Kevin Spacey to get award at Cannes despite new sexual misconduct case, internet slams France: 'You sheltered Polanski'
Kevin Spacey will be honoured this year on the sidelines of the Cannes Film Festival and the internet is not happy.
Hollywood actor Kevin Spacey is to be given a lifetime achievement award on the fringes of the Cannes film festival on Tuesday, despite being hit by a new sexual misconduct case. The award, although not part of the main Cannes Film Festival, has not gone down too well with the internet.
Kevin Spacey to get lifetime achievement award at Cannes
The Better World Fund told AFP that the actor -- who was acquitted of nine cases of alleged sex offences in Britain in 2023 -- will be recognised "for his decades of artistic brilliance" at a charity gala in the French Riviera resort.
The charity told AFP Monday that it had invited Spacey because he had been cleared by the courts. A New York court dismissed a $40 million civil sexual misconduct lawsuit against the Usual Suspects star in 2022.
The new case against Kevin Spacey
But last May, new claims of inappropriate sexual behaviour emerged in a British television documentary, Spacey Unmasked. In it, 10 men not involved in the UK court case involving Spacey accused him of behaving inappropriately towards them. But the 65-year-old, whose stellar career was derailed by the earlier claims, denied any wrongdoing.
In February, lawyers for former actor Ruari Cannon told AFP that he was taking a High Court case against Spacey and London's Old Vic Theatre, where the actor was artistic director between 2003 and 2015. In the documentary, Cannon accused Spacey of having touched him inappropriately in London when he was 21 and the American star was 53. Spacey was last on the red carpet at Cannes in 2016.
Internet miffed at France
As soon as the news broke out, the internet reacted, and the anger was directed at France and Cannes more than at Spacey himself. One commenter wrote on Reddit: “I'm not surprised. The french have been sheltering Roman Polanski since he drugged and raped a child in the 70s.” Polanski, an Oscar-winning filmmaker, has been in France for half a century after he was accused of grooming a minor in the 70s. Another Reddit user sarcastically added, “Wow, how very moral of you. Thank you so much for acknowledging Kevin Spacey’s crimes. I was worried he was culturally not condemned enough.”
One fan summed up France's confusing approach to the #MeToo movement: “I love France is always like one step forward (prosecute Depardieu), two steps back (celebrate Spacey) when it comes to the #MeToo movement.”
(With AFP inputs)
