Susie O’Brien: Kevin Spacey should be treated like Harvey Weinstein
KEVIN Spacey was willing to play the gay card to escape the fallout from sexual abuse allegations. He should be treated exactly the same as serial predator Harvey Weinstein, writes Susie O’Brien.
Susie O'Brien
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KEVIN Spacey should be treated exactly the same as serial predator Harvey Weinstein.
His statement yesterday showed he was willing to play the gay card in order to escape the fallout from sexual abuse allegations.
More: Spacey’s defence a ‘manipulation’
No one cares that he’s gay, but people do care that he may be a paedophile.
Spacey not only turned a story that should be about the victim into something about himself, but he neatly conflates sexual assault and sexual orientation.
Being in the closet doesn’t in any way excuse what he is accused of doing, and to suggest it does is mind-blowing.
Actor Anthony Rapp this week accused Spacey of making sexual advances to him when he was a 14-year- old boy attending his first Hollywood party.
He told Buzzfeed the House of Cards and American Beauty star put him on his bed and climbed on top of him at the end of the night.
He said Spacey “picked me up like a groom picks up the bride over the threshold … and then he lays down on top of me.
“He was trying to seduce me.
“I don’t know if I would have used that language. But I was aware that he was trying to get with me sexually.”
Rapp says he attended the party alone and spent most of the time watching TV in a bedroom before Spacey came into the room.
The fact that Rapp has told his story a number of times over the years was verified by Buzzfeed.
Spacey’s statement in response was evasive and utterly unconvincing.
He said he did not remember the encounter before going on to say “If I did behave as he describes, I owe him the sincerest apology”.
He then went on to wheel out that classic get-out-of-jail-free card — it was “deeply inappropriate drunken behaviour”.
Interestingly, it’s the excuse used by disgraced Richmond player Nathan Broad yesterday.
If Spacey doesn’t remember the incident, how did he know he was drunk?
Spacey said he was “sorry for the feelings he describes having carried with him all these years”.
Again, it’s classic avoidance — he’s sorry for Rapp’s feelings, not sorry for what he himself is said to have done.
Spacey then took the opportunity to reveal the worst-kept secret in Hollywood — the fact that he is gay. “
I choose now to live as a gay man,” he said.
Linking his opportunistic and predatory sexual advances made towards a mere child decades ago to his undeclared sexuality is a nasty sleight of hand.
Spacey says he wants to “deal with this honestly and openly and that starts with examining my own behaviour”.
He’s only done this now because he knows an enormous sh.t storm is about to erupt. He’s just trying to save his own skin.
I don’t blame Netflix for cancelling House of Cards. I’ll bet they are wondering who’ll come forward next with accusations against Spacey.
I don’t blame Weinstein accuser Rose McGowan for feeling vindictive: “Bye bye, Spacey. Goodbye. It’s your turn to cry. That’s why we’ve gotta say goodbye,” she tweeted.
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