US Actor of the hit Netflix show House of Cards, Kevin Spacey, has been ordered to pay $31m (£23.2m) to the owners of the studio following breach of contract after several allegations of sexual abuse were levelled against the actor. The order was made public on Monday after a court petition was filed for the same by MRC studio.
A document from the Los Angeles court submitted for the Judge’s approval said the actor had violated terms of his contract by involving in “certain conduct in connection with several crew members in each of the five seasons that he starred in and executive produced House of Cards”. The court’s ruling was made last year.
Kevin Spacey had faced a series of allegations after 2017. He was one of the first actors in Hollywood to be publicly accused of misconduct during the Harvey Weinstein Scandal and the #MeToo movement. The actor was removed from the Netflix show amidst allegations while Netflix and MRC had to rewrite the Show script, halt the production of the sixth season and then shorten the season to 8 episodes from the previous 13 episodes.
MRC said in its statement, “The safety of our employees, sets and work environments is of paramount importance to MRC and why we set out to push for accountability.” The studio had said that it had lost millions of dollars because of the actor’s misconduct and breach of the contract as the final show was already under development.
Plaintiff attorney Michael Kump noted, “MRC stood its ground, pursued this case doggedly, and obtained the right result in the end.”
Notably, Kevin Spacey was accused of making sexual advances towards actor Anthony Rapp in 1986 when Mr Rapp was 14. Spacey said in his statement that he did not remember anything about the incident but apologized. Independent investigations revealed several cases of harassment of people working under him. Spacey had lost many of his acting roles and projects after the allegations including the popular Netflix show House of Cards where he played the role of Frank Underwood, a congressman who wanted to become President.
