Kevin Spacey Ordered to Appear in Court for Sexual Assault Case

New Year, same bullshit. Kevin Spacey, who spent most of 2018 out of the spotlight in light of the seemingly endless sexual misconduct allegations leveled against him, will plead not guilty to sexual assault at his January 7 arraignment in Nantucket, Massachusetts, according to an affidavit obtained by the Boston Globe.

Spacey requested "that this court excuse my physical presence at the arraignment as I reside out-of-state and believe that my presence will amplify the negative publicity already generated in connection with this case." He also wrote: "I wish to enter a plea of not guilty."

Spacey's attorney's claimed that the case "has already generated extraordinary interest from national and local print and television media outlets. The Defendant's attendance at the arraignment will only serve to heighten prejudicial media interest in the case and will increase the risk of contamination of the pool of jurors available for the trial."

But in the immortal words of Gia Gunn, "what you wanna do isn't necessarily what you're gonna do." Judge Thomas Barrett denied Spacey's request, meaning the actor will be required to appear in Nantucket District Court to argue his innocence. The case claims that Spacey assaulted the 18-year-old son of Boston news anchor Heather Unruh at a Nantucket bar in 2016 (Unruh publicly accused Spacey in November 2017). Spacey is currently entangled in several assault cases, including one where he stands accused of forcible groping a massage therapist. Spacey responded to these accusations by publicly coming out after years as Hollywood's most notorious closet case.

If convicted of the felony count of indecent assault and battery, Spacey could face "penalties of up to five years in prison or up to 2 1/2 years in jail or a house of correction and a requirement to register as a sex offender," the Globe reports. The most pressing question: will Spacey make another creepy video in character as House of Card's Frank Underwood to address this most recent development? Hopefully not.