WHY DID THEATRE LUVVIES TURN A BLIND EYE TO PREDATOR SPACEY?
As UK police launch an investigation into claims he sexually assaulted a young man in London — at the very time he was being feted by Britain’s cultural elite — the uncomfortable question...
AS THE night went on, the live music would get ever louder, forcing excitable drinkers to get closer and closer in order to be heard.
Add to that the fact the bar rapidly became packed — bodies bumping into each other — and that it was open far later than any other local watering hole, and you begin to understand why The Pit Bar, hidden beneath the stage of London’s Old Vic Theatre, was one of Kevin Spacey’s favoured pick-up joints.
Spacey, who was the theatre’s artistic director from 2004 to 2015, didn’t feel the need to travel very far from the office when he wanted to behave disgracefully, it seems.
While he may have been famously cautious in his media dealings, consistently refusing to discuss his sexuality, he was incredibly indiscreet out of hours.
A number of young men who have come forward this week to tell of their dealings with the actor describe a man who was worryingly predatory.
For example, I’m told some years ago he invited a male acquaintance, whom he’d known all of ten minutes, to ‘come outside and explore’ after meeting him in The Pit.
‘He was quite insistent about it and it was simply excruciating,’ the young man told me.
Then there was Mexican actor Roberto Cavazos, who says that he was groped in the bar by Spacey, but shrugged it off as ‘one of those things’.
‘There are many of us who have a Kevin Spacey story,’ Cavazos said. ‘It seems you only needed to be a man under 30 for him to feel free to touch us. It was so common that it turned into a joke among us.’
He claimed the actor would ‘squeeze whoever caught his attention’.
And a barman at The Pit — now closed down — said: ‘I saw and experienced him being very predatory towards young men. They were actors and it kind of became a joke. I know of several straight young actors, some acquaintances of mine, who Kevin showed an interest in.
‘Hand on lower backs — “The Kevin Spacey Hug” — became a thing. I saw a few of them leave with him, too. He was pretty touchy-feely with the guys he liked.’ The bartender insisted that the young men were consenting.
The shenanigans apparently took place upstairs at the Old Vic, too. I’m told one well-known young actor took to lock-behave.’ ing his dressing room door because Spacey, 58, was in the habit of calling in to chat — and, with unsettling timing, would regularly do so when he was showering.
A friend said: ‘He doesn’t want to talk about it, but he felt pestered by Kevin sexually, and he’s not alone.’
Away from the Old Vic, Spacey’s behaviour was just as disconcerting.
One source told me this week that during one night in 2013 after making a keynote speech at the Edinburgh Television Festival, Spacey was seen propositioning three men in the space of an hour in the bar of the city’s upmarket George Hotel (which is now called The Principal).
‘He was very polite about it,’ says my source, who witnessed it all. ‘What made it peculiar was that they were all media journalists. I mean, if you are trying to stay in the closet, it is a really odd way to And these are just a few of many revealing stories that are coming to light since Spacey was this week accused of making deeply inappropriate drunken sexual advances towards a 14-year-old American actor, Anthony Rapp, some 30 years ago.
Spacey responded quickly, saying that he didn’t remember the incident, but that he was ‘beyond horrified’ by it.
Spacey also, controversially, chose that precise moment to come out as gay.
Last night, it emerged that Spacey is being investigated by British police over allegations that he assaulted a young actor at his London flat in 2008 after a party where they had smoked marijuana. The actor says that he awoke to find Spacey performing a sex act on him.
Trouble has been bubbling for the Oscar-winning star for weeks, after former U.S. news anchor Heather Unruh tweeted that Spacey had ‘assaulted’ a relative of hers.
Ms Unruh, who had been moved to come forward because of the downfall of movie mogul Harvey Weinstein, declined to expand on her statement.
If it hadn’t been for Rapp’s testimony, Spacey’s habit of soliciting young men for sex might not have come to light.
The charge sheet took an even darker turn this week when another man — who remains anonymous — accused Spacey of attempting to rape him in 1983 when he was aged just 15. The alleged victim also claimed that Spacey, who was then 24, had first had consensual sex with him when he was 14.
The actor also reportedly told the anonymous accuser that he had been ‘drawn to him’ from the moment they first met, when the boy was aged only 12.
According to the Vulture showbiz website, which interviewed Spacey’s accuser, he claimed that they had first met when Spacey was his teacher at an upstate New York theatre camp — adding an even more worrying element to the allegation. Spacey has emphatically denied these accusations through his lawyer.
The accusations do not stop there. Eight workers on the set of House Of Cards — where Spacey played the diabolical politician Frank Underwood to such hypnotic effect — have told CNN he sexually harassed them for years, and in one case reportedly assaulted a young man.
Meanwhile the Creative Artists Agency, which acted as Spacey’s representative, and his publicist Staci Wolfe of Polaris PR have reportedly dropped their client.
Yet despite the claims of inappropriate behaviour, assault and now even paedophilia, not a single highprofile actor or director has seen fit to make any public condemnation of Spacey.
It’s all rather different from the Weinstein brouhaha, where it seemed anyone who was anyone was either issuing damning statements of outrage or expressing astonishment and disbelief.
Could it be that sensitive luvvies, from Hollywood to the London West End, are stunned into silence at yet another scandal hitting one of their own? Or is the truth that Spacey’s sexual behaviour — and his true sexual orientation — was the very definition of an open secret?
Despite his titanic self-regard and self-professed love of privacy, Spacey seems to have spent a
One young actor took to locking his dressing room door A theatrical titan is said to have known
surprising amount of time very openly begging young men for sexual favours.
Could Spacey’s peers and pals — those champagne liberals — really have been unaware of his activities?
He certainly wasn’t discreet about his modus operandi for seduction, either. Take the story about Spacey partying at the Olivier Awards in 2004.
Seen stroking the face of an actor he had just met, he then allegedly told the young man that he ‘needed someone who could really help his career’. Spacey was beckoned away during the encounter by a well-known actress, who looked ‘irritated and embarrassed’ by his behaviour.
Another actor, a theatrical titan, is said to have known and disapproved of Spacey’s habits.
Although they were friends, one source claims the actor told him: ‘Watch out, Kevin’s on the prowl again,’ at a party.
Last night, a statement from the Old Vic was released: ‘All at The Old Vic are deeply dismayed to hear the allegations levied against Kevin Spacey, who was Artistic Director from 2004–2015.
‘Inappropriate behaviour by anyone working at The Old Vic is completely unacceptable.’ They also say they will investigate any complaints.
As with the late singer George Michael, who liked to go cottaging, the danger of exposure seems to have been a part of the sexual thrill for Spacey — a danger which rather came to bite him back in 2004, just after he arrived at the Old Vic.
Spacey claimed to have been ‘mugged’ at 4.30am in a London park, which, shall we say, raised eyebrows.
As RADA-trained actor Chris New observed this week: ‘Spacey’s behaviour has been an open secret in the London theatre scene from the day he took over the Old Vic. Everyone knew.’
Indeed, there is no shortage of witnesses.
Barman Daniel Beal said Spacey flashed at him outside the Goodwood Park Hotel in West Sussex in 2010, saying: ‘It’s big, isn’t it?’ — before giving him a €5,600 watch to keep quiet.
Another man, filmmaker and director Tony Montana, claims Spacey groped him in the Coronet Pub in Los Angeles in 2003, leaving him with ‘post- traumatic stress disorder’.
He said: ‘Kevin came up to me and put his arm around me. He was telling me to come with him, to leave the bar. He put his hand on my crotch forcefully and grabbed my whole package.’
Notably, I’m told that while directing the 2004 film Beyond The Sea, Spacey would ‘chase chorus boys around the sofa’.
Which raises the question — did he promise to promote careers for sexual favours?
His supporters deny this. However one former member of the Old Vic staff said: ‘A lot of young men and aspiring actors would have just gone to The Pit Bar to network and Kevin Spacey often used to sit in the bar.
‘He was director of casting and a very powerful man — he could make or break careers.’
Inevitably, The Old Vic now stands accused of turning a blind eye to allegations of groping and sordid behaviour.
The theatre previously said it did not receive a single complaint during Spacey’s tenure, but has now hired external advisors to help deal with confidential retrospective complaints.
It seems likely that grievances will be expressed.
One former Old Vic employee, who asked to remain anonymous, told Britain’s Guardian newspaper that he saw Spacey take advantage of a friend of his after a party in 2011 — and agreed that there was a conspiracy of silence around Spacey’s behaviour.
‘We were all involved in keeping it quiet. I witnessed him groping men many times in all sorts of different situations ... at his apartment in North Lambeth and even at the Old Vic itself and his favourite pub The Pineapple, which is right near the theatre,’ he said.
‘He was taking advantage of the fact he is this great icon. The thing that really upsets me is the hypocrisy of places like the Old Vic that pretend now that they didn’t know.’
Rebecca Gooden, an intern at the theatre in 2010, agrees that stories about Spacey’s behaviour were commonplace.
She said she was told that ‘pretty’ young men were not hired to work in the theatre administration following ‘an earlier incident’.
‘There was a running “joke” about it,’ she said. ‘I was informed that I was not allowed to talk about it outside the theatre. I am honestly sickened that the theatre has chosen to plead ignorance.’
One might be forgiven for questioning whether Spacey’s unique position there could have contributed to what was nearly a conspiracy of silence.
He brought Hollywood glamour to the dusty Old Vic — and perhaps his influence was such that nobody dared break ranks?
He had some very powerful acquaintances, too: while his closest friends are not famous, Spacey was absolutely a member of London’s cultural elite, attending many parties and fundraisers with the great and good such as Tom Stoppard, the late Harold Pinter, former Northern Ireland secretary of state Peter Mandelson and the rest.
There is no suggestion they were aware of the allegations about Spacey’s behaviour.
He was even appointed as a visiting professor of contemporary theatre at St Catherine’s College, Oxford in 2008 — a role that saw him take workshops with aspiring young actors.
In interviews at the time, he said jokingly, ‘My friends call me Professor Spacey now’ — but he also said he had advice for those keen young actors:
‘How to just deal with the day-today business of trying to start a career … and of course I hope to have a chance to bring them all to the Old Vic.’
How those words must haunt Kevin Spacey now.
‘I was informed I was not allowed to talk about it’