The Latest on the Kevin Spacey Allegation

Unless you’ve been living under a rock for the past couple of days, you’ll know that Kevin Spacey, an Oscar-winning actor, has been accused of sexually harassing a young boy thirty years ago.

Star Trek actor Anthony Rapp accused Spacey following an avalanche of sexual assault and rape allegations against film mogul Harvey Weinstein made by over fifty women. Rapp told Buzz Feed that he had been sexually harassed when he was 14-years-old and at a party at the then 26-year-old’s home.

In the report, Mr Rapp said: “He [Spacey] picked me up like a groom picks up the bride over the threshold. But I don’t, like, squirm away initially, because I’m like, ‘What’s going on?’ And then he lays down on top of me.”

“He was trying to seduce me. I don’t know if I would have used that language. But I was aware that he was trying to get with me sexually.”

In response to the allegation, Spacey made an apology on social media, saying he was “horrified” to hear the claim and said: “if I did behave then as he [Rapp] describes, I owe him the sincerest apology for what would have been deeply inappropriate drunken behaviour, and I am sorry for the feelings he describes having carried with him all these years”.

Spacey, who plays ruthless politician Frank Underwood in critically-acclaimed Netflix series House of Cards and starred in the iconic American Beauty, also used the opportunity to come out, something that has been rightly heavily criticised by many, including the LGBTQ+ community.

He said he now chooses to “live as a gay man” after having “romantic relationships” with “both men and women” throughout his life – something that has to be said bears no relevance to the claims made by Rapp whatsoever.

Since then, Spacey’s brother, Randall Fowler, told The Daily Mail that their father was a neo-Nazi and repeatedly raped Fowler when he was a child and abused his siblings, causing Spacey to emotionally “withdraw”. While this story in no way excuses what Spacey has been accused of, it perhaps gives insight as to the psychology behind it. It appears to be a very tragic story now of unnecessary abuse that has spanned not just one lifetime, but two, if indeed both allegations are true.

Netflix has said the allegations against Spacey are “deeply troubling” and they have announced that House of Cards will end with Series Six next year, a decision that was reportedly made last year and is not to do with Mr Rapp’s claim.