(posted 7311 days ago)Times
April 20, 2004People with Andrew Pierce
Can you teach an old dog new tricks? Ask Kevin Spacey
Kevin Spacey, like the former Cabinet minister Ron Davies, has discovered the perils of walking in a South London park after dark.The Hollywood actor was duped by a young man into handing over his telephone in the park near his Kennington flat at, erm, 4am as he was walking his dog.
Spacey, the artistic director of the Old Vic Theatre, gave chase, tripped over his dog lead and cut his head. He went into a police station and reported that he had been mugged, but after hospital treatment returned to withdraw the complaint.
He went on the Today programme yesterday to talk about the Old Vic but preferred instead to talk about the mugging in Geraldine Mary Harmsworth Park, Lambeth, that never was.
In a bravura performance worthy of his two Oscars, Spacey, a friend of Peter Mandelson, said: “Walking your dog in the park is a perfectly normal thing to do, but . . . they are always trying to, you know, (say) ‘What was he doing in that park at 4.30am? ’ My doggy had to go!”
Spacey, who denies scurrilous gossip that he is gay, said: “I fell for a con. Some sob story about somebody needing to call their mother and could they use my phone. It was such a good con, that I dialled the number myself, when somebody answered I finally handed my phone. I feel like the biggest fool that has ever lived.”
He decided not to press charges: “There is a difference between assault and theft and it wasn’t on for me not to not come clean about my own embarrassment.”