Kevin Spacey Will Pay to Avoid Civil Trial

Kevin Spacey has avoided another courtroom showdown. The actor has reached out-of-court settlements with three men who accused him of sexual assault in cases that were set for a civil trial at London's High Court in October, the BBC reports. The men alleged incidents between 2000 and 2013, a period when Spacey served as artistic director of the city's Old Vic theatre. One man claimed he was "deliberately assaulted" a dozen times between 2000 and 2005; another said a 2008 assault left him with psychological harm and financial losses. The third accuser, actor Ruari Cannon, went public in Channel 4's 2024 documentary Spacey Unmasked, saying Spacey groped him at a party in 2013—an allegation Spacey has called "ridiculous" and untrue.

The civil case had been paused while criminal charges against Spacey proceeded; he was acquitted in 2023 of nine sexual offense counts in a separate London trial, which involved two of the three men in the civil case, per Reuters. Spacey has acknowledged being "too handsy" in the past but denies groping anyone. Terms of the settlements were not disclosed, and his representatives did not comment on Thursday's development.