Kevin Spacey unceremoniously dumped by Netflix in 2017 over allegations of sexual harassment and shunned since despite being cleared by courts in the UK and the US of allegations is being supported by fellow thespians who insist he has been badly treated.
Stephen Fry accepted Spacey had been ‘clumsy’ and ‘inappropriate’ but should not be lumped in ‘with the likes of Harvey Weinstein’. Trevor Nunn, Liam Gleeson, Sharion Stone have spoken out asking he be allowed back into the industry. F Murray Abraham accused his detractors of being “vultures”.
In the initial court case Spacey was cleared of all allegations and his accuser was ordered to pay him $40,000 (£31,600) in damages.
Sexual offence allegations always inhabit a swamp where it is all too easy to leap to judgement in either direction. Always believing accusers discounts those with ulterior/vengeful, pecuniary motives. While those who routinely deny sexual offences brandish questionable motives behind allegations as a get-out-of-jail-free card every time as a way of silencing victims.
The middle-of-the-road bemused assume there is no smoke without fire and a Netflix dismissal spoke volumes – except they acted without any investigation or proof.
Two things were always true – well three. Spacey was psychologically damaged by a sexually abusive, neo-Nazi brute of a father. Secondly he is hugely talented as an actor. Thirdly much sexually clumsy or provocative behaviour passed as the norm in pre-#METOO days and I speak as someone who started work in a Glasgow paper newsroom and then in television. I don’t mean rape or underage, just the jousting between the sexes or same-sexes was an ever present part of working life. Modern HRs would have a breakdown nowadays at what went on and no one raised an eyebrow.
Spacey’s birth data is somewhat muddy but the one he claims himself of 27 July 1959 5.51 am South Orange, New Jersey, worked well enough when it came to his fall from grace. At that point tr Pluto was square the Aries Midheaven with tr Uranus just across it and into his 10th for a spectacular career and reputation meltdown.
He has a Leo Sun square a 10th house Taurus Moon opposition Neptune so will have an ego, creative abilities and at times a lack of common sense and realism. His Moon is trine Saturn trine Mars Pluto in Virgo – for a cruel childhood which left its mark in anger and probably loss of empathy. His sensitivity to others’ wishes and needs will have been blunted. Mars Pluto can be overly forceful in approach and enraged when opposed. Plus he has his North Node in Libra hinting that cooperation is not his strong point. On this birth time his Chiron is on the cusp of his 8th house of sexuality which may be significant.
But guilty or not, or to what degree, he has no magic eraser coming up to wipe out the past seven years and restore his former glory. Tr Pluto is square his 10th house Moon this year and next for challenges and blockages in his career along with a good deal of emotional angst. Then tr Pluto moves to oppose his Sun and square his Neptune in 2025 to 2027 putting him under tremendous pressure. At the same time tr Neptune Saturn in Aries will square his Saturn; and tr Uranus will square his Pluto Mars also from 2025 through 2027. It’ll be an uphill struggle ahead.
Some of his victims were 14. That’s not “clumsy” advances – it’s a deliberate grooming of underaged victims.
There’s no middle ground where all abusers lie, and it’s estimated that less than 5% of victims lie.
I’m a counsellor I’ve had a client who told me a 3 year old girl asked for ‘it’. He was accused of being pedo. It is really terrible how these perverts think.
Predators thrive in the hothouses of prejudice fear and shame. As the stigma of same -sex attraction and relationships fades then predators are more likely to be caught and stopped, perhaps through the law, or through other means.
And while MeToo has been useful in bringing these issues into the mainstream the movement began as campaign to draw attention to girls in oppressed circumstances who are not famous, nor powerful. Nor are their abusers. Their predators – the boys and men in their communities remain at large and usually escape justice. The popularity of Andrew Tate and others of his ilk feels like there’s so much more we need to do in our homes and neighborhoods, schools and workplaces to foster decent, consensual interactions between people. The issue of power needs much more discussion. I remember New York back in the day and having grown up there, I knew it well. All of us as teens thought of ourselves as fully grown. We thought we knew more about the world than our parents and we couldn’t wait to get a job, leave home. We snuck into Studio 54 and more outlandish establishments. Me and my friends were saved by an ‘ick’ response we had to older men chatting us up. But others in my age group were off to Europe and the Caribbean thanks to older men, that today we’d call predators.
We all have insight now on how such relationships can damage lives. We need to find ways to bring that insight more fully to bear, especially to those most vulnerable to abuse. The ones most vulnerable in my day were young people whose families were a bit cold and distant with their kids.
I have been a longtime LGBT ally. I have also been an advocate of those experiencing domestic and sexual violence. Both exist in the LGBT community as they do in the hetero community. Sexual preference doesn’t turn a “no” into a “yes.” I searched Marjorie’s past charts and see one for actor Brendan Fraser on January 23, 2023. He accused the president of the Golden Globes of sexual assault at the time of an event in 2003. The man admitted in his own memoir he had groped Brendan but he did not file charges but states the incident contributed to a period of depression, which included his mother’s passing, surgeries, and the breakdown of his marriage. His career was having a setback. Pluto waa transiting his 8H and was in his sun sign of Sagg.
When I see Leo Sun / Taurus moon I’m reminded of those exemplars of sexual propriety Bill Clinton and Mick Jagger. Aside from the astrology (a lot of unpleasant potential. merc Leo makes for threatening and intimidating people based on my experience of the same) I think Spacey is tainted beyond repair in the public consciousness however “innocent” the law has found him. If he was straight, this would be certain career death but notice how a “nuanced” case is often made for gay public figures in these circumstances – they are “clumsy” whilst the straights are ‘predatory’. This is because victimhood is understood as Feminine – its the visual gestalt – the lens through which decision-makers see the world. In these cases involving gay men, the male victim is often portrayed as an ‘accuser’ in a thinly veiled attack i.e. he is a money or fame hungry predator – a male Lolita. The actual accused on the other hand is portrayed as the ‘poor old clumsy sap’ duped by the younger man – in other words, Grandma Spacey is the *real* victim here folks. Nice bit of script-flipping. And playing on the idea of a ‘promiscuous young gay man’ (aka dangerous). They are peddling the Lolita narrative. This is exactly how cases used to be construed involving older straight men and young women/girls – “she was asking for it/she seduced him – what’s a guy to do?”. Imagine the outcry if sexual misconduct allegations by young women were met with that response now when we are instructed to believe everything the female victim alleges without demur. To question her is to “victim-blame”. Our response has been socially re-engineered using ‘ metoo’. Her knee was squeezed = faux media outrage. HIS knee was squeezed = so what? nothing to see here folks. A similar thing is going on with the awful Philip Schofield. The current softly-softly media effort to rehabilitate his reputation means that sadly, we can expect to see him back on tv soon. His “misdemeanors” and image are soft-peddled. The system has created a culture which doesn’t care about male victims of abuse because again, male victims of sexual abuse are not seen. The gender of men is made invisible except when they are Heterosexual Predators. In other words, men and boys are de-victimised. This is especially true of young gay men who continue to be treated like young women used to be treated in these circumstances. Wouldn’t it be nice if they could re-engineer *that* response?
The echo chamber of celebs in support of Spacey is nothing less than Special Pleading. Did the cat get their brave tongues when it came to defending straight male colleagues from those ‘clumsy’ allegations? Guess what? Some older gay men can be predatory. Comparing Spacey to Weinstein is straw manning it. Weinstein is of a different order. Look at Craig McLachlan – a more apt comparison. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-australia-55312358. This guy’s life and career were flushed down the toilet despite him being being cleared of all charges made by several actresses. The media imply that “he got away with it” because the media is highly biased in favour of those they approve of. LGBTQ public figures receive kid glove treatment – unless and until the allegations are proved and even then, they have to be demonstrably egregious before the media will throw the guilty party under the bus. A mere whiff of smoke is sufficient grounds to ruthlessly discard others who are deemed disposable. We can guess who those are by now.
I’d wager that the truth is that Spacey did do something but the victim was not able to adduce hard evidence e.g. video footage – its a ‘he said/he said’ situation. Its known that Spacey likes much younger men. Much. (By the way, anyone under 18 is a child under UK law in sexual offence cases).
Apologists like Fry are repugnant. They fully exploit their cosy celebrity to traffic in their ill-informed, outdated views and the public laps it up, especially in Fry’s case because he’s gay which is why they trot him out. These forever-piping-up celebs are the “useful idiots” strategically deployed by the system to help get the Spacey’s of this world a free pass.
Interesting analysis.
As someone who grew up alongside friends/family in the gay London scene, I can say that these activities were heard-of and frowned upon by them for many years before someone had the courage to take Spacey to court. They were shocked and saddened that his accuser was so let down in the end. Being a good actor does not equate to being a good man. If you had a young son in the entertainment industry you would understand and fear the abuses of power and position. Why do you think ITV and BBC let ‘star performers’ slink away? The London and Hollywood industries are riddled. The few that made it to the news are just the top of a festering mess. Toxic fans and ‘interested parties’ scream accusers down and muddy the waters for those who might seek genuine justice. The only winners are those who watched the trial intently as they want to quietly carry on behind closed doors, unhindered by an potentially educated and outraged public who would bring all this to an end. Very sad situation.
I completely understand where you are coming from. Yet Spacey went to court? The court case cleared him. So where do we go from here? The court of TV? Where people make programmes challenging the courts? Or make further programmes? Where does this leave the judicial system? Are TV programmes “judged” properly, or made by friends etc? We are treading a very serious road here. As Spacey was cleared, now for the court of public? TV lynching? A difficult road indeed! A maybe a frightening one. As who is in charge?
@Anna – completely agree. The grooming and abuse of children and young people is at epidemic levels. Young men and boys are being groomed right under our noses but people refuse to see it because of gender-based stereotypes. Men and boys are effectively silenced by the system which only recognises women and girls as victims. The research literature shows that boys are subjected to abuse at a younger age and it is much more severe harm.
Its been going on for decades. Watch the recent programme about the Bay City Rollers on ITVx. The manager sexually abused them. He treated the whole enterprise as his personal honeypot and many other men from the entertainment industry were involved in what were effectively sex parties where young men were preyed upon. It was classic grooming and sexual exploitation using drugs, alcohol and career favours. Poor old Les McKeown never recovered and died prematurely young.
Sadly my main quite extensive comment on this has been completely censored. There was no bad language etc. so obviously there are other reasons. It would be interesting to know why. I guess it was a bit too close to the truth.
Nonsense. If you put URLs in a post it has to wait to be moderated and I am not sitting on top of the site every waking moment.
And don’t be so sanctimonious – you don’t have a monopoly on the truth,. When I described sexual offence allegations as a swamp it was with a point. I know only too well since I was knee deep in it through the 90s.
My comment did not show up for a while so clearly there was quite a time lag between my posting and it appearing, that’s all. My comment was not directed at you so no need to resort to personal attacks. I won’t post anymore.
and you dont have a monoply on the truth either Marjorie.
When I was at College I spent the night at a friend’s bedsit rather than going home. A gay friend who lived upstairs knocked on the door and asked if he could spend the night.
It seemed that he and his conquest had got their wires crossed as to which way the other flew. Let’s just say her friend wasn’t into being on the receiving end. Anyway the guy got the hint but only after several hours had passed.
This was 1976 or thereabouts. In Britain, 21 was the age of consent for gay men. Although teenagers were allowed to frequent gay pubs and clubs. As far as the clubs went that was probably illegal unless you were accompanied by adults. Anyway it would be many years before it dropped down to 18 ( I can’t remember when that was.)and then to 16 the Tony Blair years.
There was plenty of discussion at that point about how strange it was that it was now legal to do to a boy, what was illegal to do to a girl. And how it was all right for teenagers to do this, but not acceptable for a man to be with a 16 year old boy. For me I was just relieved that they hadn’t dropped it to 14 as many politicians wanted them to. Their reasoning being well it is 14 on the continent.
For the most part 1976 seemed to me to be a pretty joyous time to be gay. As a straight woman, that was my impression. For the most part it seemed to be an anything goes sort of culture. Though there was an attitude of: why are you here if you don’t want sex, sort of attitude. And that attitude doesn’t really recognise the right to refuse.
Do I remember men touching each other up?
Yes.
Do I remember straight men touching women up?
Yes.
The difference was, that women thought the men were jerks and the gay men didn’t really seem to mind. That was my impression.
But if you asked me what wound them up, then it would be the straight lads pretending to be gay when they weren’t. That was infuriating. I understand it still happens today.
So while this took place in England, I imagine that the New York of Kevin Spacey’s 20s was very similar. Am I surprised that people have done the dirty on him, not really. If people can out the dead or make up false allegations about them. Then it is only a small step to make up stories about the living. I am glad at last that his fellow actors are sticking up for him, about time!
Marjorie, thank you for the excellent article on talented Kevin Spacey. Not all abused children grow up to abuse others. Is there something in the chart that makes them repeat the cycle of abuse?
Insight – if you are aware of what was done to you and the damage it caused there is less chance of the abusive pattern repeating. But as to what in the chart shows up insight? No idea.
Thanks Marjorie. I was interested to see the recent ‘celebrity’ support for Kevin Spacey. A mesmerising actor, and hugely damaged individual – there are other examples I think, with some damaged people projecting some kind of charisma that others find alluring. The film business is full of them.
Having watched a recent documentary, I can see that his behaviour goes back to before he was so famous – although fame and power clearly made it easier for him to just go ahead. However, as you say, he is not a rapist or a paedophile. Mars/Pluto must have something to do with it, since he was a victim of his toxic childhood, and then went on to grab (literally) what and who he wanted in life. Debutantes and their guardians or mothers used to label certain men Not Safe in Taxis, to denote men who liked to lunge and grab women when alone in a cab. There’s an element of NSIT about Spacey.
The Uranus transit square his Chiron will be sitting on his Black Moon Lilith in Taurus – along with Mars and Algol this summer. I tend to see Chiron and BML as catalyst points, hard to interpret but often quite potent. Results may be subtle, but possibly this recent support for him is just the start of a wider debate?