Hollywood star Kevin Spacey walked the red carpet at the Cannes Film Festival on Wednesday, another step towards his comeback from sexual assault allegations.
The 66-year-old, who received a lifetime achievement award from a charity in Cannes last year, attended the premiere of a French blockbuster about political leader Charles de Gaulle with Uzbek model Via Leman on Wednesday.
The female model’s lively and enthusiastic appearance alongside Spacey on the red carpet has raised some eyebrows on social media, with some questioning her energetic behavior.
However, the actor looked relaxed and smiled at Via Lemon’s enthusiastic performance as the two posed for photos.
It is important to mention here that Kevin Spacey identifies as a gay man. In a 2017 statement he said, “I have had relationships with both men and women. I have loved men and had romantic encounters with them all my life, and now I choose to live as a gay man.”
He has described waiting for it to come out for personal and family reasons, including thoughts of his father.
The star of “American Beauty” and the drama series “House of Cards” saw his once-proud career derailed by multiple allegations of sexual crimes, which first surfaced in 2017 as part of the #MeToo movement.
Spacey, who maintained his innocence, was acquitted of nine counts of alleged sex crimes in Britain in 2023, and a New York court dismissed a $40 million civil sexual misconduct lawsuit against the “usual suspects” actor in 2022.
In March this year, he reached an out-of-court settlement with three people who had filed a civil suit against him in the UK.
Under pressure from lawmakers and #MeToo anti-abuse activists, the Cannes festival unveiled a zero-tolerance policy on sexual misconduct last year.
Spacey told Britain’s Telegraph newspaper in November last year that he no longer had a fixed home and had spent his fortune, “very little comes in and everything goes out”.
He starred in the 2024 film “Peter Five Eight,” which was largely ignored by critics, and late last year landed his first TV role since the scandals in “Minimarket,” a comedy series for Italy’s state broadcaster RAI, Variety reported.
He won the Best Supporting Actor Oscar for the 1996 film “The Usual Suspects” and the Best Actor Oscar for “American Beauty” in 2000.
