Netflix has announced it is cancelling its flagship television series, House of Cards, a day after allegations that its star, Kevin Spacey, sexually harassed a 14-year-old boy. Anthony Rapp, an actor, accused Spacey of historical sexual harassment when he was 14 and the star was 26. The Oscar-winning actor was accused of trying to seduce the child by laying down on top of him at a party at his apartment in New York in 1986. Meanwhile, the International TV Academy has withdrawn a planned award for Spacey in the wake of historical harassment allegations. Spacey had been due to be awarded with the 2017 International Emmy Founders Award in New York in November, but has now had the honour revoked.
In a statement on its website, The International Academy of Television Arts and Sciences said: "The International Academy has announced today that in light of recent events it will not honour Kevin Spacey with the 2017 International Emmy Founders Award."
Two more allegations have emerged since Rapp spoke out. America TV anchor Heather Unruh, 50, has suggested a loved one had been assaulted by the star.
Another alleged incident happened in a toilet at the 2013 Edinburgh TV Festival. The Sun quoted sources as claiming Spacey made an advance on a writer, who pushed the actor away and left. Several sources said that the decision to end the award-winning Netflix drama was made prior to Rapp's claim about Spacey, but the announcement nevertheless raised eyebrows for its timing.
“Media Rights Capital and Netflix are deeply troubled by last night’s news concerning Kevin Spacey," a Netflix spokesman told The Daily Telegraph.
“In response to last night’s revelations, executives from both of our companies arrived in Baltimore this afternoon to meet with our cast and crew to ensure that they continue to feel safe and supported. As previously scheduled, Kevin Spacey is not working on set at this time.”
Spacey, who admitted that he was gay for the first time in an apology to Rapp, said that he could not remember the alleged 1986 incident, but said he was "horrified" by the story.
House of Cards was the first original drama from the streaming giant, and changed the face of on-demand television with its high production values and Oscar-winning cast. An adaptation of the Nineties British political drama of the same name, it is placed in Washington DC, rather than Westminster, and follows the Machiavellian antics of Frank Underwood, played by Spacey, in his deadly climb to the Oval Office.
It is the first of Spacey's projects currently in production to be cancelled. He is including the high-profile Oscar hopeful All the Money in the World, costarring Mark Wahlberg and Michelle Williams and directed by Ridley Scott, and the crime drama Billionaire Boys Club.
Source: Telegraph
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