Actor Kevin Spacey is seeking unspecified treatment following an accusation of sexual assault by an actor, who says he was a minor at the time, and amid new reported allegations by a British man.
American actor Anthony Rapp told BuzzFeed in an interview Sunday that Spacey made a sexual advance toward him at a party in 1986, when Rapp was 14 and Spacey was 26.
And on Wednesday, UK daily The Sun published a new account of alleged sexual misconductagainst Spacey, made by British national Daniel Beal. He said that in 2010, Spacey had followed him outside a hotel bar in southern England where Beal was working and uninvitedly revealed his genitals to him.
“Kevin Spacey is taking the time necessary to seek evaluation and treatment,” Spacey’s publicist, Staci Wolfe, said in a statement Wednesday night. “No other information is available at this time.”
Wolfe sent CNN the same response to questions over Beal’s account without confirming or denying the accusations.
Spacey apologized earlier this week over Rapp’s accusations, in a statement posted to Twitter, even though he said he did not recall the alleged incident.
In the same written apology, Spacey also came out as gay, and has received widespread criticism for conflating homosexuality and sexual assault.
Beal’s account
In Beal’s account to The Sun, Spacey was at the bar at the Goodwood Park Hotel in West Sussex, and touched Beal’s “hand in a weird way” every time he tried to hand him a drink. Beal was 19 at the time, he said.
On a cigarette break, Spacey followed Beal outside and revealed his genitals to the barman, Beal claims.
“He said ‘It’s big, isn’t it?’ He leaned over and tried to pull my hand towards it. I went back inside,” Beal told The Sun.
Spacey had earlier asked Beal to join him in his room to smoke marijuana, Beal alleged, adding the actor was drinking heavily and had “got through a bottle of Jack Daniels.”
Spacey later offered to exchange his £5,000 ($6,600) Swiss watch with Beal’s cheaper Casio, in what Beal now sees as an attempt to keep him quiet, he told The Sun. Beal accepted the watch and sold it, he said.
CNN was unable to contact Beal, but a spokesman at the hotel, now called the Goodwood Hotel, confirmed he had once worked there. He declined to comment further.
Separately, a London theater where Spacey was artistic director for 11 years, The Old Vic, has invited people to contact it confidentially with any complaints. The theater made no suggestions there had been any complaints against Spacey.
Rapp’s account
Rapp told Buzzfeed that Spacey had picked him up, put him on his bed and “was trying to get with me sexually” at a party at his apartment in New York.
Rapp said he was bored at the party, which was full of adults, and went into a bedroom and watched TV past midnight. Rapp said he realized that the other guests had left the party when Spacey appeared at the doorway and approached him.
“He 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,” Rapp told the website. “I don’t know if I would have used that language. But I was aware that he was trying to get with me sexually.”
He said he felt Spacey “pressing into me” and “tightening his arms.”
Spacey responded to the allegations, saying on Twitter: “I honestly do not remember the encounter, it would have been over 30 years ago.
“But if I did behave then as he describes, I owe him the sincerest apology for what would have been deeply inappropriate drunken behavior, and I am sorry for the feelings he describes having carried with him all these years.”
Claims of sexual misconduct rock industry
Production on the sixth and final season of “House of Cards” has been suspended as accusations against its main star are investigated, Netflix announced.
Season 6 will be the show’s last, but the decision to end the series was made months before the allegation against Spacey, according to multiple sources close to production.
The allegation against Spacey comes as the entertainment industry is reeling from a series of sexual misconduct accusations against some of the biggest players in the business.
Dozens have shared their accounts of sexual assault or harassment by some of the industry’s biggest names since The New York Times and The New Yorker published stories on allegations against movie executive Harvey Weinstein. Weinstein has denied all allegations of non-consensual sex.
