Media Rights Capital’s loss in an pricey insurance dispute over the demise of Netflix‘s House of Cards ultimately was a reversal of fortune and shifting alliances right out of Frank Underwood’s playbook.
Swinging from fighting Kevin Spacey in court, the production company founded by Modi Wiczyk and Asif Satchu turned its focus a few years back to insurer Fireman’s Fund in the hopes of recouping the more than $100 million in losses MRC reckons it suffered from HoC’s sputtering end and Spacey-less final season in 2018.
If the much-accused Spacey indeed was sick (in this case with a sexual compulsive disorder aka sex addiction), the court would agree the insurance would cover HoC’s losses and the books (and cards) would be rebalanced.
With top attorneys like Michael Kump leading the charge, MRC had specialists, medical reports and more all lined up.
They had a 2024 deal MRC made with Spacey to reduce a $31 million judgment against the strapped Oscar winner to $1 million that looked to have their former star player on board too. Yet, with a jury swiftly delivering a strong win for Fireman’s Fund over MRC this week after a trial that lasted more than a month, it indeed was all about Kevin Spacey once again.
Rather, if MRC thought its had a locked in deal with Spacey, the company should have thought again. If MRC believed Spacey would back its side of the story in why HoC went south in its sixth season due to his lack of availability, and assist in a payout from the insurance company, Spacey had other ideas — or at least other opinions he wanted to share with the court.
In testimony in Santa Monica this month that was a testament to the actor’s still openly apparent talents, HoC‘s former POTUS Spacey pivoted, ducked and weaved his way through a rich tale of those sex addiction claims, public scandals, private betrayals and a bloodless email or two from a pragmatic Ted Sarandos.
Instead of backing the MRC’s assertion that sex addiction was the reason he was AWOL from the prestigious political thriller that served for many years as the jewel in the streamer’s burgeoning crown, Spacey minimized and mocked medical reports and insisted he was the one left out to dry.
In a full-force presentation, Spacey claimed the real reason he was ousted from HoC in November 2017 amidst a flurry of claims of sexual assault, unwanted sexual advances and sexual harassment was because of the shame his alleged decades of misconduct had brought to the show and the streamer in the opening months of the #MeToo Movement.
The court heard in filings how Spacey was “available, willing and able to provide all of the services” required under his HoC contract, but it was the producers on the David Fincher-EP’d series who wanted him out the door ASAP. In the witness box earlier this month, the actor, who just recently settled with a trio of UK sexual assault accusers, admitted he was no doctor and couldn’t “professionally dispute” a diagnosis of sexual compulsive disorder. Yet, Spacey also told the courtroom in early March that “I can personally dispute it.”
Having won a series of court cases, including a 2022 sexual misconduct case to the tune of $40 million from Star Trek alum Anthony Rapp, and seen a number of other cases disappear for a variety of reasons including death, Spacey’s career has had a bit of an uptick over the past year. Still persona non grata in Hollywood, the American Beauty and The Usual Suspects Oscar winner has found work in small projects in Europe and the odd live performance, along with some film festival feting.
Just last week, Spacey’s manager Evan Lowenstein praised his client online over a Sony-distributed Spanish project, with a retweet and comment from the actor.
Lowenstein did not reply to Deadline’s request for comment on the verdict, so we may have to wait until Spacey himself takes to social media or cable TV.
Reps for MRC and its lawyers at Kinsella Holley Iser Kump Steinsapir did not respond either.
Having said that, among the silence, don’t think this is over for MRC. The company will be hauling someone, be it it Spacey or Fireman’s Fund, back into court sooner or later — on that you can build a very stable house of cards.