Kevin Spacey still owes House of Cards production company MRC $31 million, a judge confirmed on August 4. Per Deadline, Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Mel Red Recana said it was not “even a close case†and upheld the amount that was previously determined by an arbitrator in October 2020. MRC fired Spacey from the Netflix series in 2017 after investigating allegations of his sexually predatory behavior against young men, including a House of Cards production assistant. MRC’s lawyers argued that they lost millions of dollars in profits because they had to remove Frank Underwood (played by Spacey) and shorten the final season by five episodes. Judge Recana affirmed that the actor must pay $29.5 million in damages, with the rest of the $31 million sum going to MRC’s legal fees and costs.
Spacey, who has denied sexually harassing anyone on House of Cards, is also facing a number of other allegations. He is charged with with four counts of sexual assault against three men and one count of “causing a person to engage in penetrative sexual activity without consent†in a U.K. trial scheduled to begin in June 2023. Spacey, who pleaded not guilty, has stated that he will appear in the U.K. court to defend himself. Meanwhile, he is scheduled to appear in a New York court on October 4 for a civil lawsuit filed against him by actor Anthony Rapp. Spacey is accused of sexually abusing a then-14-year-old Rapp at a party (at the time, Spacey was 26). He has denied the allegations.