Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Mel Red Recana ordered Kevin Spacey (L.A Confidential) to pay $31 million to the production company that produced his hit Netflix drama series House Of Cards, MRC, after the company claimed he owed them millions in losses after they were forced to fire him from the show in light of his reported alleged sexual misconduct, according to Variety. The $31 million payment was determined by an arbitrator in 2021.
Spacey, who played Frank Underwood on House Of Cards, was first accused of alleged sexual misconduct when he was accused in a BuzzFeed article by actor Anthony Rapp (Rent) of an alleged unwanted sexual advancement in 2017. Rapp claimed that Spacey made the alleged unwanted sexual advancement towards him in 1986, when Rapp was 14 and Spacey was 26. Two days after the article was posted, production on the drama series was suspended.
Two days after production was suspended, as Variety notes, CNN released an article which contained multiple accusations of Spacey allegedly making crude comments and allegedly touching young male staffers non-consensually while on set.
MRC had argued that because they were forced to fire Spacey from the show during its sixth season due to his alleged sexual misconduct, they were forced to trim the amount of episodes of that season from 13 to eight, causing damages. The arbitrator agreed and found that Spacey breached his agreements as an actor and executive producer for the show.
In June, Spacey was charged with four counts of sexual assault and one count of “causing a person to engage in penetrative sexual activity without consent” by the United Kingdom’s Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) over five separate alleged incidents which allegedly occurred from 2005-2013.
Despite the charges and this new court ruling, Spacey will still be appearing in an upcoming thriller film titled Peter Five Eight, which is set to release later this year.