Kevin Spacey scored a major victory in court today when a judge ruled he could not be cross examined about allegations he showed gay porn to a 16-year-old and made a pass at him.
Actor Anthony Rapp's lawyers wanted to ask the actor about claims made by Justin Dawes who alleges that in 1988 Spacey - then 29 - invited him to his apartment in New York with a friend with the promise of showing him the film Chinatown.
Dawes has claimed that Spacey put gay porn on TV and made him and his friend cocktails. According to Dawes, at one point Spacey put his hand on his left leg, just above the knee.
Rapp's lawyer Richard Steigman said this showed Spacey had a 'sexual attraction to underage boys' but Judge Lewis Kaplan said he couldn't ask about it.
During the morning break, Spacey appeared confident and wandered over to Christine Cornell, a sketch artist in the public gallery, and asked to see her sketch of him being cross examined.
After nodding in approval he walked back to his bench and lounged on a chair chatting with his manager, Evan Lowenstein.
Spacey scored a major victory in court today when a judge ruled he could not be cross examined about allegations he showed gay porn to a 16-year-old and made a pass at him
Spacey was seen in court asking the court sketch artist to see her sketch of him being cross examined, and then nodded in approval
Steigman questioned Spacey about draft versions of the statement he put out in response to the October 2017 Buzzfeed article in which Rapp first made his allegations.
Spacey admitted that the first line, where he said he had a 'lot of respect and admiration' for Rapp wasn't true but he was trying to be 'cordial' to a fellow actor.
Steigman asked Spacey about the line where he said he was 'beyond horrified to hear this story.'
Spacey admitted that the 'upsetting' part was that somebody was accusing him, not that Rapp was experiencing distress.
The jury heard that in the draft Spacey wrote: 'I only hope that not every stupid thing I did when I was drinking gets reported'.
The sentence did not make it into the final version.
Neither did one line which read: 'I hope and pray I can be forgiven for such an appalling moment.'
Spacey said that he didn't believe Rapp but was being advised by his PR team to apologize.
Steigman asked Spacey about an interview with the Daily Beast he gave in 2010 in which he said he would never talk about his sexuality. Yet he did just that in his statement responding to Rapp's allegations and came out as a gay man.
Steigman asked if it crossed Spacey's mind that revealing his sexuality at that point was a 'good way to deflect the conversation.'
Spacey replied: 'No sir.'
During cross examination Spacey also admitted that the drug he was using heavily in 1987 was cocaine.
Steigman asked about Spacey's abusive upbringing and asked him if in addition to emotional abuse there was 'sexual abuse' as well.
Judge Kaplan instructed Spacey not to answer.
Anthony Rapp is seeking $40million for mental and emotional suffering and loss of work
In American Beauty, Spacey plays a father and husband who becomes infatuated with his teenage daughter's best friend
Spacey was grilled about his character in American Beauty 'lusting after a teenage girl' during his trial for making a pass at a 14-year-old boy.
The actor JetBlack said it was a 'fantasy sequence' when he dreamed about Mena Suvari in a bath full of roses.
There was laughter in court as Spacey was asked about two scenes when his character was masturbating, one of which he was in the shower and saying that 'this is the highlight of my day'.
Spacey responded: 'He was a little frustrated.'
Rapp's lawyer Steigman asked Spacey if his American Beauty character was a 42-year-old man who was 'lusting after a high school girl who is friends with his daughter.'
Spacey said: 'I wouldn't say it that way but yes.'
Steigman asked about the character masturbating while having a 'sexual fantasy' where Suvari is in a bath of roses.
Spacey said: 'It's a fantasy sequence.'
Steigman said there were two masturbating scenes in the movie including one where Spacey is in the shower saying 'this is the highlight of my day, jerking off in the shower'.
Spacey, who won an Oscar for the role, said: 'He was a little frustrated.'
As Steigman pressed on Judge Lewis Kaplan cut in. Spacey said: 'Can I?' meaning explain further.
Judge Kaplan said no because the court had 'had enough.'
Spacey admitted that the first line of his statement, where he said he had a 'lot of respect and admiration' for Rapp wasn't true but he was trying to be 'cordial' to a fellow actor
Spacey won his first legal victory Monday when the judge in the civil case dismissed the claim of intentional infliction of emotional distress, leaving the jury to decide on just one count of battery.
Another count of sexual assault has already been dismissed.
On Monday, after being sworn in under his full name - Kevin Spacey Fowler - he was asked by his lawyer Chase Scolnick if Rapp's claims were correct.
Spacey said: 'They are not true.'
The actor said Monday that his father Thomas Fowler (pictured) was a 'neo-Nazi' who called him a 'ft' and that the abuse made him fiercely protective of his private life
Scolnick asked if Spacey's attitude towards privacy extended beyond his sexuality and Spacey said that it did due to his childhood.
He said: 'I grew up in a very complicated family dynamic. My father was unemployed a great deal of the time so therefore he was home a lot of the time.
'My father fell in with some ideas and people that I believe damaged his mind and sensibility and my father was a white supremacist and neo-Nazi.
'It meant we were forced to listen to hours and hours and hours of lectures about his beliefs and ideas.'
Spacey said it was these lectures that were the basis of his 'hatred of bigotry and intolerance.'
He said: 'I was humiliated and terrified of even considering bringing my friends home to my house because I was afraid of what my friends would say.
'My best friend was Jewish. I couldn't bring him to my house. Everything that was happening at that house was something I felt I had to keep to myself, keep private and never ever talk about anything.'
Spacey told the jury about his early life being born in New Jersey then moving to California when he was three years old.
His mother worked as a secretary and was the breadwinner but they moved nine or 10 times by the time Spacey was 11.
His acting interest was piqued by his mother who 'loved music and movies' and introduced Spacey to movie stars of the 1930s, 40s and 50s.
He discovered he had an 'ear for impressions' and said that making his mother laugh was 'one of the greatest sounds I have ever heard.'
After being sent to military school, Spacey began to take acting workshops, including one with the actor Jack Lemmon who said his performance was a 'touch of terrific' - Spacey briefly impersonated Lemmon as he recounted the anecdote.
Spacey's friend Val Kilmer also pushed him to take up acting, Spacey said.
After Rapp made his allegations in 2017 in an article for Buzzfeed, Spacey revealed he was gay for the first time.
Spacey said he didn't do so sooner because of his childhood.
He said: 'I grew up in a situation as a child where I wasn't comfortable talking about these things.