The arbitration proceedings concluded that Kevin Spacey broke his contract by violating sexual harassment regulations at the studio responsible for “House of Cards”, and ordered him and its producers to pay Media Rights Capital (MRC) $29,5 million (€26.25 million), plus 1.4 million euros in damages. Million dollars in court costs.
After the scandal with producer Harvey Weinstein in October 2017, Kevin Spacey became one of the first major American public figures to be accused of sexual harassment after a CNN advance report that he created a “toxic” environment during filming. Due to inappropriate comments and harassment of young staff from the series in which he was the protagonist and executive producer.
Shooting for the sixth season was suspended, as was the actor, while an internal investigation was ongoing, with Netflix and MRC deciding to cut ties and remove Frank Underwood’s character from the series.
In January 2019, the MRC filed a confidential arbitration request for breach of contract seeking to recover costs incurred by Spacey for leaving and resuming production for the sixth and final season of Zero, when fame turned to Claire Underwood, by Robin Wright.
In turn, Spacey also sued MCM for unlawful termination of the contract.
The parties provided testimony from more than 20 witnesses and the case was adjudicated in favor of MCM in July 2020, which only became known on Monday when the studio petitioned the Los Angeles County Superior Court to confirm the ruling after its validation. In a confidential appeal.
“With one exception, the arbitrator found witnesses to be credible – and that the allegations against Spacey are true. The arbitrator concluded that Spacey’s conduct constituted a material breach of his contracts as an actor and executive producer with MRC, and that such violations absolved MRC of its obligations to pay any additional production-related compensation,” according to petition.
According to the petition, the arbitrator also concluded that Spacey’s “egregious breaches of contract” made him and the producers liable for tens of millions of additional MRC costs.
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