Actress Asia Argento feels like she was victimized twice: first by Harvey Weinstein and now by the Italian media who have shamed her for coming forward.
Asia Argento and Anthony Bourdain
The actress revealed to Italy’s RAI networkWednesday that she’d been shamed by press in her home country, notably by Italian newspaper Libero, which argued that “sexual blackmail [is] a rite of passage for actresses,” and that Argento’s relationship with Weinstein was “prostitution, not rape.”
“[I] felt doubly crucified,” Argento, 42, said of the reaction to her rape accusations.
One Libero headline about Weinstein victims, including Argento, translates to, “First I give it away, then I whine and pretend to repent.”
The article also pointedly featured racy photos of the star from her 2007 film “Go Go Tales” instead of current photos or movie stills.
Argento has gone so far as to leave Italy for Berlin to escape the media, though she admitted she may eventually return to her home country “for vacation” when tensions die down.
“I am being shamed by the Italian media, which is medieval,” Argento fumed to Variety. “Until the ‘60s [in Italy] you could kill your wife and it was called murder of honor, if she had cheated … Until 1996 rape was considered a crime against morals, not against a person.”
Argento also tweeted that she plans on suing Libero, Italy’s Radio 24 and other outlets for defamation of character.
Last week, Argento told the New Yorker that when she was 21, the disgraced producer forced oral sex on her despite her urging him to stop, and that she engaged in sexual acts with him for the next five years out of fear he would end her career if she didn’t cave in to his carnal demands.
Weinstein, through his attorneys, denied any non-consensual sex occurred.