The actor Kevin Spacey has been ordered to pay more than $11 million in punitive damages to a television production company, it was announced today. The production company, The Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas, filed a lawsuit against Spacey in 2015 for failing to provide a safe working environment. The Emmy Award-winning actor is alleged to have harassed and assaulted crew members over the course of a six-month period, the Los Angeles Times reports. In its lawsuit, The Cosmopolitan claimed Spacey subjected women and men to sexual harassment, including drug taking and “unpleasant sexual advances,” during filming in Las Vegas. Spacey “intentionally, recklessly, and/or grossly negligently ignored nonconsensual acts of this nature,” the suit stated. He was accused of sexually assaulting Star Trek: Discovery actor Anthony Rapp in 1986 when Rapp was 14 years old. Spacey has also recently been accused of sexual assault by more than 30 women. One allegation involved the publication of a video of a teenager on the set of Mr. Robot in which Spacey was on video throwing the teen against a wall with one hand while holding her other hand in an open cast.
Spacey is an on-screen sleaze who made his career on one illicit act — with a minor — and I say: his problem isn’t the accusation of what he did; his problem is the consequences of the accusation. pic.twitter.com/e21dPrNGp6 — Rob Schneider (@RobSchneider) October 30, 2017
While this amounts to a surprising amount of damages, there is little reason to believe that they will be paid by Spacey. The actor is facing his own allegation of sexual assault by one individual, with the accusation having been investigated by Los Angeles police and determined to be baseless. Spacey himself has not been charged with any crime. Most experts believe that his tarnished reputation is enough to prevent him from accepting payment in the case, a theory backed up by his banishment from Netflix, which announced he was stepping away from the hit House of Cards series in November 2017 in the wake of the allegations against him. “Netflix will not be involved with any further production of House of Cards that includes Kevin Spacey,” the streaming network said in a statement at the time. “We will continue to work with MRC during this hiatus time to evaluate our path forward as it relates to the show.” So far, however, there is still no word on whether Spacey will ever be let back onto a Netflix show.
Read the full story at the Los Angeles Times.
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