When he was cleared of criminal charges last month, double Oscar-winner Kevin Spacey celebrated with drinks at the Groucho Club and later a dinner with theatrical titan Trevor Nunn.
However, it can be revealed that many of his peers who lionised Spacey when he was artistic director of the Old Vic from 2004 to 2015 have since distanced themselves from the actor – who explained away the sexual assault allegations by saying that he was just a ‘big flirt’ (an explanation accepted by the jury).
Not one of the figures who were in his London clique has been willing to speak up for him in public.
And although he retains an apartment in London, I now hear that he is considering relocating to Europe.
‘Kevin was cleared, but he isn’t going back to the lifestyle and contacts he once had,’ I’m told. ‘He has been talking for at least a year about moving out of the UK, most likely to Paris.
Relief: Actor Kevin Spacey leaving court after being cleared of a sexual assault trial
‘They have a history of not caring too much about people’s private lives in France, but they do have a strong cinema culture,’ continues my mole. ‘It would be a good place for him to start again – and he has plenty of friends in Paris.’
The riotous welcome given to Johnny Depp at the Cannes Film Festival in May is cited as evidence of the different approach on the Continent.
Depp was found by the UK courts to have assaulted his former wife Amber Heard – though a U.S. jury found that she had defamed him when speaking about domestic abuse and that as a consequence, her allegations were not believed to be true.
It is also striking that Roman Polanski, convicted of unlawful intercourse with a 13-year-old in 1977, is set to attend the Venice Film Festival this month.
Croatian director Dominik Sedlar, whose father is a friend of Spacey, said recently that he anticipates the actor will move away from Hollywood: ‘It’s more likely for Europe to be receptive.’
Spacey portrayed Croatian president Franjo Tudjman in Once Upon A Time In Croatia, filmed by Sedlar’s father Jakov (and released last year). In January, before the UK trial, Sedlar Sr called Spacey ‘the best of actors’ and ‘absolutely innocent’. Spacey also appeared in The Man Who Drew God, for director Franco Nero. That was released in Italy in June, while the UK trial was ongoing.
Alistair Smith, editor of The Stage, thinks a return to UK theatre is ‘highly unlikely’.
The Old Vic independently investigated Spacey’s tenure after 20 unnamed people accused him of inappropriate behaviour.
The theatre said it could not verify the allegations, but admitted that Spacey’s status could have prevented junior staff or young actors from speaking up. It said it was ‘deeply dismayed’ by the allegations of a ‘range’ of inappropriate behaviour and was committed to creating a safe working environment in the future.
Smith added: ‘Those allegations have never been satisfactorily addressed by Spacey. Unless they are, I can’t see him working in London theatre again.’
In the Los Angeles Times last month, columnist Mary McNamara suggested that while Spacey has been cleared of criminal charges, he remains ‘cancelled’.
‘His defence rested on the argument that being promiscuous is not the same as being predatory. Which it absolutely is not,’ she wrote. ‘But considering the similarity of so many of the accusations levelled against Spacey – crotches grabbed, aggressively inappropriate comments – in this trial and in general, it’s tough not to wonder who exactly should decide what is ‘promiscuous’ and what is ‘predatory’.
‘It’s difficult to imagine him reviving his career, at least in the U.S., any time soon. His fall was epic . . . it would take a solid group of A-list supporters to bring him back into the fold. Thus far, they have not shown themselves.
‘In any case, he won’t be doing much for a while – as a member of Screen Actors Guild, he is on strike. Until that’s resolved, we really don’t have to think about him at all. And won’t that be nice.’
Rosie’s Revenge
Rosie Cavaliero plays betrayed wife Diane in the BBC’s fun comedy-drama The Power Of Parker, set in the late 1980s, early 1990s; she’s all applique jumpers and big hair.
But you wouldn’t want to cross her in real life.
Cavaliero recalls an appropriately 1980s act of revenge from her youth.
‘I remember cracking an egg over my poor little sister’s head, before tearing down her Shakin’ Stevens posters,’ she said.
‘I can’t remember what she’d done…but she likes to remind me of it every few years. She is still traumatised.’
Actor: Rosie Cavaliero (pictured) plays betrayed wife Diane in the BBC’s fun comedy-drama The Power Of Parker, set in the late 1980s, early 1990s; she’s all applique jumpers and big hair
The truth is out there: X-Files progeny lights up drugs drama
Watch out for newcomer West Duchovny – the 24-year-old daughter of actors David Duchovny and Tea Leoni – who is one of the innocents destroyed by opioids in new TV drama Painkiller.
Matthew Broderick plays Purdue Pharma boss Richard Sackler; and Duchovny is dumb and dangerous as Shannon Schaeffer, one of his ‘OxyContin Kittens’ whose job is to sell the dangerously addictive painkillers to doctors. ‘You are a drug dealer with a ponytail!’ she is told at one point.
Producer Eric Newman describes Duchovny (pictured left and below with her dad) as ‘amazing’, adding: ‘She blew us away in her audition and is a bright light in our show.
‘Shannon is representative of the many adjacent victims of OxyContin who never even took it, and I think that’s an important story to tell.
‘To get a true sense of the destructive power of opioid, you have to go beyond just the number of deaths.
‘You must imagine not only all the people whose lives have been touched by those deaths, but also the many unwitting players who took part in the opioid machine and must live with that.’
Painkiller is a fictionalised retelling of the invention of OxyContin, and is now streaming on Netflix.
Newcomer: West Duchovny is the 24-year-old daughter of actors David Duchovny and Tea Leoni
Father and daughter: West Duchovny pictured with her father David Duchovny
Theft by spoon…
A teaspoon played an unexpected role in the theft of Edvard Munch’s The Scream in 1994.
Thief Pal Enger (left) gives a full account of his role in the affair in The Man Who Stole The Scream, which goes out on Sky Docs on August 19.
Enger said he used the metal spoon to check if the glass in Norway’s National Gallery was breakable and not bulletproof. ‘The best way is to use a steel teaspoon. I tapped [the glass] and nearly broke it.’ Enger’s interview is mesmerising, not least because he describes two thefts from the same gallery, both times breaking in with nothing more high-tech than a ladder (and a spoon).
On the first occasion, he intended to steal The Scream but came through the wrong window, so escaped with another Munch painting – only realising his mistake after he made his getaway.
Robbery: A teaspoon played an unexpected role in the theft of Edvard Munch’s The Scream in 1994
Disney’s woes stop Stones biopic rolling
A hotly anticipated show about the rise of the Rolling Stones is now stuck in limbo.
The six-part drama was to be made with the cooperation of the band, and there was much anticipation about what it would reveal about Mick Jagger, his women and his relationships with the other members of the group.
Author Nick Hornby had ‘regular’ meetings with Jagger while putting together a script to cover the period from 1963 to 1973. Hornby’s work was then taken over by writer Jack Thorne, whose finished version went to the band for an OK before Christmas.
Jagger and Keith Richards were set to get up to £50 million between them as part of a mega-deal, which also covered the use of their songs.
Sadly, though, I hear that executive convulsions at Disney mean the prestige project is now effectively on hold – even though the Stones were happy with it. And with the U.S. writers’ and actors’ strikes adding to the issues at Disney – where budgets are being cut — it’s a moot point as to when, and even if, it will ever be made.
Performance: A hotly anticipated show about the rise of the Rolling Stones is now stuck in limbo
The Stones drama was developed for Disney-owned FX by British powerhouse Left Bank Pictures, who also made The Crown. It was to include their rise to fame, the death of Brian Jones, the fatal Altamont concert, the drugs bust at Redlands and much more.
Writer Thorne, 44, also penned the BAFTA-winning TV film Help and Channel 4’s National Treasure, starring the late Robbie Coltrane.
Disney boss Bob Chapek was ousted late last year and Bob Iger, his predecessor, was reinstated on a salary of $27 million a year. Since then, Iger has been conducting a painful review of the business (particularly the TV end). Some 7,000 staff have been let go.
Iger said last month that the Marvel expansion into small screen spin-offs such as She-Hulk: Attorney At Law, Loki and Secret Invasion had been a bad idea, which had ‘diluted focus’. Meanwhile, Iger, 72, has drawn fury from members of the striking writers and actors unions by calling their demands ‘very disruptive’ and ‘not realistic’.
Bad news for the Beckhams. Renowned biographer Tom Bower has chosen them as the subject of his next book.
Bower, whose previous subjects have included Bernie Ecclestone, Simon Cowell, Boris Johnson and Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex, is thought to have spoken to many friends (and former friends) of the couple, and sources indicate that he has compelling new stories to tell, some of them financial.
The book will come out next year.
Actor Casey Affleck showed devotion to his art by camping in the garden of Donnie Emerson, the singer-songwriter he portrays in Dreamin’ Wild.
Oscar-winner Affleck struck up a friendship with Emerson as part of his research for the film – and co-star Beau Bridges became fast friends with Donnie’s father (Don Sr), whom he portrays. Dreamin’ Wild tells the story of brothers Donnie and Joe Emerson, from Fruitland, Washington, who grew up on a farm and dreamed of becoming music stars. They released an album in 1979 which languished in obscurity until it was rediscovered by critics – and hailed as a masterpiece – in 2008.
Former footballer Peter Crouch is golf mad – and woe betide anything that comes between him and his hobby.
Crouch recalled how he completely lost his temper once after realising he was going to miss out on a golf day due to a diary clash.
‘It was all my fault and I threw my phone,’ he said. ‘I was so angry. I’m not proud of it. It hit the carpet and pinged and hit the wall and broke.
Sport: Former footballer Peter Crouch is golf mad – and woe betide anything that comes between him and his hobby
Wife Abbey Clancy added on The Therapy Crouch podcast: ‘Took a chunk out of my wall, by the way. Like when toddlers throw a hissy fit.’
You can sometimes spot 6ft 7in Crouch and his bespoke clubs on the Beaverbrook course in Leatherhead, Surrey.
Brideshead Revisited made Castle Howard internationally famous, and Downton Abbey did the same for Highclere Castle.
Now it looks as if Drayton House in Northants is going to get a boost from Saltburn, a Talented Mr Ripley-esque movie starring Euphoria’s Jacob Elordi as a young toff studying at Oxford. The Banshees Of Inisherin’s Barry Keoghan plays the working-class lad who becomes obsessed with him and spends the summer at his country pile. Written and directed by Emerald Fennell, it will open the BFI London Film Festival in October.
Mansion: It looks as if Drayton House in Northants is going to get a boost from Saltburn, a Talented Mr Ripley-esque movie starring Euphoria’s Jacob Elordi as a young toff studying at Oxford
Drayton House, parts of which date back to 1300, is privately owned by the Sackville family. Fennell seems to be forming a power trio with actresses Carey Mulligan and Margot Robbie. The film Barbie stars and was produced by Robbie, with Fennell playing pregnant Midge.
Robbie’s firm LuckyChap also produced the 2020 film Promising Young Woman, which starred Mulligan . . . and was written by Fennell. Saltburn is produced by LuckyChap – and Mulligan is in it as well. All very cosy!
