Photo via Netflix via YouTube
Netflix announced today that their landmark series House Of Cards has suspended production for good following sexual assault allegations against lead actor Kevin Spacey.
Spacey has been accused of making sexual advances to actor Anthony Rapp (Rent, Star Trek: Discovery) when he was 14-years-old and Spacey was 26-years-old.
As reported here by World Of Wonder’s Trey Speegle, Netflix and Media Rights Capital (MRC), the production company that makes House Of Cards announced yesterday that the series would end after its sixth season, already in production, but now they say the show will permanently “suspend production”.
London’s Old Vic Theatre in London where Spacey served as Artist Director for 11 years said they are “deeply dismayed” by the allegations. The 200-year-old theatre has set up a confidential complaints process for anyone connected to the Old Vic to come forward:
“We aim to foster a safe and supportive environment without prejudice, harassment or bullying of any sort, at any level.”
Spacey was not on set of House Of Cards when Rapp’s story broke. He issued an apology for “… my deeply inappropriate drunken behavior”. His statement blew up the Internet because he also used it to come out of the closet as a gay man.
Variety, the showbiz trade paper, writes that the producers have been exploring spin-off possibilities, all of them set in the same universe as House Of Cards, a show that is credited for Netflix being the first streaming service to have success with original programming when it premiered to great acclaim in 2013. The series has been nominated for 53 Primetime Emmy Awards, including five nominations for Outstanding Drama Series, and five nominations for Spacey for Outstanding Lead Actor.
The International Television Academy issued a statement that it was withdrawing its International Emmy Founders Award “in light of recent events”. The International Emmy Founders Award, which was to be presented to Spacey in a ceremony on November 20. It is a special award reserved for those “whose creative accomplishments have contributed in some way to the quality of global television production”.
Previous winners include Steven Spielberg and Downton Abbey creator Julian Fellowes.
