Michael Sheils McNamee
Reporting from Southwark Crown Court

The court is now hearing about some of Spacey's professional engagements in 2004, specifically in relation to the film Beyond the Sea.

Some details of where the film was shot are being detailed.

Reference is also made to Spacey’s trip to Australia in 2005 to film Superman.

Michael Sheils McNamee
Reporting from Southwark Crown Court

Gibbs, defending, notes that the court had heard evidence yesterday that phone records are usually only available for 12 months.

"In 2003, beginning pre-production on a film called Beyond the Sea, I was given a phone - it was a rental phone, that’s how I got my phone in London," Spacey says.

He then says he is "clearly the dumbest man in England" and he is "still renting a phone".

Asked how he's able to still have his phone record from 2003, Spacey says "there had been a situation with my phone" in 2018 and 2019 where he was being "overly charged".

At this time Spacey’s business partner made inquiries about records, and was told "they went all the way back".

Michael Sheils McNamee
Reporting from Southwark Crown Court

We are now hearing about a photograph, which the complainant sent Spacey in 2002, on which he noted a request to quote Shakespeare [noted in our earlier post].

The court hears Spacey found the photo in February of this year, when he was going through "boxes I had found in a storage facility in a file which said 'fragile' on it".

He says he found a picture at the bottom of a box “which I quite frankly had forgotten”.

Spacey says he “couldn’t believe it”, and “when I turned it over and read what [the complainant] had written, I knew what it was about and I remembered it, and I saved it".

"It was lovely that he not only remembered that I had made this silly suggestion in my letter," Spacey says, "but he documented it and gave it to me in friendship."

Frankie McCamley
Reporting from Southwark Crown Court

More on that letter now. Spacey is asked why he sent the complainant a letter signed off “with my best wishes always”.

The actor says they were “very relaxed”, “somewhat intimate” and “enjoyed each other’s company.”

He said he thought the charity climb - mentioned in our last post - was a "cute idea".

Michael Sheils McNamee
Reporting from Southwark Crown Court

On to other matters, the court is hearing a letter which Spacey sent to one of the complainants.

It was sent to him at a time the complainant "was going to do a charity climb", partly to raise money for cancer and partly in efforts to "save the Old Vic", Spacey says.

Gibbs KC, Spacey's lawyer, asks if Spacey liked the complainant and he responds: "I liked him a great deal, we had a good time together. We laughed a lot."

In the letter, Spacey urged the complainant to quote Shakespeare [All the world's a stage speech] when he got to the top of the climb, the court is told.

Michael Sheils McNamee
Reporting from Southwark Crown Court

Spacey now references the White Tie and Tiara Ball that he did go to in 2001, where he says he “purchased the most expensive Mini Cooper ever bought”.

"Elton [John] and David [Furnish] had kindly stored it in the garage," he says.

He says he "eventually picked it up but I don’t know when".

Michael Sheils McNamee
Reporting from Southwark Crown Court

We're now looking at Spacey’s activities at times when the White Tie and Tiara Ball was taking place in the early 2000s.

The court hears that Spacey was involved in the recording of a documentary on 26 June 2002.

He says for the White Tie and Tiara Ball in 2002, he was in Los Angeles.

Michael Sheils McNamee
Reporting from Southwark Crown Court

Spacey says he “did not” attend Elton John's White Tie and Tiara Ball.

For reference, this is an event which one of the alleged victims claims he was assaulted on the way to.

Spacey says he has made efforts to ascertain where he was at the time, and that he "keeps everything” in terms of record.

Spacey says he started to go back and look through "boxes and boxes and boxes and boxes” of where he was at the time.

Because he had been accused of something which allegedly happened in the mid-2000s, he says he Googled "where was Kevin Spacey in 2005 - that led me to some articles about some plays I was doing".

"On the date that this ball was going to happen I was going to be in Australia, and I was in Australia," he tells the court.

Michael Sheils McNamee
Reporting from Southwark Crown Court

Spacey is now being presented with an itinerary for some of his visits to London in the early 2000s.

"Do you recognise at least some of these events?" he is asked, as well as if he went to all of them.

He says he does not think so - and he “believes” the complainant drove him to some of the events.

A trip in November 2001 is being looked at. Spacey arrived on 15 November and attended a benefit for victims of 9/11 on 18 November.

In relation to this, Spacey says: “I don’t have a very clear memory of him driving me beyond [picking me up from the airport] that week.”

Spacey's barrister, Patrick Gibbs KC, now moves on to the accusations - addressing first the ones made by the complainant who was driving Spacey.

He says he was introduced to the man via a professional connection.

Spacey says the man in question was “charming and funny”.

Michael Sheils McNamee
Reporting from Southwark Crown Court

Spacey is now outlining some of the Old Vic Theatre's historical significance, and how it had "fallen into disrepair" around the time he became involved with it.

He also mentions Sally Greene OBE, a founding trustee and former chief executive at the Old Vic, who he was in contact with at the time.

Spacey says his role was related to bringing back the "cultural life and importance" of the theatre, which he felt was something he did not have experience of at the time but wanted to do.

He was involved with the theatre until 2015.

Michael Sheils McNamee
Reporting from Southwark Crown Court

Spacey says the next time he returned to the UK was for a play called The Iceman Cometh in 1998, which moved to the Old Vic, where Spacey subsequently became the artistic director.

"I was working towards trying to build a film career, but theatre has always been my primary allegiance," he says.

The actor says around that time he was "working on behalf of the Old Vic, but not full time".

He took up his role as artistic director in 2003.

Michael Sheils McNamee
Reporting from Southwark Crown Court

Spacey says he first came to London as an actor in 1986 for a play called Long Day's Journey Into Night, with fellow US actor Jack Lemmon.

That was in the Haymarket Theatre, he says.

He tells the court he stayed in "an apartment I got hooked up into through the actor Richard Harris - it was his son’s apartment".

Lucy Manning
Special correspondent, reporting from Southwark Crown Court

Some of the jury admitted they had watched his award-winning films.

Now they are seeing Kevin Spacey close up, in the witness box, fighting for his innocence, insisting he never sexually assaulted anyone.

The court has heard nearly two weeks of accusations about his behaviour from a number of men.

Now it’s the actor’s turn to defend himself and persuade the jurors he isn’t guilty.

Michael Sheils McNamee
Reporting from Southwark Crown Court

Some of the questioning now turns to Spacey’s early acting experience.

He says his first job "in New York was a very small series of parts in Shakespeare in the Park, which is something which has been around since the early 1960s".

He says the first play he was involved in was Henry IV, part one.

Spacey tells the court his first film role was in 1985, when he had just turned 26, and had "some small roles in what we call episodic" television, and says he had been in some television films also early in his career.

Frankie McCamley
Reporting from Southwark Crown Court

Spacey looks relaxed and is smiling as he describes where he was born and where he grew up in LA.

He talks about his parents' professions and his school life.

He says a teacher once said he had an “excessive amount of energy”, which was part of the reason he took up acting.

Michael Sheils McNamee
Reporting from Southwark Crown Court

The judge says Spacey is likely to be in the witness box longer than anyone else, and breaks will be taken in the morning and afternoon.

He starts by asking some basic biographical information about where Spacey grew up.

Spacey is called to give evidence and takes his place in front of the judge.

He takes the oath and sits down on a swivel chair from where he will be giving evidence.

Michael Sheils McNamee
Reporting from Southwark Crown Court

Gibbs is saying the defence has “disproved” the allegation which relates to an incident that happened on the way to a party at Elton John’s house.

He says the trial is now at the halfway point. He is going over what he says are the “truths”, “half-truths”, “exaggerations”, and “lies” which he said would appear when he was speaking at the opening of the trial.

He is going through some of the details of the prosecutions which relate to this.

Frankie McCamley
Reporting from Southwark Crown Court

Gibbs has just confirmed he will be calling Kevin Spacey to give evidence shortly - as well as other witnesses.

He tells the jury that following the prosecution case “the obstacles on the route to truth are in pretty clear sight”, and that once the jury can see those obstacles they can work out for themselves “how to overcome them".

Gibbs says he has asked the jury to keep an eye out on “what actually happened” - whether it was consensual and whether it appeared to be consensual.