The Turin Cinema Museum pulls straight on the prize Star of the Mole to Kevin Spacey. In these hours, the news of the arrival of the House of Cards actor in the city in his first public outing for the delivery of the award and for the masterclass staged on Monday has divided and aroused controversy. The Undersecretary of Culture Vittorio Sgarbi will also be rewarding the actor.
The target of the contrary reactions is the choice of the Museum to invite him despite being at the center of allegations of alleged harassment and sexual violence by some men, reported several years later in the wake of the international MeToo campaigns. Among the realities that have railed against the invitation to the actor, there is Hamleta collective of actresses born “to highlight and contrast the gender gap and discrimination in the world of entertainment”.
However, the division does not cause a change to the Museum’s plans. No second thoughts? “Not even by chance, we reward the artistic life of Kevin Spacey, we are the Cinema Museum, the home of cinema and cinema we are talking about. The controversies are legitimate, everyone can represent the instances they believe and I do not express judgments but I will not budge from a millimetre”, specifies a Republic the president of the Museum of Cinema, Enzo Ghigo. And on the ongoing trials he adds: “I am culturally and politically guarantor, not alternating current like some”.
The two-time Oscar-winning actor just this morning connected via video to the hearing on the alleged sexual offenses in the ongoing trial in London. Before a judge of the Southwark Crown Court of the English capital took the floor only to confirm his full name, Kevin Spacey Fowler and plead “not guilty” to the seven charges: one non-consensual sexual intercourse, three episodes of indecent exposure and three of aggressive harassment, according to the accusation dating back to the period between 2001 and 2005. Last July the Hollywood star had already pleaded not guilty to 5 other counts resulting from depositions previously collected by the British police. In October, however, the jury of New York acquitted him of the charge of molesting an actor who was underage at the time.
Kevin Spacey walks in Turin, between smiles and selfies
The procedural events therefore followed him to the city of the Mole, where he is spending days as a tourist, the same city where he shot in the spring of 2021 the film considered by many to be the redemption “The Man Who Drawn God”the first since leaving the scene after the allegations of sexual harassment in 2017. Spacey arrived in Turin on Wednesday, took a walk in the San Carlos square where he had lunch at Caffè Torino and did not shy away from greetings and selfies to tourists. Today he dedicated himself to the last inspections in the museum for the master class to be held on Monday. Also Monday evening will then introduce the vision of American Beauty at the Massimo cinema. A tour of the Langhe would be planned for the weekend together with other friends who will join him in these hours in the city of the Mole.
“I am certain and convinced – Ghigo points out – that the Cinema Museum was right to invite him, we are honored that he has chosen him for the first public outing and we are ready to enjoy the two-time Oscar award”. And on the charges, he adds, “I am a cultural and political guarantor. Even when events have happened to political opponents, consequently in this case in which he was acquitted in one trial while in the other he must be judged”.
