As at least three criminal investigations continue involving sexual assault accusations against Kevin Spacey, the production company behind his popular Netflix political drama House of Cards issued an update Sunday to its cast and crew.
The memo shared with USA TODAY acknowledged that with the holiday season starting, producers would understand if crew members took other jobs and would not be available if work on the series does restart.
House of Cards, which shoots just outside of Baltimore, halted production just as it started working on Season 6, which is set to be its last. The move came quickly after sexual harassment and assault accusations against Spacey were reported by men, some of whom were minors during the alleged incidents. The actor is now the subject of multiple investigations in Nantucket, Mass., and London.
The letter distributed Sunday from Pauline Micelli, who oversees business and legal affairs for Media Rights Capital’s television productions, which include House of Cards, said that “We continue to work with Netflix with the hope of resuming production soon. As we continue these discussions, we have determined together that the crew will be paid for an additional two-week hiatus — beginning on November 27th and continuing through December 8th.“
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The message also said that writers and a small number of office/accounting staffers would remain in the production office. Micelli added, “Our hope is that the entire crew will be able to reconvene when production resumes, but we want you to know that we will certainly understand if crew members need to find other work in the interim, which will prevent them from re-joining us. We sincerely appreciate all you have done.
“Cast and other union members who are not actively working will be paid in accordance with applicable union guidelines through this period and we will be reaching out directly to your representatives to work through the details; we will get to everyone as quickly as possible and appreciate all of your patience here.
“These last two months have tested and tried all of us in ways none of us could have foreseen. The one thing we have learned throughout this process is that this production is bigger than just one person and we could not be more proud to be associated with one of the most loyal and talented production cast and crews in this business.”
Micelli concluded, “We will provide an additional update by 12/8/17.”
Source: USA Today
Author: Allan Bangirana
Allan Bangirana has a taste for all kinds of topics and usually writes about tech, entertainment, sports and community projects that make a difference in society.
He writes for Newslibre and Spur Magazine. He is also the co-founder of the Innovware project and a freelance consultant passionate about technology and web.
