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Kevin Spacey Mum on Whether Charity Work With Young Artists Will Continue

Foundation pairs actor with young emerging artists

Kevin Spacey / Getty Images

The Kevin Spacey Foundation has remained silent on whether its work with young emerging actors will continue in light of allegations that the actor made sexual advances toward a 14-year-old.

Production on Spacey's hit Netflix series House of Cards has been suspended since allegations were made by actor Anthony Rapp, who said Spacey climbed on top of him and made a sexual advance when Rapp was just 14 years old in the 1980s.

Spacey has been engaged in charity work with young artists through his nonprofit foundation since 2010. The Kevin Spacey Foundation provides grants and mentorship programs in the United States and United Kingdom to "school children, young people and emerging artists in the performing arts and film."

"The Kevin Spacey Foundation (KSF) creates initiatives that discover, train, fund and mentor emerging artists in drama, dance, music, and film as well as offering life enhancing theatre-in-education projects, in line with its vision statement to: 'Send the elevator back down' a phrase coined by Jack Lemmon, Kevin's great mentor," the foundation states.

Request for comment about whether the foundation will continue its work amidst the allegations were not returned by Spacey's publicist, representatives at Creative Artists Agency, and KSF.

Spacey runs the foundation with Nathan Darrow, the actor who played Spacey's secret service agent Edward Meechum in House of Cards, and Frank Selvaggi.

Darrow is listed as the director of the Kevin Spacey Foundation on its most recent tax filing and listed as a trustee on the foundation's most recent annual report.

Darrow said he had a "flirty bond" with Spacey on the set of House of Cards, which included filming a threesome sex scene with Spacey and Robin Wright, who plays Spacey's wife on the show.

"I enjoyed it all so much. Hell, I enjoyed flirting with him, I enjoyed when he gave me dirty looks, or gave me the business, or almost fired me," Darrow said during an interview in 2016. "He's a f—ing fantastic actor."

Selvaggi is listed as the director, secretary, and treasurer of the foundation. He is a founding partner at the Altman, Greenfield and Selvaggi accounting firm, which also handles the foundation's finances.

Selvaggi has served on leadership boards of several LGBT advocacy groups, including the Empire State Pride Agenda and the Gay and Lesbian Victory Fund, and is married to his longtime partner Bill Shea.

The foundation's most recent tax filing in the United States, which covers 2015 operations, shows that it brought in just under $1.5 million in contributions and paid out $721,388 in grants.

The only disclosed salary by the foundation is a six-figure salary to fundraising director Todd Rosen, who is also the managing director of the Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey. The other listed directors at the foundation—Spacey, Darrow, and Selvaggi—are not compensated for their work, according to the filing.

The only disclosed grants in the filing are $50,000 to Pace University for the "Kevin Spacey Foundation America Scholarship Fund" and $615,388 for "support for dramatic arts" to undisclosed recipients in Iceland and Greenland.

The Kevin Spacey Foundation was founded in 2010 to "offer a support system to emerging artists and young people," according to the nonprofit's financial statements filed with the U.K. charity commission for 2016.

"It came into existence through the passion and commitment of its namesake to support and nurture those that wish to pursue a career in the performing arts of film," according to the statement.

The financial report details the foundation's various projects, which includes offering young artists "year-round mentoring with senior industry practitioners," and the Kevin Spacey Masterclass, where performances by 11 students are "critiqued and redirected by Kevin."

The foundation started a scholarship program in 2012 and began awarding grants to artists and community theater groups the following year. By 2015, it was holding auditions with 1,200 emerging young artists.

The foundation significantly stepped up operations that year, according to a review of filings from 2013 and 2014.

In 2013 the foundation brought in just $97,071 in contributions and gave out $14,797 in grants. In 2014 it brought in $1,205,336 in contributions and gave out $57,440 in grants.

The $57,440 was broadly for "establishing and supporting programs that discover, train, mentor and fund emerging artists in the fields of performing arts."

It is not disclosed how much of the foundation's money is provided by Spacey. The foundation has held numerous fundraising events, according to the annual filings.

A fundraising gala in 2014, which featured the actor himself in concert, appears to have lost the foundation money, according to the filing.

MSNBC broadcaster Andrea Mitchell, a "huge fan," attended the concert and said she "loves" what Spacey is "doing for young artists."

"The fact is that when young people have this kind of support it really makes a huge difference," Mitchell said.

Previous grant winners featured on the foundation's website include Wonderkid, a film about a young soccer player in the U.K. "struggling to come to terms with his sexuality and searching for acceptance, with the added pressure of hiding all of this in a homophobic environment."

"The KSF Grant covered the costs for a kickstarter fundraising campaign film to raise the necessary capital to make the full film in 2015," the foundation said. "The project is working with LGBT anti-violence charity Galop and has also received support from Sir Ian McKellen."

The foundation also provided funding for a musical comedy starring Margaret Thatcher in drag. Other groups that received financial support include the Young Playwrights' Theater in Washington, D.C., and the Baltimore Curriculum Project, which serves 1,600 pre-kindergarten through 8th grade students.

The foundation told the U.K. charity commission it planned to "continue to identify emerging artists who have a unique voice and artistic vision and give them the training and resources they need to fully express themselves."

Spacey apologized after Rapp accused him of trying to seduce him when he was a teenager. Rapp said Spacey picked him up, put him on a bed, and climbed on top of him, "trying to get with me sexually" at a party in 1986.

In a statement, Spacey said he did not remember the incident, but was "beyond horrified" by Rapp's account. He also used the statement to come out as gay, saying, "I have loved and had romantic encounters with men throughout my life, and I choose now to live as a gay man."

Production on House of Cards was halted Tuesday. Netflix and Media Rights Capital released a statement that they have "decided to suspend production on House of Cards season six, until further notice, to give us time to review the current situation and to address any concerns of our cast and crew."

Published under: Sexual Harassment