US actor Kevin Spacey arrived in a London courtroom on Wednesday morning for the start of a long-awaited trial for 12 sexual assaults against multiple men between 2001 and 2013, which he “vehemently denies”. , for “American Beauty” (1999) and “The Usual Suspects” (1995), arrived at Southwark Crown Court, in south London, more than two hours before the start of the first hearing, scheduled for 10:30 am. dark suit, blue shirt and pink tie, Spacey, 63 years old, got out of a taxi accompanied by two people from his team and relaxedly greeted the various journalists who were waiting for him at the courthouse doors. and whose first hearing, on Wednesday, could be exclusively devoted to procedural issues. The Hollywood star was accused in November by the British prosecutor of seven sexual assaults between 2001 and 2004, against a man whom she forced, among other things, ” to participate in a non-consensual sexual relationship”. Vic, London. None of the alleged victims can be identified under English law.
“Defending Your Innocence”
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In one of several preliminary hearings held before the official opening of the case, lawyer Patrick Gibbs assured that “Spacey vehemently denies any type of criminality” and hopes to “defend his innocence”. released without precautionary measures, which allowed him to continue working, although his career was severely affected by these charges and others previously launched in the US of which he was acquitted. In January, in the Italian city of Turin, he received the “La Estrella” award from the Mole Antonelliana, a public institution that houses the National Cinema Museum, “as a sign of recognition” for his “aesthetic and authorial contribution to the development of art dramatic”.
#MeToo movement
Spacey was one of the big stars caught up in the global #MeToo movement, which emerged in 2017 from the case of the all-powerful American film producer Harvey Weinstein. destroyed his successful career. He always denied the accusations, but this led him to reveal his homosexuality. As a result of the accusations, he was fired from the hit Netflix series “House of Cards”, where he played the main character, the Machiavellian President of the USA, Frank Underwood He was also left out of a Ridley Scott movie, “All the Money in the World”, in which he was replaced by Canadian actor Christopher Plummer. Spacey was initially accused in the state of Massachusetts of putting his hands in the private parts of a young man. 18 years old in a bar in July 2016, but those charges were dropped in 2019. Last October, a New York court acquitted him in a civil lawsuit for allegedly having sexually touched actor Anthony Rapp, 36 years earlier, during a night in Manhattan. In October 2020, he was ordered to pay nearly $31 million to MRC, producer of “House of Cards”, as compensation for the loss of revenue attributed to his departure from the series. A Los Angeles judge upheld that compensation last August.