmLM2-KEdZc26U2yYBGxVxKGOvX/s320/asia_argento_03.jpg)
Well, Anthony can't complain, right?
Bennett was “undergoing severe economic problems,” she says (the NYT story yesterday noted that he had sued his parents over his earnings a few years before), and therefore she and Bourdain decided to “deal compassionately” with his demand for money. So they cut him a check for … $380,000, which was a lot of money to Bourdain and Argento. One of the shocking details revealed after his death a few months ago was that he wasn’t worth nearly as much as most people thought a TV star and author might be. His estate was valued at all of $1.2 million.
Which means, if it’s true that Bourdain picked up the tab for Bennett’s payoff, he gave the kid a quarter of his net worth. Does that seem likely?
Wombat-socho is going Asian with "Rule 5 Sunday: Mariya Takeuchi" .
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