Kevin Spacey to Pay $31M to House of Cards Studio


Last year, a referee ruled that Kevin Spacey and the production companies owed approximately $31 million to MRC, the studio behind the Netflix series “House of Cards,” after numerous sexual harassment allegations against the actress.

The confidential arbitration award, issued 13 months ago, was made public on Monday when MRC lawyers petitioned a California court to uphold the decision.

Mr. Spacey was once at the center of the hit Netflix series, which aired for six seasons between 2013 and 2018. Mr. Spacey played the main character, collaborator politician Frank Underwood, and executive produced the series.

While the sixth and final season was filming in 2017, actor Anthony Rapp accused Mr Spacey of making a movie. sexual progress towards him in 1986 when Mr. Rapp was 14 years old. MRC and Netflix mass production suspended while researching.

Mr. Rapp’s public accusation came just weeks after The New York Times and The New Yorker published articles about producer Harvey Weinstein, and the #MeToo movement was gaining momentum.

By December 2017, after further allegations Made against Mr Spacey, including by crew members MRC and Netflix from House of Cards fired the actor from the series.

In arbitration, MRC argued that Mr. Spacey’s behavior caused the studio to lose millions of dollars because it had already spent time and money developing, writing and shooting the final season. He also said that since the character of Mr. Spacey was written, it brought in less revenue as the season had to be shortened from 13 to eight episodes.

The arbitrator apparently agreed, awarding a prize of approximately $31 million, including compensatory damages and attorneys’ fees.

Mr Spacey’s lawyer declined to comment.

“The safety of our employees, sets and work environments is of paramount importance to MRC and that is why we set out to enforce accountability,” MRC said in a statement.



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