Anthony Bourdain is dating Italian film star Asia Argento — here's what to know about his new lady

Anthony Bourdain was recently spotted out and about with a new lady on his arm: 41-year-old Asia Argento. Italian magazine Chi ran pics of the pair hand-in-hand in Rome; Bourdain wrote in December that the Parts Unknown he filmed in Rome “would not have been possible — or be anything like it is, without the truly magnificent Asia Argento.” Here’s a quick primer on Ms. Argento.

1. She’s Italian cinema royalty

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Argento’s dad is Dario Argento, who’s responsible for (among dozens of other films) the 1977 horror classic Suspiria, widely hailed as one of the most influential and visually striking shockers ever made. He used to read her his scripts as bedtime stories, and her mother, Daria Nicolodi, was, uh, frequently killed in the films. “My father did horror movies and my mother was always being killed in these movies,” she told Swindle in 2007. “But my childhood was not as extreme as you would think.”

2. She started acting at the age of 9

Asia started acting in her father’s films before she was 10, and won the David di Donatello award (Italy’s version of an Oscar) in 1994 and 1996 for Perdiamoci di vista and Campagna di viaggio, respectively, though she’s probably best known to American audiences as Yelena in 2002’s xXx.

3. She’s also got a hand in the music world

Argento released an album entitled Total Entropy in 2013, which features — among others — the Brian Jonestown Massacre’s Anton Newcombe. She also wrote the storyline for “Phoenix,” a short film starring Michael K. Williams taken from ASAP ROcky’s album Long. Live. ASAP.

4. She’s got a family of her own

Image zoom Vincenzo Lombardo/Getty

Argento lives with her daughter, Anna Lou (age 15), whom she had with Italian musician Marco Castoldi. She married film director Michele Civet in 2008 and had a child, Nicola, with him that same year, though they later divorced.

5. She’s rather extensively inked

Image zoom Venturelli/Getty