Actor Kevin Spacey will have to pay 27.5 million euros ($ 31 million) to the production company MCR, responsible for the series House of Cards, as compensation for breach of contract and to alleviate the damages caused by his behavior during the filming. The fine was approved by an arbitration court last year, it had been kept secret until this Monday, when the company filed a petition in the Superior Court of Los Angeles demanding payment of that amount. The sexual harassment allegations against Spacey and his subsequent firing occurred in 2017.

According to the newspaper The Hollywood Reporter (owned by MCR), the arbitration court found that the actor had breached the terms of his contract with his behavior, as he was accused of sexual harassment by a production assistant. The complaint came amid a wave of testimony against Spacey, a two-time Oscar winner, for Usual suspects (1995) and American Beauty (1999), who saw his career collapse in 2017 following the numerous accusations of sexual assault that he has always rejected. Spacey’s was one of the most notorious cases in the early days of the Me Too movement.

Until the scandal broke, Spacey was one of the most recognizable faces on new television thanks to his role as the Machiavellian Frank Underwood, the protagonist of House of Cards since 2013. In December 2017, the production company eliminated the character, completely rewritten its sixth season and reduced the number of episodes from 13 to 8 to meet the premiere date announced by Netflix. The company, responsible for other titles such as Ozark and The Shrink Next Door, alleged during the arbitration that the actor had not provided his services “in a professional manner” or in accordance with his behavior policies. His argument before the arbitration court focused on the economic loss caused by the dismissal, having to re-shoot a season that was already finished and, in addition, remove five episodes. Spacey appealed the referee’s ruling, but his request was denied this month.

The case has had various ramifications in these three years in which other accusations against the actor and some information about his past have been known. In 2019, his brother assured that both had been victims of his father’s abuse and blamed the actor’s environment for having protected him for 40 years. “I spent a large part of my childhood trying to protect my brother from being raped by my father, (…) and 40 years later I find out that he has become him,” Fowler said in the podcast Drew and Mike Show. “It’s disgusting, ”he added.

The actor’s last appearance was in the 2018 film Billionaire Boys Club, although next year he will return to the cinema with a small role in the Italian film The man who draw god (The man who designed God). In these years, Spacey, who has remained free at all times, has published several enigmatic videos on social networks playing the ruthless Frank Underwood, especially in an unusual Christmas greeting. He has also been seen as a tourist in Seville before the pandemic.

Two accusations against him came to court in 2019, but did not progress. In California, a masseur reported him for a sexual assault that allegedly occurred in 2016 but died before the prosecution filed charges; While in Massachusetts, a young man who had accused him of another assault in 2016 withdrew the charges, reports Efe.

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