Kevin Spacey Charged With Sexual Assault In Another Country
Just as actor Kevin Spacey appeared ready to try to make a comeback in the film industry, he has been hit with new sexual assault charges.
Kevin Spacey has been charged in the United Kingdom with four counts of sexual assault and one of “causing a person to engage in penetrative sexual activity without consent.” Per Variety, the decision to charge the actor was the result of a year-long investigation by the British prosecution agency Crown Prosecution Service (CPS). Its charges are based on its own review of an investigation begun by the Metropolitan Police. These are the latest charges of their kind against Kevin Spacey since a series of allegations against him began in 2017. As of this time, Kevin Spacey or his representatives have not yet issued any statements or comments on the UK charges.
In 2017, the actor Anthony Rapp publicly accused Kevin Spacey of making a sexual advance toward him while he was 14 and the American Beauty star was 26. According to Rapp, the incident occurred in 1986 and Spacey appeared intoxicated. The allegations from Rapp unleashed a series of further claims against Kevin Spacey, with at least a dozen people claiming sexual misconduct or assault. This included a parent who alleged the actor had assaulted her son and a number of people who worked on the Netflix series House of Cards, which Spacey starred on at the time.
Eventually, the Los Angeles District Attorney’s office announced they were opening an investigation into Kevin Spacey; in the United Kingdom, Scotland Yard revealed there were a number of ongoing investigations into the actor. In 2018, Spacey was charged with a felony for allegedly sexually assaulting an 18-year-old in 2016; the individual in question also filed a civil lawsuit against the actor, which he later dismissed with prejudice. The criminal charge was later dropped by prosecutors, and following the death of an accuser in a different case, there were briefly no open cases against Kevin Spacey.
The idea of “cancel culture” is very much being currently debated and how much effect it actually has on those accused, particularly the rich and famous. Kevin Spacey was one of the first celebrities to be accused of sexual misconduct following the very high profile case surrounding Miramax co-founder Harvey Weinstein and swiftly saw himself removed from House of Cards, a Ridley Scott film, and a number of canceled projects. During the course of the initial allegations, he publicly came out as a gay man, which was widely seen as an attempt to distract from the accusations, and later recorded a bizarre series of YouTube videos with himself in character as Frank Underwood from House of Cards.
Despite Kevin Spacey’s comparative low profile and the number of allegations made against him, it has recently appeared that he is trying to make a comeback. The actor was recently announced to star in a Peter Soos-directed film titled 1242 – Gateway to the West and another directed by Michael Zaiko Hall titled Peter Five Eight. It is currently unknown if these newest charges from the United Kingdom will have any effect on his upcoming projects. We will update with more information as it becomes available.
