Kevin Spacey’s jaw-dropping video has done him no favours – but let’s leave the verdict to the courts

I’m not a fan of Kevin Spacey as a dining companion. Once I sat across the table from him while with mutual friends and found him a curiously non-communicative, opaque character. You always felt he was hiding something, but what, exactly? I’ll say one thing, though – he’s a fantastic actor, who made the TV series House of Cards (in which he played the scheming, stop-at-nothing president Frank Underwood) absolutely compelling.

So what are we to make of the bizarre video Spacey posted on YouTube this week, in which he wears a Santa apron to deliver a chilling monologue in character as Underwood. Staring at the camera he declares: “I feel surprisingly good.” That video has now been viewed over eight million times, but what does it reveal about Spacey’s mindset?

In the hothouse world of social media, Spacey has made a jaw-dropping move, inviting us to consider his predicament.

He has been ordered to appear in court in Nantucket on 7 January to face charges of sexual assault. It is alleged that in July 2016, he groped an off-duty waiter in a bar. The young man told Spacey he was 23, and spent 90 minutes drinking four or five beers and then the same number of glasses of whiskey. Then, he alleges, Spacey tried to unzip his flies and grope him. When Spacey went to the bathroom, the boy fled, and told his sister what had happened.

There are several important elements to this story – the young man was only 18 (unable to drink legally) – and admits he lied about his age. Now, it is being claimed he videoed the alleged assault on Snapchat, and showed his girlfriend. Spacey’s lawyers claim he didn’t report the incident to the police at the time (his mother – a former TV presenter – did so a year later) and say the amount of alcohol consumed would have impaired his judgement. In other words, they claim that the kid was drunk and untrustworthy.

Spacey’s response is unequivocal: “If I didn’t pay the price for the things we both know I did do, I’m certainly not going to pay the price for the things I didn’t do.” The response from other actors has been withering. Rosanna Arquette wrote: “Kevin Spacey has apparently lost his mind.” Ellen Barkin joked #LostinSpacey.

I don’t doubt that the 59-year-old has shown evidence of a predatory character. Since #MeToo took off in 2017, he has been accused of inappropriate behaviour in the US and the UK. But it’s important to remember that he has not been found guilty of anything. Until the moment in 2017 when the actor Anthony Rapp said that Spacey had abused him in 1986 when he was 14, the star had never talked about his sexuality. He used Rapp’s accusation as an opportunity to come out, and claimed he would be addressing “issues” in his life. He apologised to Rapp, but said he could not remember the incident, which had occurred 30 years earlier.

Sexual harassment of any kind is vile and the victims are more often than not less powerful, younger and far more vulnerable than the predator. That’s why they have been chosen. I am not condoning the kind of behaviour Spacey has been accused of. More than 20 people have subsequently come forward and said he behaved inappropriately to them during his tenure as artistic director of the Old Vic Theatre, from 2004-2015. The theatre has now instituted a safeguarding scheme for staff. Why did it take them so long?

The fact remains, though, that up to now, Spacey has not been charged with any crime in the UK, in spite of police investigating at least six alleged incidents which took place over 22 years.

In the US, an allegation that the actor groped someone in West Hollywood in 1992 was dropped because it happened too long ago. Prosecutors haven’t decided whether to proceed with another allegation that he groped a masseur at a house in Malibu in 2016. The man claims that Spacey grabbed his genitals and tried to kiss him, and says he is now suffering from “severe mental anguish”. Actors have come forward and said he created a “toxic atmosphere” when they worked with him on various shows. Various men have said he tried to grope them years ago. Ho-hum.

Spacey has been dropped from House of Cards (the final series was pathetic without him) and his scenes in Ridley Scott’s All the Money in the World were reshot with Christopher Plummer. He was going to get an Emmy award and it was taken back. He remains a showbiz pariah.

There’s a world of difference between forcing yourself on a child (Rapp went to an apartment with Spacey, who was 26 at the time, and claims the actor tried to get on top of him in a bed), and trying to grope an adult male masseur, one who waited over a year to make a complaint.

In his video, Spacey (as Frank Underwood) says “they are just dying to have me declare that everything said is true and that I got what I deserved. But you wouldn’t believe the worst without evidence, would you? You wouldn’t rush to judgement without facts, would you? Did you?”

He might be pretty loathsome, but the man has a point. As a society, we do love a snap judgement – take Paul Gait and Elaine Kirk, the poor couple who were questioned by the hapless local police in Sussex, after a drone closed Gatwick airport and caused over 1,000 fights to be cancelled. Named, shamed, pilloried and yet totally blameless. Now they are being helped by counsellors to deal with the fallout.

Let’s not rush to sit in judgement until judge and jury have delivered a verdict. Kevin Spacey deserves at least that small amount of dignity, doesn’t he? Or are we keen to return to public floggings?

Astonishingly, I have something in common with Donald Trump – we’ve both suffered from bone spurs on our feet.

This week, Trump made a surprise visit to address the troops in Iraq, but as a young student he was extremely reluctant to enter a war zone. In 1968, when he was 22, a doctor delivered a diagnosis which led to a 1-Y exemption from the draft to fight in Vietnam, on account of “bone spurs”.

Up to then, Trump had played football, tennis and squash enthusiastically. The New York Times has now spoken to the daughters of the podiatrist concerned, and they allege it was a favour for Donald’s father Fred, who owned the building in Queens where their father rented an office. Trump managed to achieve four further deferments from the draft, as he was studying full-time.

My bone spurs were removed by surgery when I was 14, and I was fully recovered within a couple of months and back on the tennis court.

In 1968, my husband and I sheltered several of his friends from California who were fleeing to Sweden to avoid being sent to a horrible war.

Lucky Donald had his dad and a helpful podiatrist to ensure he never had to leave America.