Kevin Spacey Seeks to Toss Out $31 Million ‘House of Cards’ Judgment
variety.comGene Maddaus Senior Media WriterAttorneys for Kevin Spacey are seeking to throw out a $31 million arbitration award arising from his conduct on the set of “House of Cards,” saying his behavior amounted to nothing more than “sexual innuendos” and “innocent horseplay.”The production company behind the Netflix show, MRC, won a confidential arbitration ruling against Spacey in 2020.
The company had argued that Spacey owed them millions in lost profits because his misconduct forced them to remove him from the sixth season of the show, and it had to trim the season from 13 episodes to eight.The judgment became public on Nov.
22, when MRC filed a petition in civil court to confirm the award. Spacey’s lawyers filed an opposition on Friday, asking the court to set the ruling aside.
The attorneys argue that Spacey did not engage in sexual harassment and did not violate MRC’s anti-harassment policy. “The truth is that while Spacey participated in a pervasive on-set culture that was filled with sexual innuendoes, jokes, and innocent horseplay, he never sexually harassed anyone,” the attorneys argued. “In fact, as the evidence established and the Arbitrator recognized in the Award, the few times Spacey was told that his conduct made someone feel uncomfortable or was in any way unwanted, he stopped.”Spacey was first accused of misconduct in a Buzzfeed article on Oct.
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