Hollywood Rocked By Another Sexual Assault Case

Kelsi Sego, Staff Writer

It’s just a normal day in Hollywood.

Yet another sexual assault accusation has been in the headlines.

Actor Kevin Spacey was recently accused of making sexual advances to actor Anthony Rapp who was 14-years-old at the time. Rapp decided to come out about the incident for a variety of reasons. In light of these accusations, The International Academy of Television Arts and Sciences announced that they would not be honoring Spacey with the International Emmy Founders Award this year.

In an interview with Buzzfeed News, actor Anthony Rapp accused Kevin Spacey of making drunken sexual advances on him. This happened at a party the two had both attended. Rapp was younger than others at the party, so he decided to go watch television by himself. Later on that evening after the party guests had left, Spacey entered the room where Rapp was watching television and tried to get with him sexually as Rapp described. Spacey was drunk and tried to “seduce”. Rapp managed to get away from Spacey and leave the apartment. He kept quiet about to incident until now.

Rapp questioned whether to come out about the incident or not. After Spacey won a Best Actor Oscar for his Performance In “American Beauty”, Rapp gained enough courage to talk about to encounter. Rapp chose not to mention Spacey’s name to the Advocate but it was later confirmed by the then editor that Rapp was talking about Spacey. Rapp contacted a lawyer who told him his case was not worth pursuing.

After news of the Harvey Weinstein sexual assault cases, Rapp was finally confident enough to tell all the details of this encounter. Rapp made this statement through his publicist “I came forward with my story, standing on the shoulders of the many courageous women and men who have been speaking out, to shine a light and hopefully make a difference, as they have done for me. Everything I wanted to say about my experience is in that article, and I have no further comment about it at this time.” Rapp told Buzzfeed that he hoped incidents like this don’t continue to occur. “Part of what allowed the Harvey situation to occur was that there was this witting and unwitting conspiracy of silence…The only way these things can continue is if there’s no attention being paid to it, if it’s getting forgotten.” said Rapp.

Rapp wishes to speak out about sexual assault in Hollywood and provide an outlet for people to safely speak out about their experiences with sexual assault.

After this event, other men have come forward with sexual misconduct accusations against Spacey. Director Tony Montana told Radar Online Spacey groped him in 2003. The story was then confirmed by Huffington Post. Another man who chose to remain anonymous shared his experience with Spacey. He allegedly pressured the teen into bed and the guest refused. According to The Guardian, Spacey preyed on young men working in Old Vic theater. Actor Robert Cavazos has recalls a “couple of unpleasant encounters” with Spacey. Cavazos describes his experiences as near harassment. He said “Had I been a woman, I probably would not have hesitated to identify it as such, but I suppose that the lack of a more specifically direct or aggressive action led me to justify the incident as ‘one of those things’,”

There have been many repercussions for Spacey. The actor was due to receive the 2017 International Emmy’s Founder Award later on this month. Because of these allegations, the organization has decided not to honor the actor this year. The Netflix original “House Of Cards” which Spacey stars in also coming to an end in its sixth and final season. The creator of the series, Beau Willimon deemed the incident “deeply troubling”.

Spacey issued an apology for Rapp via Twitter in which he used as an outlet to publicly come out as gay. The statement has received a lot of backlash. Many have criticized him for using his drunken state as an excuse to attempt to sexually assault a child. He has also been criticized for using the incident to come out. Several people have used Twitter to share their opinion on Spacey’s statement. Actor Billy Eichner said “That Kevin Spacey Statement. Nope, Absolutely not. Nope”.

According to the Hollywood Reporter, Spacey is seeking treatment in the wake of the sexual misconduct accusations. Spacey’s rep told the Hollywood Reporter “Kevin Spacey is taking the time necessary to seek evaluation and treatment.”