Liam Neeson and Sharon Stone demand Kevin Spacey be returned to Hollywood's warm embrace

Multiple celebrities—Liam Neeson, Sharon Stone, Stephen Fry, and F. Murray Abraham, to name the main ones you’ve heard of—have issued a series of statements to U.K. paper The Telegraph today, demanding that actor Kevin Spacey be returned to Hollywood safe and sound, and freed from the terrifying prison of “Nobody wanting to cast him in stuff because he’s been the subject of sexual harassment and assault allegations for the last seven years.”

Spacey, Neeson wants us to know, “is a good man and a man of character,” and “our industry needs him and misses him greatly,” presumably including those parts of the industry that spent a great deal of money to digitally edit him out of their movies when the accusations against him surfaced back in 2017. Stone, meanwhile, asserted that she “can’t wait to see Kevin back at work.” She followed that with a slightly jumbled quote about aspiring actors accusing Spacey of sexual assaulting or harassing them, saying they “wanted and want to be around him,” and that “It’s terrible that they are blaming him for not being able to come to terms with themselves for using him and negotiating with themselves because they didn’t get their secret agendas.” (We do not know what this means, precisely, but she said it.)

Fry continued the messages of support for Spacey, who was recently the subject of a new TV documentary, Spacey Unmasked, which the man himself has denounced. Fry, at least, acknowledges the existence of possible impropriety, acknowledging that Spacey had been “both ‘clumsy’ and ‘inappropriate’ on many occasions.” (Sort of like the comedic persona of Lucille Ball, if she’d been accused by numerous young men of sexually inappropriate behavior over a long period of years.) But, Fry asserts, it’s wrong to “bracket him with the likes of Harvey Weinstein” and “to continue to harass and hound him, to devote a whole documentary to accusations that simply do not add up to crimes … how can that be considered proportionate and justified… Unless I’m missing something, I think he has paid the price.”

(Worth revisiting the basic facts here: Although Spacey has been accused of inappropriate behavior by a large number of men, he’s only faced major legal action twice, and come out the winner both times. Star Trek: Discovery star Anthony Rapp brought a lawsuit against Spacey in the United States in 2022, with Spacey ultimately being found non-liable on all charges. A criminal case in the U.K. ended with him being found non guilty on all charges in July of 2023.)

Okay, back to the demands: Abraham—who, it’s worth noting, departed Apple’s Mythic Quest after accusations of inappropriate on-set behavior of his own—rounded out the quartet of Spacey supporters, stating that “I vouch for him unequivocally. Who are these vultures who attack a man who has publicly accepted his responsibility for certain behaviour, unlike so many others? He is a fine man, I stand with him, and let he who is without sin cast the first stone.”

So, there you have it, Hollywood casting directors: Hire Kevin Spacey, or Sharon Stone, Liam Neeson, Stephen Fry, and F. Murray Abraham—oh, and the former artistic director of the Royal Shakespeare company, who also piped up—will be very disappointed in you.