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Actor Kevin Spacey took the witness stand on Monday and denied claims made in a civil lawsuit by actor Anthony Rapp, who says the Oscar-winning star made an unwanted sexual advance in 1986 when Rapp was 14.
Rapp, now 50, testified earlier this month that an intoxicated Spacey — then 26 and acting on Broadway — climbed on top of him at a party at his Manhattan apartment. Rapp, at the start of his own Broadway career at the time, said he was able to “swerve my way out” but that the experience scarred him.
Spacey’s attorney asked him on Monday about Rapp’s suggestion during the trial that Spacey was a “fraud” for not coming out as homosexual sooner.
“To call someone a fraud is to, I guess, say that you think they are living a lie,” the 63-year-old said. “I wasn’t living a lie. I was just reluctant to talk about my personal life,” Spacey said.
U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan on Monday dismissed Rapp’s claim for intentional infliction of emotional distress, stating that the claim repeated his allegations of battery against Spacey.
Kaplan allowed the battery claim to stand, and it will be considered by a jury after Spacey makes his case and both sides present closing arguments.
Last week, Spacey’s lawyer challenged Rapp’s memory of the 1986 incident during cross-examination, questioning him on why he described the encounter as having occurred in a bedroom when Spacey lived in a studio at the time.
Rapp, who starred in the Broadway musical “Rent,” sued Spacey in November 2020 and is seeking $40 million in damages for battery and intentional infliction of emotional distress.
Spacey won Oscars for best actor in “American Beauty” and best supporting actor in “The Usual Suspects,” but his career largely ended after more than 20 men accused him of sexual misconduct. Netflix dropped him from its political drama series “House of Cards” and Christopher Plummer replaced him in the role of J. Paul Getty in “All the Money in the World” weeks before the movie’s scheduled release in 2017.
Spacey faces a criminal trial in London next year after pleading not guilty to five sex offense charges over alleged assaults between 2005 and 2013.
Copyright 2022 Thomson/Reuters