In New York, the Oscar-winning actor Kevin Spacey is on trial for allegedly sexually assaulting a youngster 36 years ago.
Anthony Rapp has filed a civil claim against Kevin Spacey, alleging that the actor inappropriately grabbed him at a party in 1986, when Rapp was 14 years old.
Mr. Spacey, 63, faces five different sexual assault charges in the United Kingdom.
The actor from House of Cards has disputed the accusations made against him.
Mr. Rapp, now 51 and also an actor, and Mr. Spacey were present at the federal courthouse in Manhattan on Thursday, when jury selection began.
Mr. Rapp claims that he met Mr. Spacey at a party at his Manhattan apartment when he was 26 or 27 years old.
Mr. Rapp stated in an October 2017 Buzzfeed piece that Mr. Spacey had taken him up, placed him on a bed, and then partially laid on top of him.
Mr. Rapp stated, “I was aware that he was attempting to have sexual relations with me.”
According to his lawsuit, the alleged meeting lasted no longer than two minutes, and “there was no kissing, undressing, reaching under clothing, or sexually explicit words or innuendo.”
Mr. Spacey, whose true name is Kevin Spacey Fowler, was charged with violence and intentional infliction of mental distress in September 2020.
Mr. Rapp is reportedly demanding $40m (£35m) in damages.
The assigned judge, Lewis A. Kaplan, earlier dismissed a sexual assault charge because the statute of limitations had lapsed.
Mr. Spacey went to social media the day after the Buzzfeed article was published five years ago to claim he had no recollection of what Mr. Rapp had said.
“If I acted as he describes, I owe him a heartfelt apology for my profoundly inappropriate inebriated behavior at the time,” he wrote.
“I am sorry for the feelings he has described carrying with him for so many years.”
According to the news website Law & Crime, Mr. Spacey disputed that the incident ever occurred in a video deposition made in January with his attorneys.
Mr. Rapp’s account “could not have been accurate,” he stated, because “I have no interest in boys and do not inappropriately touch people.”
Mr. Rapp currently appears in the Paramount+ series Star Trek: Discovery and previously appeared in the Broadway musical Rent.
Separate sex assault allegations, alleging that Mr. Spacey touched an 18-year-old in a restaurant in Nantucket, Massachusetts, in 2016, were dismissed in 2019 after the actor’s attorneys contended that the complainant falsified text messages on his phone.
A judge ordered in August that Spacey must pay $31 million to the House of Cards producers for the fees they incurred after firing him.
In London, in July, he pleaded not guilty to criminal allegations of sexually abusing three men more than a decade ago. This trial is scheduled to commence in June 2023.
