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Actor Spacey (in front of a London court in 2023): Cooperation in insurance litigation

Photo: WIktor Szymanowicz / Future Publishing / Getty Images

Kevin Spacey will pay $1 million in compensation to the production company MRC, which was behind the hit TV series “House of Cards.” This settles the allegations that the actor sexually harassed young male crew members, reports the US industry magazine “Variety”.

Spacey was written out of the show's final season in 2017. In the case, he was ordered to pay $31 million in damages. An arbitration tribunal found that Spacey had violated the code of conduct contractually agreed with the production company MRC. MRC would be entitled to the costs of redesigning the series without him.

As the "Variety" report goes on to say, the 64-year-old actor is said to have agreed to pay off the amount of one million dollars over several years - in installments that would correspond to ten percent of his income after taxes. In addition, in the settlement MRC secured Spacey's cooperation in another procedure: against the series' insurance company.

In April 2022, according to Variety, MRC sued the companies Fireman's Fund and Lloyd's of London. The basis was the assumption that there was insurance against Spacey's absence from the series. In this case, after initial reports of his alleged misconduct became known, Spacey checked into a clinic in Arizona that treats cases of sex addiction. According to the producers, this means that the illness clause in the insurance contracts has been fulfilled.

New complaint diagnosis: restlessness and depression

However, the lawsuit has already been dismissed by a judge twice, in April and November 2023. In the case of Lloyd's, according to Variety, the process is now over, but in the case of Fireman's, MRC wants to try again with an improved statement of claim. Apparently the judge had criticized the fact that it had not yet been explained what specific suffering Spacey had and how it had prevented him from acting.

Kevin Spacey had previously resisted releasing his medical records for the procedure. But now that the deal has been made, Spacey is said to be willing to testify in the insurance case, be examined by doctors from both parties and submit his medical documents. The magazine “Puck” first reported on the deal.

Thanks to this new information, MRC's amended statement of claim against Fireman's, filed on January 2, stated that Spacey was being treated for agitation and depression. That's why he wasn't available for film production.

The insurance company's lawyers now complained about a 180-degree turnaround in MRC's argument: in the compensation process, the production company still claimed that it had removed Spacey from "House of Cards" because of the abuse allegations, not because he was ill. "After years of trying to find a theoretically viable way to claim the money, they have completely lost sight of what actually happened," Variety quotes a document as saying. The insurance company is therefore calling on the production company to return to the facts.

In an interview with the former presenter of the conservative US broadcaster Fox, Tucker Carlson, Spacey, in his “House of Cards” role Frank Underwood, once again commented on the case. Carlson shared the video on the X platform on Christmas Eve 2023, after the rumored date of the agreement between MRC and Spacey. In the interview, Spacey sharply attacked the streaming platform Netflix: It was strange that Netflix only parted ways with him because of allegations. These accusations have now been proven to be false. He made Netflix big, but Netflix tried to bring him underground.

Feb