Kevin Spacey is scheduled to be arraigned next month on allegations he sexually assaulted the teenage son of a Boston television anchor in a restaurant, a Massachusetts prosecutor said Monday.
The Academy Award-winning actor, 59, is due in Nantucket District Court on Jan. 7 to face a charge of indecent assault and battery, Cape and Islands District Attorney Michael O'Keefe said.
A criminal complaint was issued by a clerk magistrate at a hearing Thursday, he said.
Shortly after the charge became public, Spacey posted a video on YouTube titled "Let Me Be Frank" and tweeted a link to it, breaking a public silence of more than a year.
In the bizarre dramatic monologue delivered in the voice of Frank Underwood, his character on Netflix's "House of Cards" who was killed off after sexual misconduct allegations emerged, he says, "I know what you want. You want me back."
He goes on to say, "Of course some believed everything and have just been waiting with bated breath to hear me confess it all, they're just dying to have me declare that everything they said is true and I got what I deserved. … I'm certainly not going to pay the price for the thing I didn't do."
It is unclear whether Spacey is referring to the charge he faces.
He later adds, "Soon enough, you will know the full truth" before the three-minute video ends with a burst of dramatic cliffhanger music.
A message seeking comment was left Monday with Spacey spokeswoman Laura Johnson.
Former news anchor Heather Unruh came forward in November 2017 and said the actor stuck his hand down her then-18-year-old son's pants and grabbed his genitals at the Club Car Restaurant on the resort island of Nantucket in July 2016.
Her son fled the restaurant when Spacey went to use the bathroom, Unruh said at the time.
Unruh said her son didn't report the assault right away because he was embarrassed.
"The complainant has shown a tremendous amount of courage in coming forward," Mitchell Garabedian, a lawyer for Unruh's son, said in a statement Monday. "Let the facts be presented, the relevant law applied and a just and fair verdict rendered."
Spacey remains under investigation of sexual assault in Los Angeles for an incident that allegedly occurred in 2016. Prosecutors declined to file charges in a 1992 allegation because of the statute of limitations.
Spacey had also faced accusations of sexual misconduct while artistic director of London's Old Vic Theatre.
The accusations against Spacey, which came early in the #MeToo movement that brought attention to sexual assault, cost him roles.
Rom-Com Mainstay Hugh Grant Shifts To The Dark Side and He’s Never Been Happier
After some difficulties connecting to a Zoom, Hugh Grant eventually opts to just phone instead.
"Sorry about that," he apologizes. "Tech hell." Grant is no lover of technology. Smart phones, for example, he calls the "devil's tinderbox."
"I think they're killing us. I hate them," he says. "I go on long holidays from them, three or four days at at time. Marvelous."
Hell, and our proximity to it, is a not unrelated topic to Grant's new film, "Heretic." In it, two young Mormon missionaries (Chloe East, Sophie Thatcher) come knocking on a door they'll soon regret visiting. They're welcomed in by Mr. Reed (Grant), an initially charming man who tests their faith in theological debate, and then, in much worse things.
After decades in romantic comedies, Grant has spent the last few years playing narcissists, weirdos and murders, often to the greatest acclaim of his career. But in "Heretic," a horror thriller from A24, Grant's turn to the dark side reaches a new extreme. The actor who once charmingly stammered in "Four Weddings and a Funeral" and who danced to the Pointer Sisters in "Love Actually" is now doing heinous things to young people in a basement.
"It was a challenge," Grant says. "I think human beings need challenges. It makes your beer taste better in the evening if you've climbed a mountain. He was just so wonderfully (expletive)-up."
"Heretic," which opens in theaters Friday, is directed by Scott Beck and Bryan Woods, co-writers of "A Quiet Place." In Grant's hands, Mr. Reed is a divinely good baddie — a scholarly creep whose wry monologues pull from a wide range of references, including, fittingly, Radiohead's "Creep."
In an interview, Grant spoke about these and other facets of his character, his journey... Read More