Kevin Spacey
He escaped a $30 million fine
Kevin Spacey has reason to be happy.
© imago images/Maciek Musialek
The dispute over Kevin Spacey’s expulsion from the political series “House of Cards” is developing into a thriller with a satirical touch.
As rapidly as Kevin Spacey’s (64) Hollywood star has fallen in the wake of the #MeToo movement, his recent successes in court have been great: he was found not guilty of sexual harassment in several cases in both London and New York found. Spacey was able to avoid another existence-threatening legal dispute involving damages amounting to $31 million According to the US site “Variety”, they are now also turning away from themselves.
Spacey was actually in the summer of 2022 been ordered to do so by a courtto pay this sum to the production company of the Netflix series “House of Cards”. The reason was that Spacey had violated MRC’s sexual harassment policy and was therefore in breach of contract. Because he was then fired and the already planned sixth season had to be completely rewritten, the damage in question was in the double-digit million range.
According to the new reports, the actor has now been able to significantly reduce this amount. So now he only has to pay one million dollars to the production company MRC and has several years to do so. From the plaintiffs’ point of view, the fact that he was given a $30 million fine was probably largely for pragmatic reasons – Spacey has hardly been an actor in recent years, and as a result his income has probably been marginal recently.
Who will now be asked to pay?
The company is now trying to collect the outstanding sum in another way: Instead of the actor, an insurance company with which cast insurance was taken out as part of the “House of Cards” production is to be asked to pay. This generally protects productions should one of the cast members become too ill to continue filming.
The argument in Spacey’s case: After the allegations, he went to a facility for people with sex addiction, so he was sick and therefore unable to work. Insurance cover should therefore have taken effect. This conclusion had already been rejected during the course of the trial, but was now given new impetus – especially by Spacey.
He had originally shown little willingness to allow access to his medical files. However, thanks to the settlement he made with the production company MRC, his motivation in this regard increased radically. According to Variety, Spacey has already testified in the insurance claim, had doctors examine him for both parties to the dispute and disclosed his health records.
The aim is now to prove that Spacey also suffered from depression due to the allegations and was therefore unable to work. The other side is now extremely irritated by this claim and describes it as “on the verge of absurdity”.