British journalist Piers Morgan and panelist James Barr clashed Friday on a show over one of Hollywood actor Kevin Spacey’s alleged victims who claims to have been sexually assaulted.
Barr and a group of other panelists appeared on “Piers Morgan Uncensored” to discuss Spacey’s recent interview with the British journalist and Spacey’s fall from Hollywood following the allegations against him. The group discussed how Hollywood cancelled Spacey, pushing him to face bankruptcy, and debated whether or not his isolation from the film industry was warranted. (RELATED: Kevin Spacey Cries On Camera, Admits To Facing Bankruptcy)
Morgan began by highlighting how Spacey was found not guilty in both his civil and criminal trials. Morgan then played a clip from his interview with the Hollywood actor in which Spacey addressed allegations from an alleged victim by the name of Scott who claimed that Spacey had pleasured himself while sitting next to him at a film premiere.
“Yeah and and you handled that like it was a gotcha like, ‘Oh well, he wouldn’t be emailing Kevin if this was true [because he’d] be too traumatized,” Barr said.
“Well why would he be?” Morgan pushed back.
“Because when you’ve suffered abuse from someone, there is a cycle of abuse that people go through where they go back to the perpetrator to try and resolve trauma that’s happened in their past or maybe they haven’t dealt with the trauma,” Barr responded.
“You send them half naked pictures?” Morgan questioned.
“I’m saying — yeah! Because you might be seeking their validation,” Barr said.
“No, it’s bullshit, sorry,” Morgan said.
“No, it’s not — it’s not bullshit!” Barr responded.
“I’m afraid it is. This this has been my whole problem with the ‘Me Too’ thing. My whole problem with the ‘Me Too’ movement was that it strayed into this kind of thing where time and again we would see supposed victims then continuing to —” Morgan said.
“That’s so offensive to say, ‘supposed victims,'” Barr jumped in.
“Well okay, I don’t think these are proper victims if they continue to —” Morgan began.
“You think Kevin Spacey is a victim?” Barr asked.
“No, I don’t,” Morgan said.
“Well, that was definitely the tone of the interview,” Barr noted.
As the group began to talk over themselves, Morgan jumped back in to defend his stance of the alleged victim’s claims against Spacey.
“Hang on, hang on, no, I don’t think he’s a victim. I don’t think you can say, ‘Kevin Spacey was being handsy with me and I was traumatized’ and then you send him naked pictures,” Morgan said.”
“I think you can if you look at the history of abuse —” Barr began.
“That’s mad. I’m sorry James, even you have to admit that’s mad,” show contributor Esther Krakue jumped in.
“No, that’s not mad. Listen, you need to go to therapy if you don’t believe. Trust me it’s a thing,” Barr defended.
“Actually, I would never go to therapy I think — actually makes things a lot worse for most people,” Morgan said.
Scott, who was reportedly a former friend of Spacey’s, released the allegations about the actor in a Channel 4 documentary this year, claiming that not only did Spacey pleasure himself while sitting next to him at a premiere in 1998, but that Spacey had been handsy with him at a Hollywood party, according to the Daily Mail. Last year, Spacey was found not guilty of nine counts of sexual assault against four men by a London jury.
During Morgan’s interview, Spacey stated Scott sent him provocative photos and provided the show emails from the alleged victim, showing how he reached out to the actor after the 1998 alleged incident.
