ROME | American actor Kevin Spacey, who faces sexual assault charges in the UK, has received a film award in Italy, we learned on Tuesday.
• Also read: Kevin Spacey has pleaded not guilty to new sexual assault charges
• Also read: Kevin Spacey back in court on new sexual assault charges
Mr. Spacey received “The Star” of the Mole Antonelliana, an award given by this Turin institution, which houses the National Museum of Cinema and had invited the actor to lead a master class, according to a press release from that museum.
This award was given to him “as a token of recognition for having made an aesthetic and literary contribution to the development of dramatic art through his films,” the press release states.
The prize was presented to him on Monday evening by Deputy Minister of Culture Vittorio Sgarbi.
“My life is moving forward. I never hid, I never lived in a cave. I went to restaurants, I met friends, I met people who defended and supported me,” he told the Italian press during his stay in Turin.
Mr Spacey pleaded not guilty to seven new sexual assault charges in Britain on Friday, months after previously denying other similar charges.
The two-time Academy Award winner (for “American Beauty” and “Usual Suspects”) was previously charged with four sexual assaults on three men between March 2005 and April 2013 while he was director of London’s Old Vic theatre.
He now faces 12 counts of sexually assaulting four men between 2001 and 2013.
The actor’s trial, set for next June in the UK and expected to last a month, will deal with all of these cases. A procedural hearing is scheduled for April 5.