Tag Archives: Kevin Spacey

The story that just keeps giving…

There’s so much in the news today -so much of it political!- but there was one story that broke yesterday that just has you shaking your head.

Matthew Dessem over at Slate.com writes about how…

Mark Wahlberg Was Paid $1.5 Million for All the Money in the World Reshoots; Michelle Williams Got Less Than $1,000

You remember the film All The Money In The World, right?  The Ridley Scott directed film that featured Kevin Spacey but, because of the controversy surrounding Mr. Spacey’s sexual harassment allegations, was clipped out of the film and Christopher Plumber was brought in at the very last minute to replace and re-film his scenes?

Well, co-stars Mark Wahlberg and Michelle Williams were also brought in to re-film scenes that once featured Spacey.

Here’s the thing: Ridley Scott stated that while the film crew and Mr. Plummer were paid, he, Wahlberg, and Michelle Williams came back for free… allegedly to keep the film’s budget reasonable.

Only as it now turns out, Mr. Wahlberg was paid quite handsomely for what amounted to 9 days of re-shoots… while his female co-star -and there’s no pleasant way to say this- got royally screwed.

Hell, it would have been better they gave her nothing and left her thinking she was doing this for “art” rather than reveal at this point her co-star received such a princely sum while she got next to nothing.

Truly a horrendous story and, I should hope, Mr. Wahlberg does something on his own to correct the situation.

Wouldn’t it be incredibly gracious of Mr. Wahlberg if he were to issue a statement that he didn’t realize his co-star was receiving so little compared to him for the re-shoots and went ahead and offered her half his re-shoot salary?

Having said that, what are the odds something like this actually happening?

One can dream, I suppose!

He who will not be mentioned again…

With the revelations of sexual harassment and far, far worse by far, far too many people in power within the Hollywood movie establishment, two names in particular are especially loathsome.

There is Harvey Weinstein, of course, the man who is alleged to have sexually harassed and raped many women.

Then there’s Kevin Spacey, the up until now very respected actor who, if the allegations are to be believed, has engaged in behavior which can only be described as being… well, let’s put it this way, beyond sexual harassment and, allegedly, drifting into one of the darkest corners of sexual assault, that of a possible pedophila.

So alarming are the accusations against him -and one must emphasize that up to this moment they are just that, accusations and allegations- it appears Mr. Spacey is nonetheless rapidly becoming a persona non grata within the industry that, up to the time of these allegations, was more than happy to have him involved in their projects.

Case in point, Ridley Scott’s next film, All The Money In The World, is due to be released in six weeks.  Starring Mark Wahlberg and Michelle Williams, the movie also featured Kevin Spacey.

But no longer.

According to this article by Hannah Gold and found on jezebel.com…

Ridley Scott Kicked Kevin Spacey Out of His Movie

Let me emphasize this: With only six weeks to go before the movie is released, Mr. Scott and company have decided Mr. Spacey is so toxic that he’s been taken out of the film completely and all his scenes will be (hastily, I imagine), re-filmed with Christopher Plummer, who was apparently Mr. Scott’s original choice, in the role vacated by Kevin Spacey.  According to the article, the movie’s other stars are making time to rework these scenes as well.

The fact that the film is a mere six weeks from being released means it was pretty much done and I suspect whatever new scenes are filmed with Mr. Plummer will mimic almost exactly what the Kevin Spacey scenes were, so there shouldn’t be all that much work to be done, though this is complete speculation on my part.  I don’t know if any scenes require specific backgrounds or perhaps effects (the film takes place in the 1970’s).

Regardless, the movie’s listing over at IMDB still has Kevin Spacey in one of the principle roles but who knows how much screen time he occupied in the completed work, all of which will now be redone with Mr. Plummer in that role.

An incredible story, IMHO, and it goes to show just how far Mr. Spacey has fallen in recent days.