Kevin Spacey ordered to pay $44m to House of Cards producers

Kevin Spacey has been ordered to pay House of Cards production company MRC nearly $31 million (A$44.5m) for alleged sexual misconduct.

Spacey, who played Frank Underwood, was kicked off the series during its sixth season after facing allegations that he had sexually assaulted and preyed upon young men, including a production assistant who said Spacey groped him.

He was also an executive producer on the show.

MRC had argued that Spacey owed them millions in lost profits because his misconduct forced them to remove him from the sixth season of the show, and it had to trim the season from 13 episodes to eight. An arbitrator found that Spacey’s behaviour constituted a material breach of his agreements, which was upheld by Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Mel Red Recana.

Earlier this year, Spacey’s attorneys claimed his behaviour amounted to nothing more than “sexual innuendos” and “innocent horseplay” and did not violate MRC’s anti-harassment policy.

Spacey was first accused of misconduct in 2017 when actor Anthony Rapp alleged that he made a sexual advance on him in 1986, when Rapp was 14. Further allegations would follow.

In May, Spacey was further charged with four counts of sexual assault and one count of “causing a person to engage in penetrative sexual activity without consent” by the U.K.’s Crown Prosecution Service.

Source: Variety