(posted 7310 days ago)Independent
Spacey's walk in the park turns into the mystery of the mugging that never was
By Ian Burrell, Media Editor
20 April 2004As the Oscar-winning star of The Usual Suspects, Kevin Spacey has been acknowledged at the highest level for his ability to convey a complex tale of criminal behaviour.
But try convincing the officers at Kennington police station in south London, who were amazed to see the Hollywood actor walk into their nick at 5am on Saturday morning bloodied and claiming that he had been the victim of a violent attack.
Mr Spacey said he had left his home nearby to take his dog for a walk at 4.30am in the Geraldine Mary Harmsworth Park, off St George's Road. He claimed to have been assaulted and robbed of his mobile phone.
The officers took details from the actor and drove him to the accident and emergency department at St Thomas' Hospital, south London, where his wound was treated. A couple of hours later, Mr Spacey returned to the station and withdrew his earlier allegations, leaving the officers in a state of some bewilderment.
Kennington, an inner London neighbourhood that includes the Oval cricket ground and the Imperial War Museum, has its share of social problems but is home to many famous figures in business, entertainment and politics, including Jack Straw, the Foreign Secretary.
But it is not every day that a Hollywood actor reports being a crime victim in these parts and despite the star's attempts to draw a veil over the incident, it was only a matter of time before the news reached a wider public.
Reports emerged yesterday morning that Mr Spacey had been "brutally mugged" and "beaten" in a violent attack.
The actor was so stung by reading what he knew to be a false version of what happened that within hours he was addressing national radio, apologising profusely and asking to "set the record straight".
Speaking on BBC Radio 4's Today programme, he said: "What actually happened is, I fell for a con and I was incredibly embarrassed by it. Some sob story about somebody needing to call their mother and could they use my phone. It was such a good con I dialled the number myself and when somebody answered I handed [over] my phone. This kid took off and I was so upset I ran after him. I tripped up over my dog and ended up falling on to the street and hitting my head.
"And now I'm bleeding relatively profusely. I'm extremely upset. I feel like the biggest fool that has ever lived. I march over to the police station and say I got mugged. And I'm thinking they are going to run over and find this kid a block later. They take me to the hospital and they were very kind.
"That is one of the reasons I went back on Saturday morning to the police station. I woke up after a couple of hours' sleep and I thought, 'There is a difference between assault and theft' and it just wasn't on for me to not come clean about my own level of embarrassment and being humble at the fact that I got taken by the oldest con going."
He said he wanted to apologise to the police and to members of the public who had been misled by the reports that he had been beaten up.
Scotland Yard, which had earlier taken the view that because the allegation had been withdrawn there was nothing to investigate, said yesterday afternoon that it was looking into the matter but treating it as a theft and not as the robbery that had originally been reported.
The episode is embarrassing to the actor, who has become a popular figure on the London social circuit since he agreed to become the artistic director of the Old Vic theatre.
Mr Spacey is good friends with the former cabinet minister Peter Mandelson, who is a trustee of the Old Vic, which opened in 1818 and is one of London's oldest theatres. When he was appointed, the Hollywood star staged a glittering fund-raising event featuring Sir Elton John and Courtney Love. Tickets for the event cost £1,000. The actor has promised to appear in at least two plays a year and to direct other productions. His love affair with the Old Vic goes back at least six years, to when he appeared there in The Ice Man Cometh and won a Laurence Olivier award for his performance. He has bought a home close to the theatre, which is near where the phone incident is alleged to have taken place. Mr Spacey grew up in New Jersey as the youngest of three children. He was expelled from Northbridge Military Academy after only a few months and was sent to a high school in California where he developed his love for drama, playing Captain Von Trapp in a school production of The Sound of Music.
His film career includes roles in such movies as LA Confidential, A Time to Kill and The Negotiator. Spacey, who is close friends with former American president Bill Clinton, won a second Oscar for his starring role in the drama American Beauty.
Questions are also being asked as to why a super-wealthy Hollywood star would risk his safety by venturing into an inner city park at 4.30am.
But Mr Spacey, who denies rumours that he is gay, explained that his early morning perambulation of Kennington was inspired by nothing more than his pet's need of a little relief. "My doggy had to go," he said.
Somewhat ironically, Spacey's film career began with a role as a petty thief in the 1986 film Heartburn.
His big break came with the part of Roger "Verbal" Kint, a creepy, smooth-talking eye-witness in 1995's The Usual Suspects, for which he won an Academy Award for best supporting actor. The same year, he produced a chilling performance as a serial killer in the thriller Seven. Spacey has played almost every type of character in the crime genre. A role as the cocky detective Jack Vincennes in LA Confidential in 1997 was followed by a part as a murder suspect in Midnight in the Garden of Good Evil.
But his best known part has probably been that of Lester Burnham, a middle-aged man on the verge of a mid-life crisis in the dark, suburban satire American Beauty. Within four days of the film opening, Spacey was honoured with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.