Actor Kevin Spacey will have to pay almost $31 million to the production company of the
House of Cards series
, from which he was fired following accusations of sexual harassment, a judge ruled Thursday, rejecting his appeal.
The actor, twice Oscar winner for
American Beauty
and
Usual Suspects
, is also being prosecuted in the United Kingdom for four sexual assaults on three men.
In 2017, Kevin Spacey had been the subject of a wave of accusations of harassment and sexual assault, which had put an abrupt end to his career, in the wake of the #MeToo movement and the Harvey Weinstein affair.
MRC, the production company behind
House of Cards
, about political intrigue in Washington, was seeking damages for lost revenue attributed to the actor's firing from the show.
This forced her to make a major overhaul for the sixth season, with Kevin Spacey playing the title role of unscrupulous politician Frank Underwood.
compensate for losses
In 2020, an arbitration had concluded that Kevin Spacey must compensate for the losses and the costs related to these changes.
But his lawyers had claimed that the person in charge of the arbitration had exceeded his prerogatives by taking into account certain evidence.
On Thursday, however, Judge Mel Red Recana confirmed that the fallen Hollywood icon should pay nearly $31 million in damages and litigation costs.
The judge recalled that, according to the conclusions of the arbitration, Kevin Spacey had violated the terms of his contract because of his alleged behavior.
Kevin Spacey has always denied sexually harassing anyone.
In mid-July, he pleaded not guilty in London to sexual assaults committed between March 2005 and April 2013.
Read alsoAccused of sexual assault, Kevin Spacey pleads not guilty in court in London
In the United States, Kevin Spacey had been charged with indecent assault and sexual assault in the state of Massachusetts, on the East Coast.
He was accused of having, in July 2016, got his hands on the sex of an 18-year-old young man employed in a bar, after having made him drink.
But the charges were dropped in July 2019.