Actor and #MeToo frontman Asia Argento accuses ‘Fast and Furious’ director Rob Cohen of sexual assault



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Italian actor and director Asia Argento accused director Rob Cohen of sexually assaulting her while she was filming the 2002 Cohen action movie “xXx” which also starred Vin Diesel and Samuel L. Jackson . As Variety reports, Argento told Italian newspaper Il Corriere della Sera that “[Cohen] abused me, making me drink GHB, he had a bottle of it. ”

GHB, or gamma-hydroxybutyrate, is a fast-acting anesthetic that has previously been used in rape.

“At the time, I really didn’t know what it was. I woke up in the morning naked in bed,” Argento told the newspaper. She confirmed the accusations to Variety in a text message on Sunday. She also said that a more detailed account of the events involving Cohen, who is also known for directing “The Fast and the Furious,” will appear in her upcoming memoir “Anatomy of a Wild Heart,” which will be released in Italy on Tuesday. .

Cohen has previously been charged with assault and sexual abuse. In 2019, her oldest child, Valkyrie Weather, accused her of assaulting her as a child.

“When I was very young, Rob used my body for his own sexual satisfaction,” Weather wrote in a public Facebook post. “My mother witnessed one of the assaults when I was between two and two and a half years old, and has since confirmed what she saw.”

Cohen’s first wife, Diana Mitzner, confirmed to The Hollywood Reporter that she witnessed the incident, while Cohen maintains that the accusations are “categorically false.” Several months later, an anonymous accuser – referred to as “Jane” by The Huffington Post – alleged in the publication that the filmmaker raped her in 2015, and that she “found herself regaining consciousness in her bedroom. Cohen’s hotel, naked, while the director sexually assaulted her. . ”

In response to a detailed list of questions from the Huffington Post regarding the incident, Cohen’s attorney Martin Singer sent a 13-page letter denying any wrongdoing.

“The proposed story is an outrageous defamatory hit play, making extremely offensive claims that my client has engaged in heinous sexual misconduct, criminal acts and other inappropriate behavior, which are hotly contested and denied. by my client, ”Singer wrote.

According to Variety, knowledge of these incidents prompted Argento to come forward. A representative for Cohen told Agence France-Presse on Friday that the charges against Cohen were “absolutely false.”

Argento became a leading figure in the #MeToo movement when she spoke out against disgraced film producer Harvey Weinstein in Ronan Farrow’s New York Bombshell “From Aggressive Overtures to Sexual Assault: Harvey Weinstein’s Accusers Tell their Stories “. Subsequently, Argento was charged with sexual assault by American actor Jimmy Bennett, who allegedly assaulted him in a hotel room in California in 2013, when he was 17. Argento publicly retaliated that Bennett “sexually assaulted” her and that the late partner Anthony Bourdain arranged to pay $ 380,000 as part of the settlement.

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