Accusations are serious, but no one should be considered guilty until proven otherwise.
Sometimes it seems to me that we live in an era where an accusation is not just news, but already a verdict. And it doesn’t matter who we’re talking about: a politician, musician, teacher, or actor. Sometimes all it takes is one loud headline in the media, and that’s it. Period. A person’s life is divided into “before” and “after,” and very often without the slightest chance of returning to what was “before.”
Let’s take a look at the latest news about Kevin Spacey.
According to BBC News, three new civil lawsuits have been filed in a London court by men who claim they were sexually harassed by the actor between 2000 and 2013.
Two of the plaintiffs have remained anonymous. The plaintiff, known as LNP, claims that Spacey harassed him about a dozen times between 2000 and 2005. Another plaintiff, known as GHI, said the actor caused him psychological trauma and financial loss in 2008. A third plaintiff, Ruairi Cannon, has publicly stated that the actor allegedly harassed him at a party in 2013 when Spacey was running the Old Vic theater.
Spacey himself denies all allegations. He has officially denied two lawsuits, but has not yet denied the third. The trial will take place in the High Court in London, starting on October 12, 2026.
Spacey previously told The Telegraph in an interview that after previous similar allegations, legal proceedings, and a high-profile scandal in the press, he was effectively “homeless.” He said that he is now barely making ends meet and lives in hotels or rents accommodation through Airbnb. He also added that he lost his home in Baltimore due to huge expenses over the past seven years and an almost complete lack of income.
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In 2017, Kevin Spacey was accused of sexual harassment by about 20 people, including colleagues from the series House of Cards, but his guilt could not be proven.
The scandal destroyed his career: Spacey was fired from the series, stripped of his Emmy Award, and cut from the film All the Money in the World. He paid the producers of House of Cards $32.2 million and sold his mansion for $10.9 million to cover legal costs.
In 2023, a London court found Kevin Spacey not guilty on all counts of sexual assault. The American actor, who turned 64 on the day of the verdict, cried in the courtroom.
In February this year, actor Guy Pearce accused Kevin Spacey of sexually harassing him on the set of the 1997 film L.A. Confidential. The 57-year-old actor said that Spacey had singled him out as a “target” and that he was genuinely afraid of him at the time.
Spacey recorded a video response on the social media platform X. He completely rejected Pearce’s words and said that he needed to “grow up.”
Influenced by scandalous headlines in the media, people’s attitudes toward a person’s reputation change faster than he can appear in court.
Kevin Spacey, an actor with a capital A. Has played more than 80 roles in films and television series throughout his career. He has won two Oscars (1996, 2000), but in 2017, after accusations, his career was on hold, doors were closed, and roles were canceled. And all this — not after a conviction, but after accusations.
We no longer wait for the final court decision. Social media, especially, is. In all this noise, the boundaries become blurred: assumptions and emotions begin to sound like facts.
A sensational headline, even the most inaccurate and unsubstantiated, spreads a thousand times faster than a court decision. And when someone is acquitted, no one is interested anymore. It’s as if we are tuned in to hear only one thing: “He was accused.” Everything else is just background noise.
The point is that we are not judges. But we love to play this game. We love certainty, even when it is fabricated. We love labels, even if they are unconfirmed. And most of all, we love drama — other people’s drama, preferably loud and scary.
But we should at least acknowledge that there is a huge difference between “accused” and “proven.” And that reputation is a fragile thing. It breaks faster than a paper cup in the wind. The story of Kevin Spacey is just one example.
“No smoke without a fire,” you might say, but let’s learn to pause and reflect. Let’s allow ourselves to doubt. Let’s acknowledge that accusations are not yet the truth, but only allegations. And that destroying a reputation is easier than anything, but restoring it is almost impossible, and that person will have to live with that for the rest of their life.
The truth without speculation is important. Let it not be perfect, let it not be convenient, let it not be unambiguous. But let it be real. There is no need to brand a person until their guilt has been proven.
This content reflects the author’s personal opinion.
