Kevin Spacey picks up lifetime achievement award in Italy – days after UK court appearance
Kevin Spacey has picked up a lifetime achievement award in Italy – days after appearing in court in the UK to deny allegations of sexual assault.
In his first official speaking engagement since the #MeToo-era allegations came to light, the 63-year-old visited the city of Turin where he was honoured with an award for contributing to the growth of cinema.
The two-time Academy Award winner was also scheduled to teach a masterclass and introduce a screening of the 1999 film American Beauty.
It comes after Spacey appeared at London’s Southwark Crown Court by video link on Friday to deny three counts of indecent assault, three counts of sexual assault and one count of causing a person to engage in sexual activity without consent.
He has previously denied five other allegations in the UK.
During a speech prior to receiving his award on Monday night, Spacey – who has not conducted an official public speaking engagement since sex abuse allegations came to light in 2017 – denied withdrawing from public life.
Speaking to local news agency Ansa, he said: “I live my life every day, I go to restaurants, I meet people, drive, play tennis, I’ve always managed to meet generous, genuine, compassionate people.
“I haven’t hidden away, I haven’t gone to live in a cave.”
Fans take selfies with Kevin Spacey
Spacey, who received the Mole Antonelliana lifetime achievement award at the National Museum of Cinema in Turin, thanked the venue for having had “le palle”- Italian for “balls” – to invite him.
“My heart is very full toward the Museum of Cinema for having had the ‘palle’ to invite me tonight,” he told the audience.
He also thanked the museum’s director Domenico De Gaetano and head of international relations Marco Fallanca for putting on the event.
“By presenting this award, they are making a strong defence of artistic achievement and for that, they should be applauded,” he said.
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Spacey also gave a special mention to his manager, Evan Lowenstein.
He said: “Evan has not only stood beside me. He has stood in front of me when I needed to be led and stood behind me when I needed to be shoved.”
Spacey, who lost his starring role in House of Cards following the allegations, filmed his most recent movie, director Franco Nero’s The Man Who Drew God, in Turin.
On Sunday, he visited football side Torino’s Olympic Stadium for their Serie A match against Spezia, where he posed for a photograph with a club shirt emblazoned with his name.
Spacey is scheduled to go on trial in London in June on a dozen charges alleging he sexually assaulted four men between 2001 and 2013, including when he was the artistic director at the city’s Old Vic theatre.
He has pleaded not guilty.
In October, a federal jury in a New York civil case found Spacey not liable over sexual abuse allegations by actor Anthony Rapp, dating back to when both were relatively unknown Broadway actors in 1986 and Rapp was 14 years old.
Spacey previously faced allegations in Massachusetts that he groped a man at a bar.
Prosecutors later dropped the charges.
A woman who was charged with selling Friends star Matthew Parry the dose of the drug that killed him has agreed to plead guilty.
Jasveen Sangha, known as the “Ketamine Queen”, is the fifth and final defendant to strike a plea deal with prosecutors, avoiding a trial that was set to take place in September.
The 42-year-old agreed to plead guilty to five federal criminal charges, including providing the Ketamine that led to Perry’s death, federal prosecutors said in a statement.
She agreed to plead guilty to five federal criminal charges, including providing the Ketamine that led to Perry’s death, federal prosecutors said in a statement.
Prosecutors had cast Sangha, a dual US and UK national, as a prolific drug dealer known to her customers as the “Ketamine Queen”, often using the term in court documents and even including it in the official name of the case.
Actor Matthew Perry in 2015. File pic: Reuters
She agreed to plead guilty to one count of maintaining a drug-involved premises, three counts of distribution of ketamine, and one count of distribution of ketamine resulting in death or serious bodily injury.
Sangha will officially change her plea to guilty at an upcoming hearing, where sentencing will be scheduled, prosecutors said.
Dr. Mark Chavez, a physician from San Diego, who is charged in connection with Matthew Perry’s fatal overdose. Pic: AP
She is facing up to 45 years in prison.
Sangha and a doctor named Salvador Plasencia, who signed his own plea deal in June, had been the primary targets of the investigation.
Three other defendants – Mark Chavez, who it was claimed bought the drug from Sangha, Kenneth Iwamasa, and Erik Flemin – agreed to plead guilty last year in exchange for their cooperation, which included statements implicating Sangha and Plasencia.
Friends became one of the most popular TV shows in the world in the 1990s and 2000s
Prosecutors allege Chavez funnelled ketamine to Plasencia, securing some of the drug from a wholesale distributor through a fraudulent prescription.
In one instance, prosecutors allege that Plasencia “charged Perry $2,000 (£1,500) a vial that cost Dr Chavez approximately $12 (£9)”.
Perry died in his home in October 2023, aged 54, after getting ketamine from his regular doctor for treatment of depression, which is an increasingly common use for the surgical anaesthetic.
The actor was taking ketamine six to eight times a day before he died, according to court documents.
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An Ozzy Osbourne documentary has disappeared from the BBC’s schedule without explanation.
The film was billed by producers as “a moving and inspirational account” of the last chapter of the metal legend’s life.
It was meant to air at 9pm on Monday on BBC One – as well as be available on iPlayer – but an episode of Fake Or Fortune? has replaced it.
Sky News has contacted the BBC for comment on why the programme, called Ozzy Osbourne: Coming Home, has been pulled.
The project was filmed over three years as Ozzy and his family returned to the UK, and was initially conceived as a series entitled Home to Roost.
However, as the singer’s health got worse it morphed into a one-off.
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The BBC reported the show would reveal the “extraordinary rollercoaster” of the Osbournes’ lives as Ozzy tries “heroically” to get fit enough to perform again.
It’s said to feature “unique and intimate access” to the family, including Ozzy’s children, Jack and Kelly, who appeared in the reality series that made them household names in the early 2000s.
The Black Sabbath frontman, who had Parkinson’s disease, died last month – just a few weeks after his final all-star gig at Birmingham’s Villa Park.
Fans packed the city centre and chanted his name when his hearse passed through on 30 July.
His wife, Sharon, was in tears as she got out to see the mass of flowers left for him at “Sabbath Bridge”.
The New York Times said his death certificate gave the cause as cardiac arrest, but the family hasn’t commented.
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