Asia Argento says she's now taking legal action against Rose McGowan.
The actress claims she contacted a law firm to go after McGowan after she declined to retract her statement regarding Argento and Jimmy Bennett. McGowan claimed in a statement last month that Argento had admitted to sleeping with Bennett, who has accused Argento of sexually abusing him as a minor.
"To @rosemcgowan. The 24hr deadline given to retract your recent false statements about me has now passed," Argento tweeted early Tuesday morning. "I must inform you & @raindovemodel that I've instructed Mishcon de Reya to seek substantial damages for deception, fraud, coercion and libel. You will hear from them shortly."
Argento initially threatened legal action against McGowan on Monday, telling the actress she was giving her 24 hours to "retract and apologise (sic) for the horrendous lies made against me."
McGowan issued the statement on Aug. 27, claiming Argento had told McGowan's partner, model Rain Dove, in a text message conversation that she slept with Bennett.
"(Dove) said that they had been texting with Asia and that Asia had revealed that she had indeed slept with Jimmy Bennet (sic)," reads the statement. "Rain also shared that Asia had stated that she'd been receiving unsolicited nudes of Jimmy since he had been 12. Asia mentioned in these texts that she didn't take any action on those images. No reporting to authorities, to the parents, or blocking of Jimmy's social media. Not even a simple message 'Don't send me these images. They are inappropriate.'"
McGowan put out her statement a little over a week after The New York Times reported Bennett had accused Argento of sleeping with him in 2013, when he was just 17. The age of consent in California, where the alleged act took place, is 18.
The report also stated that Argento _ a prominent voice in the #MeToo movement _ had quietly agreed to a $380,000 settlement with Bennett. Argento denied the accusation shortly after it became public, contending she never had a sexual relationship with Bennett.
She also claimed her late boyfriend Anthony Bourdain agreed to the settlement because he was worried about the "possible negative publicity" Bennett might bring.
A lawyer for Argento, meanwhile, has since claimed Bennett was the one who sexually attacked Argento, which Bennett's lawyer denies.
McGowan is also a leading voice in the #MeToo movement. She and Argento were among the first women to come forward with sexual assault allegations against Harvey Weinstein.
Bennett spoke out about his allegation against Argento for the first time last month, telling The New York Times in a statement that he didn't go public with his claims at first because he "believed there was still a stigma to being in the situation as a male in our society."
"I didn't think that people would understand the event that took place from the eyes of a teenage boy," he said.
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