Court Rulings Reveal Buzzfeed’s Shockingly Unethical Takedown Of Kevin Spacey
Buzzfeed deceived its readers with Adam Vary’s deeply unethical and intentionally incomplete journalism.
Academy Award-winning actor Kevin Spacey pleaded not guilty in U.K. court Thursday to charges of sexually assaulting three men at least a decade ago.
Spacey, 62, entered the plea at a hearing at London's Central Criminal Court, the Associated Press reported.
The famous actor — best known for his roles in "The Usual Suspects" and "American Beauty," as well as the hit Netflix series "House of Cards" — was charged with four counts of sexual assault in May and one count of "causing a person to engage in penetrative sexual activity without consent."
Spacey has denied all of the charges against him.
The assaults allegedly happened in London between March 2005 and August 2008 and one in western England in April 2013. During this time, Spacey was serving as the artistic director for London's Old Vic theater.
The alleged male victims are now in their 30s and 40s.
At a preliminary hearing in June, Spacey's attorney Patrick Gibbs said the actor "strenuously denies any and all criminality in this case." The presiding judge then granted Spacey bail and permitted him to return to the United States.
After deliberation on Thursday, Justice Mark Wall set a trial date of June 6, 2023. Spacey was permitted to remain on unconditional bail until then, allowing him to freely move in and out of the U.K. until his trial.
The scandal-plagued actor has said he is "confident" he will be able to prove his innocence in court.
Spacey's career went into turmoil beginning in 2017, when fellow actor Anthony Rapp accused Spacey of making sexual advances towards him at a party in the 1980s, when Rapp was just 14 years old. Spacey said at the time that he didn't remember the alleged incident, but he apologized for "deeply inappropriate drunken behavior."
However, shortly thereafter, filmmaker Tony Montana claimed that Spacey had groped him at a bar in Los Angeles in 2003. And Mexican actor Roberto Cavazos then alleged that Spacey would frequent the Old Vic theater in London, where he would "squeeze whoever caught his attention."
That year, the Old Vic acknowledged it had received 20 allegations against Spacey that spanned "a range of inappropriate behavior" while he was employed as artistic director.
These allegations against Spacey came at the height of the #MeToo movement, after disgraced Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein's predatory behavior was exposed. Spacey was subsequently written out of the final season of "House of Cards," and his role in Ridley Scott's 2017 film "All the Money in the World" was cut out of the film, while he was replaced by Christopher Plummer.
British prosecutors on Thursday announced multiple sexual assault charges against embattled American actor Kevin Spacey, including one charge of "causing a person to engage in penetrative sexual activity without consent."
In a press release, the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) claimed to have gathered enough evidence to charge Spacey, 62, with four counts of sexual assault against three men in the U.K. between 2005 and 2013, in addition to the non-consensual sexual activity charge.
Rosemary Ainslie, head of the CPS' Special Crime Division, said the charges followed her department's review of evidence gathered by London's Metropolitan Police.
Authorities made clear that the pronouncement of charges does not predetermine guilt and warned news outlets not to engage in any "reporting, commentary, or sharing of information online which could in any way prejudice these proceedings."
According to the release, two of the alleged assaults happened in London in March 2005 against one person. A third alleged assault and the alleged non-consensual sexual activity also happened in the U.K.'s capital city in August 2008 against a second man.
Then, a fourth sexual assault against a third man allegedly occurred in 2013 in Gloucestershire, a county approximately 100 miles west of London.
Spacey — a two-time Academy Award winner best known for his work in the movies "The Usual Suspects" and "American Beauty" and his television work in Netflix's "House of Cards" — spent considerable time in the U.K. between 2004 and 2015 while serving as artistic director for London's Old Vic theater.
His storied career abruptly came to an in 2017 after fellow actor Anthony Rapp accused him of assaulting him at a party in the 1980s. Rapp was only 14 years old at the time, NBC News reported.
Shortly after, Mexican actor Roberto Cavazos claimed the star would frequent the Old Vic's bar and "squeeze whoever caught his attention." Spacey has denied this and all previous allegations made against him.
That year, Old Vic acknowledged that it received 20 allegations of "inappropriate behavior" against Spacey during his tenure at the theater, all involving men.
According to the Associated Press, the new U.K. charges were announced as Spacey testified in a courtroom in New York City on Thursday for the civil lawsuit filed by Rapp.
The actor reportedly didn’t respond to reporters as he left the courthouse talking on his cell phone, and his lawyers declined to comment when the charges were brought up during a break in the testimony. As of Thursday afternoon, no public statement had been issued.