Today, on his 64th birthday, Kevin Spacey was acquitted on nine charges of sexual assault in the United Kingdom. The actor has admitted to questionable sexual behavior in the past, but a jury hasn’t yet found him guilty of assault.
Justice systems are hardly good monitors of morality. Spacey might have committed sexual crimes, and his accusers may not have sufficient enough evidence to prove it — but sometimes courts can’t prove as crimes things that appear morally unsound.
When actor Anthony Rapp accused the actor of making a sexual advance when Rapp was 14, Hollywood, and the world, condemned Spacey immediately — but it only took a New York jury an hour last year to declare that Rapp couldn’t prove allegations against Spacey. Unreported Story Society, a new podcast, has a nine-part series on the Spacey trial. The show explores: “What does the trial of Kevin Spacey say about the state of justice in America following the rise of the #MeToo movement?” Podcast host and journalist Ann McElhinney questions Spacey’s cancellation.
I don’t recall many people questioning the Spacey narrative. All I remember about the news cycle is accusation after accusation, accompanied by photos of the downtrodden actor on an island somewhere. It’s possible that multiple lawyers, judges, and juries all failed to convict a predator (which could be true). But the podcast intends to explore whether the Me Too movement struck without a reliable case (which could also be true). Whatever comes next for Spacey, his life remains in a strange twilight zone: marred by accusation, but unable to either clear his name or be punished by the legal system.