It’s the definition of irony: the leader of the #MeToo movement is being accused of sexually assaulting a younger former co-star 5 years ago.

Asia Argento, once considered a hero for her public accusations against Harvey Weinstein and leading the famed movement, has fallen from grace after an anonymous party sent an encrypted email to the New York Times. The email described how she had sexually assaulted actor Jimmy Bennet in a Ritz-Carlton hotel in Marina Del Rey, California.

According to the email sent to Times, The actress reportedly had “[given] him alcohol to drink and showed him a series of notes she had written to him on hotel stationery. Then she kissed him, pushed him back on the bed, and [went on to assault him].”

The email also revealed a series of documents displaying an arrangement of payments that added up to $380,000 that the actress paid as “hush money.”

“It’s disgusting that she had the audacity to do this and pay him off. It proves that not everyone is who they seem to be, ” said Alexander Prevost (‘20).

While women are more associated with sexual assault, cases like that of Jimmy Bennet’s where men get assaulted are not uncommon.

Statistics show that since 1998, 2.78 million men in the U.S. had been victims of attempted or completed rape.

“I think people should care more about guys who have been sexually assaulted. It’s still great that [Asia] started the movement , but she’s not the greatest person,” said Lindsay Otto (‘20)

Actress Rose McGowan was also reportedly informed on the incident. She had been receiving text messages and phone calls from a model named Rain Dove who stated that Asia had texted him beforehand that “she’d been receiving unsolicited nudes of Jimmy since he had been 17.” 

Asia also mentioned in these texts that she didn’t take any action on those images. She never reported to the authorities, to the parents, or had done any blocking of Jimmy’s social media.

Dove told FOX News that he had “talked to her and asked her how much of it was BS and how much of it was real. She said she was completely 100 percent innocent, and she just wanted to get back on track to being an activist in the community.”

He later “offered to help walk her through the process of what she would need in order to clear her name.”

Dove says that during the process “it became increasingly apparent that this individual was not only not telling the truth, but…didn’t intend on ever telling the truth to the public.”

“By the end of it, we went from, ‘Never slept with anyone and did not do anything’ to ‘I slept with this person. I’ve received nude images from them for years and didn’t report them and/or asked them to stop, and I’ve continued my communications with this person in a sexual manner.”

“I just don’t know how she could be forgiven or come back from this. To be proven to committing the same act that she had spoken about? She’s gone down a path that’s impossible to come up from” said Hannah Welch (‘21).

Argento is now facing $3.5 million dollars in damage for intentional infliction of emotional distress, lost wages, assault and battery.