Things are getting even more heated between Asia Argento and Rose McGowan, once thick as thieves amid the #MeToo movement: Argento has now demanded McGowan retract the statement she made Aug. 27 regarding sexual assault allegations against Argento. "Dear @RoseMcGowan. It is with genuine regret that I am giving you 24 hours to retract and apologise for the horrendous lies made against me in your statement of August 27th," Argento tweeted Monday. "If you fail to address this libel I will have no option other than to take immediate legal action." Former child actor Jimmy Bennett says Argento had sex with him when he was 17 and she was 37; Argento initially denied the accusation, but earlier this month, after getting a new lawyer, she changed her strategy and accused Bennett of sexually assaulting her, USA Today reports.
It was McGowan's partner, model Rain Dove, who reported Argento's texts about the alleged encounter with Bennett to law enforcement. (Those same texts were also leaked to the press, but Rain Dove and McGowan deny any involvement in that.) In a previous tweet on Sept. 7, Argento had called on McGowan to change her tune, and included a screenshot of an apparent tweet from Rain Dove that, Argento said, had since been deleted; it reads, per Us Weekly and E! Online, "It was my mistake in interpreting the texts. You can tell even when I’m writing to Asia I thought she meant that he had been sending nudes since 12. But indeed it’s 17. Still underage nudes received. That was my mistake. I clarified that in the press and owned that." Argento wrote, "It is a shame that @rosemcgowan is not prepared to accept when she is wrong. @raindovemodel accepted she was wrong, but her tweet has been deleted. Rose's statement continues to make false claims." (Rain Dove prefers nongendered pronouns.)