Actor ordered to pay $31 million after being fired for sexual misconduct allegations

An actor has been ordered by an arbitration judge to pay $31 million in "damages", after being fired from a TV series, due to sexual misconduct/assault allegations against him. (These were past allegations, not directly related to that TV series)

Supposedly the TV company MRC decided it was not "safe" to have the actor on the set.

This was amidst the allegations coming out and being made public, even though all the alleged incidents had taken place many years ago.

Actor Kevin Spacey has received multiple allegations of sexual misconduct, and even sexual assault, against several young men, though he was never actually convicted of any of those crimes.

The "damages" were awarded to the production company because apparently it has created huge problems for them, interrupting the TV series, now that the lead actor will be gone.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/entertain...ouse-of-cards-ouster/ar-AAR0mPI?ocid=msedgntp


Some thoughts... Yes, based on the situation it is likely that at least several of the allegations against the actor are true.

But is this arbitration ruling really fair?

The misconduct is alleged to have happened long before the production company hired him, and now that the production company is firing him, they are blaming the actor for that, and requiring that he pay damages for the costs incurred for interrupting the show due to him being fired.
And yes he probably did it, but an official legal determination that he did what he was alleged to have done in the past was never actually made.

Of course the claim that they had to fire him due to "workplace safety" was probably mostly an excuse. The real reason they had to fire him and remove him from the show was due to the horrible publicity of these allegations surfacing.

 

I can see both sides... quite a predicament.

I wonder if there was a clause in the contract that stipulates this sort of liability. It wouldn't surprise me.