Kevin Spacey ordered to pay ‘House of Cards’ creators $31 MILLION for lost revenue

Celebrated but now-disgraced actor Kevin Spacey has been ordered to pay the creators of “House of Cards” nearly $31 million for losses that were incurred after Spacey was fired in 2017 amid allegations of sexual assault.

Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Mel Red Recana ruled that MRC and Netflix, along with other production companies associated with the series, will be awarded $30.9 million in lost profits. Recana wrote in his ruling that Spacey’s attorneys “fail to demonstrate that this is even a close case” and “do not demonstrate that the damages award was so utterly irrational that it amounts to an arbitrary remaking of the parties’ contracts.”

“We are pleased with the court’s ruling,” MRC attorney Michael Kump said in an email.

The two-time Oscar winner for “The Usual Suspects” and “American Beauty” pleaded not guilty in July to five counts of sexual assault and his case will go to trial in the U.K. where the alleged incidents took place.

(Video: Daily Mail)

In the civil trial on American soil, an independent arbitrator found that Spacey violated his contract by “engaging certain conduct in connection with several crew members in each of the five seasons that he starred in and executive produced House of Cards,” a filing by Kump read.

MRC argued that Spacey owed them millions in lost profits from the once hugely-successful series. They say the sexual assault charges against the star gave them no choice but to fire him and prevented them from making the sixth season of the show as planned. Instead, the season was written to exclude him and only eight episodes were filmed rather than the customary 13, the Daily Mail reported.

But Spacey’s attorneys argued the decision to move forward without the actor was reached before the alleged victims made their accusations known, therefore, no contract was ever breached.

The charges against the 63-year-old stem from his tenure as the director of the Old Vic theater in London from 2014 to 2015. The incidents of sexual assault, including one for penetrative sexual activity without consent, allegedly occurred between March 2005 and August 2008, while one is said to have taken place in 2013. His three accusers are now in their 30s and 40s. If that weren’t enough, actor Anthony Rapp also accused Spacey of assaulting him at a party in the 1980s when Rapp was a teenager, the U.S. trial of which is set for October 2022.

For five seasons on “House of Cards,” Spacey played Frank Underwood, an unscrupulous power-hungry congressman who eventually becomes POTUS. The allegations leveled against him came during the height of the #MeToo movement, so whether they are true are not, Spacey was doomed from that point on.

Spacey, who maintains residences in both London and the U.S., was granted bail and allowed to return to the states after a preliminary hearing in June. Another hearing is scheduled for early 2023. If found guilty of the most serious offense, the actor could face life in prison, whereas if he is convicted only of sexual assault, he faces up to six months in jail and/or unlimited fines.

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