Just days after declaring he's staging a comeback, disgraced actor Kevin Spacey is being dragged for a money-grab social media post that recalls one of his most iconic characters to "celebrate America's 250th birthday."
"I created a limited-edition collectible ring," Spacey says in his post on X (formerly Twitter). "Each collector's box is personally hand-signed by me. Very limited quantities available for 3 weeks only. Once it's gone, it's gone."
Spacey's post on X on Wednesday shows a closeup of his face, with his fist extended to the camera to highlight a gold and black engraved class ring bearing the initials "FU," presumably for America's first bisexual president, Frank Underwood, the fictional politician on the Netflix drama, as well as other adornments. The initials are surrounded by the numbers 46 and 49, four stars and a Latin phrase.
The words "Per Ardua Ad Astra" translate as "Through Adversity, to the Stars," and are immediately familiar to space buffs and any serious fan of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds as the Starfleet motto. It's also been used by NASA and was used as part of the title of a 2019 Brad Pitt sci-fi film. The numbers may refer to Underwood being the 46th president and 49th vice president in the series.
On Monday, Spacey told Bill Maher that he felt as if he was at last emerging from Hollywood jail following the derailment of his career by dozens of accusations of sexual misconduct and harassment.
"I feel much more welcomed, and I think that things are moving in the direction that we hoped they were moving in," Spacey said on Maherās Club Random podcast.
As Variety reported, the Oscar-winning star of American Beauty and The Usual Suspects told Maher that he had won āin every court weāve gone into with a jury.ā
However, the jury of the internet has provided an overwhelming online chorus by clowning the 66-year-old Oscar winner. Some even suggested that Frank Underwood in House of Cards would never stoop this low. Check out the reactions below!
"Wow, President Frank Underwood must be really broke to sell rings at a $120 each," posted a BitCoin aficionado. "I mean... is this the best he could come up with? If a PR team suggested this, I would fire them all at once!"
A self-proclaimed "anti-Marxist patriot" imagined what viewers of a future documentary might hear: "Narrator: 'The āadversityā faced by Kevin Spacey was due to molesting, underaged boys. Kevin āovercameā the āadversityā by fleeing to Israel- as most pedophiles do.'ā
Others just straight-out called out Spacey for what one of his accusers said he was.
"A pedophile is selling patriot merch, I know you don't wanna miss out."
"Celebrate 250 years of America raping the world with my exclusive Captain Planet Rape Ring."
"Bold move for a guy who's generally disliked by the majority of the global population. Retirement called, they want the last 30 years of your career back."
"Wow Kevin. Are things that bad?"
In 2017, Netflix at first suspended production, but then canceled House of Cards after Rent and Star Trek: Discovery star Anthony Rapp came forward with accusations that Spacey tried to make a sexual advance on him when he was 14. Spacey was 26 at the time. In October 2022, a New York jury found Spacey was not liable for battery in the case, as The Advocate reported.
In a strange twist, Spacey came out as gay in his first response to Rapp's accusation. More people came forward, claiming to have been victims of Spacey. In March, he settled with three of them ahead of a trial in London, as Out reported.
The series was rebooted in 2018 with Robin Wright taking over the lead and the White House as Claire Underwood. Producers killed off the Frank Underwood character in that sixth and final season. In his chat with Maher, Spacey addressed both his controversial coming out and the accusations of sexual abuse and harassment.
āI never said there was no fire,ā Spacey said. āIt just wasnāt a raging forest fire. It was a small kitchen fire that could have been put out with an extinguisher. I hit on a lot of guys."
Maher asked him about his 2017 statement revealing he was gay and why he chose to come out following Rapp's accusations were published by BuzzFeed. Ultimately, Spacey said he's done his time and compared his exile from Hollywood to how the media treats athletes.
āI was fiercely closeted. I thought I was so clever that nobody knew, but of course kind of everybody knew. When people actually start to hear the facts, understand what we won in courts, I think people now look at this and think, maybe nine years has been enough. If I had been a sports figure I would have been benched for seven games. If youāre hitting home runs, they want you on the field."
