After being accused of sexually assaulting Anthony Rapp in 1986, Kevin Spacey employed the kind of diversionary tactic that might make his House Of Cards character proud. He used his time in the predator limelight to come out as a gay man while claiming not to remember waiting until he was alone with a then-14-year-old Rapp to pick him up and put him on his bed. He wasn’t really able to deflect criticism of his past and current behavior, though; instead, LGBTQ people in Hollywood called him out for opportunism and for conflating homosexuality with pedophilia.
Soon after, House Of Cards creator Beau Willimon expressed his support of Rapp while also claiming he’d never seen Spacey do anything untoward on set. So when Netflix announced House Of Cards would end after its upcoming sixth season, the move seemed to be related to the accusations, but the streaming company had been weighing that decision well before Rapp’s story broke.
But the International Academy of Television Arts & Sciences sure seems to be responding directly to the allegations against Spacey. The group, which is one of three bodies that vote on the Emmys, has rescinded the 2017 International Emmy Founders Award it was going to bestow on the actor. And instead of indulging in the drawn-out and drawling speeches that Frank Underwood so clearly favors, the Academy just issued this curt statement.
Spacey presumably received a version of this letter that was actually addressed to him, but there are otherwise zero qualms in this letter about taking back the Emmy Founders Award.