Speaking as a middle-aged woman, I can tell you that every year counts when you get to be in your mid-thirties, which means that she was even more beautiful a few years ago, when the alleged incident took place.
Unless there is a subsequent barrage of credible accusations against Ms. Argento from multiple people who claim to be her victims, I think the episode with her accuser can be chalked up to a major lapse in judgment for her and an unfortunate chapter for Me Too.
It is appropriate that she paid. He was underage.
However, it is also much more believable that she made a mistake than it is believable that Harvey Weinstein is not a serial predator.
This episode is also an indication of why assumptions about gender, sex and age need to be challenged and dealt with intelligently, which the entertainment industry specifically does not like to do. 17-year-old boys are not sex machines and 37-year-old women are not femmes fatales. The entertainment industry likes to sell caricatures, and I think it can be difficult for people who have spent a lot of time in that bubble to address issues of real life appropriately.
Let's also not forget that men are almost always bigger and stronger than women. Few cases of women allegedly sexually assaulting men are ever going to be credible according to a narrative of the man being afraid of suffering bodily harm for trying to defend himself.
As for the probability that Ms. Argento's denial of having had sexual contact with her accuser is a lie; do you know that former President Bill Clinton's statement, "I did not have sexual relations with that woman" generates an automatic search term at Google if all you write is "I did not ha"? For some reason, his extramarital affair while in office, and his initial lies about it, didn't permanently end everyone's ability to take him seriously.
Not to digress, but Chelsea Clinton has to be kidding with the title of her new children's book, "Start Now! You Can Make a Difference."