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Kevin Spacey Gets Screwed By US Court.

Posted on 7th August 2022

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Whilst I am in no sense an apologist for Kevin Spacey, I feel that the court case reported on by the BBC is rather unfair on him.

Mr. Spacey was the star of the hit TV show "House of Cards" when the press found out about his various sexual misdemeanors. As a result, the producers of the show decided that they had to remove him from the show (probably a good call). On Thursday a court in Los Angeles awarded MRC (the production company) $31m for the costs of that removal.

Kevin Spacey began his illegal and inappropriate activities before he signed the contract with MRC. Although knowledge of this was not at that time in the public domain, it was generally privately known (or at least suspected) in the industry, so MRC got into the contract with there eyes open; they took a calculated risk, but when it all turned to doggy dos, they demanded compensation. That is not how the law is meant to work. If there is genuinely unknown and undisclosed information when a contract is signed, one can expect to be compensated, but when the issues are known (even if not provable at the time), the risk belongs to the party that suffered the loss. MRC was making lots of money from "House of Cards", and hoped that would continue; they gambled, and lost, and should bear the costs themselves.

This case sets a dangerous precedent for future compensation cases.