SPACEY: There are stories out there about me..
Hollywood star hints at further allegations
KEVIN Spacey is bracing himself for more accusations of sleaze following claims he tried to drunkenly seduce a boy aged 14.
The Hollywood A-lister outed himself as being gay after actor Anthony Rapp said Spacey had laid on top of him at a party in 1986.
Spacey also hinted in a tweet of more claims about his private life. He wrote: “I know that there are stories out there about me and that some have been fueled by the fact that I have been so protective of my privacy.”
The double Oscar winner’s decision to come out as gay has been slammed as a bid to “deflect” allegations he made sexual advances to a child.
In the tweet he said: “I honestly do not remember the encounter, it would have been over 30 years ago.
“But if I did behave as he describes, then I owe him the sincerest apology for what would have been deeply inappropriate drunken behaviour.” Spacey,
58, who plays ruthless US politician Francis Underwood in the TV series House of Cards, said he was “examining his behaviour” in response to Rapp’s allegations.
He went on: “As those closest to me know, in my life I have had relationships with both men and women. I have loved and had romantic encounters with men throughout my life, and I choose now to live as a gay man.”
His remarks enraged many commentators who accused him of trying to dwarf the misconduct claims by coming out and also blaming booze.
Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, ques- tioning (LGBTQ) activist Ashlee Marie Preston said the actor had used “his sexual orientation as a get out of jail free card”.
Preston added: “He tracked his dirt back into the LGBTQ community, which is now reinforcing the stigma that gay men are predators.”
Vanity Fair writer Richard Lawson wrote: “Coming out as a gay man is not the same thing as coming out as someone who preyed on a 14-year-old. Conflating those things is disgusting. This exposes the gay community to a million tired old criticisms and conspiracies.
“The distance we’ve had to walk to get away from the notion that we’re all paedophiles is significant.
“For a famous person to deflect these accusations with a long-in-themaking coming out is so cruel to his supposed new community it stings.” Labour MP Jess Phillips added her voice to the criticism. She wrote: “Kevin Spacey stuff is awful, being gay and sexually assaulting children have nothing to do with each other. NOTHING.”
Others took to Twitter to express their disgust.
One user tweeted: “Kevin Spacey never had any use for the LGBT community until he needed to use us as a shield to try to deflect from his horrible actions.”
Spacey was named by Rapp just three weeks after a tweet by American news anchor Heather Unruh went viral in the wake of the Harvey Weinstein scandal. Posting a picture of
Spacey she wrote: “The #weinstein scandal has emboldened me – #truth time. I was a Kevin Spacey fan until he assaulted a loved one. Time the dominoes fell.” Unruh has so far refused to identify the “loved one”.
Rapp, starring in the new TV series Star Trek: Discovery, said he had met Spacey in 1986 while they appeared in different Broadway shows.
Rapp, now 46, was just 14 at the time and performing in Precious Sons. Spacey, then 26, was in Long Day’s Journey Into Night. Spacey allegedly invited Rapp to a party at his Manhattan apartment. Rapp said he became bored and watched TV in Spacey’s bedroom.
He said at midnight he realised he was the only one left at which point Spacey then appeared and “sort of stood in the doorway, kind of swaying”. Rapp recalled: “My impression when he came in the room was that he was drunk.” The actor said Spacey then “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.
“I don’t know if I would have used that language. But I was aware that he was trying to get with me sexually.”
Rapp said: “In terms of fight or flight or freeze, I tend to freeze.”
He said he wriggled away and went into the bathroom and shut the door.
“I saw on the counter next to the sink a picture of him having his arm around a man.
“So I think on some level I was like, ‘Oh. He’s gay. I guess’. Then I opened the door, and I was like, ‘OK, I’m going to go home now’.”
Rapp said Spacey followed him to the front door and asked him if he was sure he wanted to leave.
“I said, ‘Yes, goodnight’,” said Rapp.
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