Two weeks after reports revealed Asia Argento was accused of sexually assaulting actor Jimmy Bennett, CNN has decided to pull reruns of Anthony Bourdain: Parts Unknown featuring the actress.
Argento was the girlfriend of the late chef, who committed suicide in June, and appeared in two episodes of the show filmed in Rome and Southern Italy. She also directed one episode in Hong Kong. All of the episodes have now been removed from CNN’s streaming service. “In light of the recent news reports about Asia Argento, CNN will discontinue airing past episodes of ‘Parts Unknown’ that included her, until further notice,” a CNN spokesperson told Buzzfeed News on Saturday.
Since the news that she "quietly arranged" to pay $380,000 to Bennett in hush money, Argento was also removed as a judge from the 12th season of the X Factor Italy.
According to the New York Times, the actress who helped spearhead the Hollywood push of the #MeToo movement had been accused of assaulting her The Heart Is Deceitful Above All Things co-star Bennett when he was 17 and she was 37 in 2013. She denied the accusations to NYT, but leaked texts later appeared to show her admitting to the incident.
Text messages provided by TMZ that were reportedly sent by Argento partially read, "I had sex with him and it felt weird. I didn’t know he was a minor until the shakedown letter. The public knows nothing, only what NYT wrote. Which is one-sided. The shakedown letter. The horny kid jumped me."
Bourdain and Argento met in 2016 while filming the season 8 Rome episode of Parts Unknown and began dating shortly after.
