American actor, Kevin Spacey will pay $1million to the makers of House of Cards to settle claims he sexually harassed young staffers on the show.
MRC, the production company behind the show, dropped Spacey from the final season of House of Cards in 2017 and tried to recoup the costs for scrapping the final season and replacing him.
An arbitrator deemed the allegations by the young show employees credible and Spacey, who has always denied the allegations, faced a $31million judgment in the case.
But MRC and Spacey have now reached a settlement, which will see the actor pay only $1million (£791,000) – in installments equal to 10 percent of his after-tax income – to the company over the next few years instead of the $36million he owed including interest, Puck reported.
In return, Spacey will help MRC in their attempt to recoup the costs from its insurance company.
MRC previously sued Fireman’s Fund and Lloyd’s of London, saying that Spacey’s absence from House of Cards was covered under the cast insurance policies, which usually protect production companies if an actor gets too sick to perform.
But the lawsuit was thrown out twice last year since the judge did not believe Spacey allegedly checking himself into a treatment facility for sex addiction qualified as a claim under the policy.
‘The court is left with the conclusion that these policies just do not insure against this particular risk, and that neither party was really contemplating coverage for this sort of thing at the time the policies were signed,’ Judge Mark Epstein said at the time, according to Variety.
