Spacey: Getting Away With It

In a civilized society, a person is innocent until proven guilty. That applies to everyone, including Kevin Spacey. Even if there are numerous, persistent allegations that form a recognizable pattern in his life.

This article gathers some disturbing information on Spacey, not out of lack of appreciation for his distinguished work, but because of some associations he made in life, and because the visible price he has been paying for his alleged appetites help paint a picture of our artistic establishment.

"I think people just like me evil for some reason. They want me to be a son of a bitch."

His career is not the focus of this piece, but suffice to say between a few classics, some blockbusters and many flops, Spacey won two Oscars and a myriad other awards, having established himself as one of the top players in his trade.

Whether it was small-time conman Verbal Kint revealed to be criminal mastermind Keyser Söze in The Usual Suspects, or the corrupt House 'Whip' turned into murderous criminal president Frank Underwood in House of Cards, there is a common element at play, here.

He often played the man that could get away with it.

But now, his actions seem to have caught up with him.

Kevin Spacey Fowler was born in New Jersey, but grew up in Southern California. His family may or may not have influenced the kinds of problems he is having now. How? His older brother, Randy, from whom Spacey is estranged, stated that their father was sexually and physically abusive.

Was that true? We can't know for sure, but while Spacey has denied his brother's allegations and described his father as a "very normal, middle-class man", we also can note that he decided to use his mother's family name, Spacey, and not his father's Fowler.

Throughout his thirty year career across film, television, and theater, Spacey has mostly refused to indulge in revelations of a personal nature, and tried to keep the media holophotes out of his intimacy.

'Everybody has the right to a private life no matter what their professions are.'

His sexuality, mostly, was a guarded secret never to be discussed. 'I chose for a long time not to answer these questions because of the manner in which they were asked, and because I was never talking to someone I trusted, so why should I? Recently I chose to participate because it's a little hard on the people I love.'

The Hollywood star has developed deep ties to England, where he took the job as the artistic director of the traditional Old Vic theatre.

He promised both to appear on stage and to bring in big-name talent to the productions, but while the critics applauded his acting and his taking on the management of a theatre, they also noted that his skills and judgment as a producer/manager had yet to develop.

In 2008, Spacey started the Kevin Spacey Foundation, in the UK, to "encourage youth involvement in the arts'. It provided grants to help young people study the arts. [The foundation was to be shut down in 2018 following his involvement in sexual misconduct allegations.]

His cultural and charitable in England led him to become acquainted with celebrities and luminaries of the upper class, and ultimately his being a KBE Knight by the Royal Crown.

He was held in such high regard, that Prince Andrew allegedly wanted Spacey to help clear his name by telling a jury - in the Virginia Roberts sex assault lawsuit - that Ghislaine Maxwell was Spacey's guest (not Andrew's) during a tour of Buckingham Palace in 2002 that was arranged for former US president Bill Clinton and other VIPs. 

A photo shows Maxwell and Spacey smiling as they sit on the Queen's and Prince Philip's Coronation thrones.

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Back in the US, the media fawned over his bromance with President Bill Clinton.

“We, in fact, have spent so much time together that sometimes I even become him,” Spacey has said in the celebration the 10th anniversary of the William J. Clinton Presidential Center.

A democratic donor, he met Bill Clinton in the White House, and a real bond seemed to have emerged. They were always talking on the phone, collaborating often on philanthropic work.

After leaving office, Clinton brought the movie star into his work with the shady Clinton Foundation.

One of the most troublesome instances of their collaboration is the five-day swing through Africa in which he and fellow actor Chris Tucker accompanied Bill Clinton, Jeffrey Epstein, Ghislaine Maxwell and their merry band of trafficked girls.

The public agenda was to promote efforts to fight AIDS, and joined Nelson Mandela onstage to address a crowd of teenagers about H.I.V. awareness.

What really happened in this trip is still a bit of a mystery.

Allegations and investigations.

2017: Spacey, who was then playing president Frank Underwood in House of Cards to great success, 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 in the series who said Spacey groped him.

Anthony Rapp

1986: intoxicated 26-year-old Spacey allegedly sexually assaults Anthony Rapp, who is then 14 years old.

Spacey invited the underage actor to a party at his home. At the end of the evening, a drunk Spacey picked him up "like a groom picks up the bride over the threshold", put him on the bed, and forcibly held him down. "He was trying to seduce me," Rapp said. "He was trying to get with me sexually."

As the story broke in 2017, Spacey declared not to remember the incident, and wrote: he owed Rapp "the sincerest apology for what would have been deeply inappropriate drunken behavior" if he had indeed behaved as asserted. If.

The floodgates were opened: no less than fifteen other people came forward, including Boston anchorwoman Heather Unruh, who alleged that Spacey sexually assaulted her son;  filmmaker Tony Montana; actor Roberto Cavazos; Richard Dreyfuss's son Harry; and EIGHT people who worked on House of Cards.

In the UK, "a number of people" also came forward in the press, alleging that Spacey "groped and behaved in an inappropriate way with young men" when he worked as artistic director of the Old Vic theatre.

His career took a mortal blow. He was fired from projects, scrapped from Ridley Scott's film, cancelled across the board.

Spacey decided it was finally time to play his 'gay card', and came out as gay when apologizing to Rapp. "I have had relationships with both men and women. I have loved and had romantic encounters with men throughout my life, and I choose now to live as a gay man."

The blowback from the gay community was ferocious, and he was severely criticized for using his drunkenness as an excuse for making a sexual advance on a minor, making a connection between homosexuality and child sexual abuse.

Legal troubles

2018: LA District Attorney investigated an allegation that Spacey had sexually assaulted an man back in 1992.

Three more allegations were revealed by Scotland Yard, bringing the total number of open investigations in the UK to six.

Lawsuit filed at LA Superior Court claimed that Spacey assaulted a masseur at a house in Malibu, California, in October 2016.

Spacey was charged with a felony for allegedly sexually assaulting a 18-year-old in Massachusetts, in 2016. The man filed a lawsuit claiming emotional damages. In 2019, the plaintiff voluntarily dismissed the claims with prejudice, which led to the criminal assault charge against Spacey also being dropped.

When the anonymous massage therapist who accused him died, the last criminal case against Spacey was closed. It seemed that he was indeed the man who can get away with it. But was he, really?

In 2020, Rapp sued Spacey for sexual assault, sexual battery, and intentional infliction of emotional distress under the Child Victims Act.

Finally, in 2022, Spacey was charged in the UK with four counts of sexual assault and one count of “causing a person to engage in penetrative sexual activity without consent” (i.e. rape).

The actor is out on unconditional bail, has denied all allegations of sexual offense, pled not-guilty to the charges, and his case will go to trial.

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In 2020, Spacey and his production companies were ordered by an arbitrator to pay $31 million to MRC, the studio that produced House of Cards, for violating its sexual harassment policy with respect to FIVE “House of Cards” crew members, and for the costs involved in removing him from the series.

This decision was confirmed in May 2022 by Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Mel Red Recana. I guess we can say that he has literally started to pay a hefty price for his behavior.

In a civilized society, it is agreed that a person is held to be innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. That applies to everyone, including Hollywood star Kevin Spacey.

A person is held to be innocent until proven guilty even if there are numerous, persistent allegations that form a recognizable pattern in his life - and there are.

Is he the man who gets away with it? Time will tell.