Judge orders Kevin Spacey to pay nearly $31 million to ‘House of Cards’ production company
By Chloe Melas and Stella Chan, CNN
Kevin Spacey will have to pay almost $31 million to Media Rights Capital, the production company behind “House of Cards,” a judge has ruled. The actor starred in the Netflix series for five seasons before he was fired in 2017.
Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Mel Red Recana made the ruling earlier this week, confirming an award that had been decided by an arbitrator last year. CNN has obtained the court documents.
Spacey and MRC have been battling in the years since the actor was dismissed from the production over allegations of misconduct on and off the set.
Spacey starred as Frank Underwood on the Emmy-winning show, and MRC claims that having to cut him out of the sixth season of the show cost them millions of dollars and “rendered him (and his affiliated entities) liable.”
Spacey was fired from the TV show the day after CNN published its report in 2017, in which several current and former members of the “House of Cards” production staff came forward with allegations of sexual harassment. One person also accused Spacey, who was an executive producer on the series, of sexual assault.
Shortly before CNN’s report, actor Anthony Rapp told BuzzFeed News that the actor made a sexual advance toward him at a party in 1986 when he was 14 years old. MRC says it halted the production “to address any concerns of the show’s cast and crew” in wake of the allegations, according to a 2021 filing and previously reported by CNN.
Following Rapp’s claims, Spacey issued a statement claiming he did not recall the incident and apologized for what he said would have been “deeply inappropriate drunken behavior.”
The Oscar winner is facing a criminal trial in London next year after being accused of sexually assaulting three men between 2005 and 2013. Spacey pleaded not guilty in July.
CNN has reached out to Spacey’s attorneys for comment.
The-CNN-Wire
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