Media Rights Capital says it has also set up an anonymous complaint hotline, crisis counselors and sexual harassment legal advisors for the show's crew in light of recent allegations. 
 
 Netflix and House of Cards producer Media Rights Capital are responding to new allegations of sexual harassment made against Kevin Spacey. 
 
 In a CNN report Thursday, multiple employees of the Netflix series accused the star and executive producer of inappropriate behavior. One production assistant claimed that Spacey put his hands down the assistant's pants without consent while he was driving Spacey to the set. He then alleged that Spacey cornered him and touched him inappropriately. 
 
 Another crewmember on the political drama said Spacey "would put his hands on me in weird ways," including massaging his shoulders and touching his stomach. Six other employees from the show talked with CNN about their experiences with the actor. 
 
 In a statement, MRC responded to the latest allegations and confirmed a previous allegation of sexual harassment by Spacey in 2012. 
 
 “We are deeply troubled to learn about these new allegations that are being made to the press concerning Kevin Spacey’s interaction with members of the crew of House of Cards. As the producer of the show, creating and maintaining a safe working environment for our cast and crew has always been our top priority," the company said. 
 
 "We have consistently reinforced the importance of employees reporting any incident without fear of retaliation and we have investigated and taken appropriate actions following any complaints," the statement continued. "For example, during our first year of production in 2012, someone on the crew shared a complaint about a specific remark and gesture made by Kevin Spacey. Immediate action was taken following our review of the situation and we are confident the issue was resolved promptly to the satisfaction of all involved. Mr. Spacey willingly participated in a training process and since that time MRC has not been made aware of any other complaints involving Mr. Spacey." 
 
 The company also said that it has set up an anonymous complaint hotline, crisis counselors and sexual harassment legal advisors for the crew in the wake of the accusations made. "MRC will continue to thoroughly investigate all current claims and any new claims that are formally brought to our attention, and will continue to monitor our own production and practices to ensure that our cast and crew feel safe and supported," the company added. 
 
 Netflix also issued a new statement Thursday regarding the latest claims made against Spacey: “When the allegations broke about Kevin Spacey on Sunday night, in conjunction with MRC, we sent a representative to set on Monday morning. Netflix was just made aware of one incident, five years ago, that we were informed was resolved swiftly. On Tuesday, in collaboration with MRC, we suspended production, knowing that Kevin Spacey wasn’t scheduled to work until Wednesday. Netflix is not aware of any other incidents involving Kevin Spacey on-set. We continue to collaborate with MRC and other production partners to maintain a safe and respectful working environment. We will continue to work with MRC during this hiatus time to evaluate our path forward as it relates to the production, and have nothing further to share at this time.” 
 
 The accusations follow those made by Star Trek actor Anthony Rapp, who alleged in a Oct. 29 BuzzFeed News article that Spacey made sexual advances towards him in 1986 when Spacey was 26 and Rapp was 14. Spacey tweeted a statement offering his "sincerest apology" to Rapp but said he did not remember the incident. In the statement, he also came out as gay, a move which was criticized by many in Hollywood as well as GLAAD. 
 
 On Monday, Netflix and MRC confirmed the upcoming sixth season of the series, which had already started production, would be its last. (Media Rights Capital is co-owned by Eldridge Industries, which also owns The Hollywood Reporter.) 
 
 In a joint statement, the companies said they were "deeply troubled" by the accusations. Executives from both companies traveled to the Maryland set to discuss the situation with cast and crew to ensure their safety. On Tuesday, Netflix and MRC suspended production on the series indefinitely. 
 
 On Wednesday, Spacey's rep said he is "taking the time necessary to seek evaluation and treatment" in the wake of the allegations. ||||| Kevin Spacey. Photo: Daniel Zuchnik/WireImage 
 
 Earlier this week, the actor Anthony Rapp alleged that Kevin Spacey made a sexual advance toward him in 1986, when he was 14 years old. After Rapp’s allegation, Spacey released a statement in which he claimed not to remember the incident in question and also came out as a gay man. Since then, others have come forward with further allegations against Spacey, including the filmmaker Tony Montana, who said that Spacey groped him in public in 2003, and the actor Roberto Cavazos, who said he witnessed Spacey court and inappropriately touch younger male actors at the Old Vic Theatre, where Spacey was the artistic director from 2004 to 2015. 
 
 After Rapp’s public statement, a man who was friendly with a member of the New York staff approached the magazine to talk about Spacey. At the age of 14, he says, he began a sexual relationship with the actor, who was then 24, that ended with what he describes as an attempted rape. The man is now a 48-year-old artist living on the East Coast with a long-term partner, and he wishes to remain anonymous. “I have worked really hard to have a nice life and feel safe, and I’m not giving that up for him,” he told me, sitting outside on a park bench. “I don’t want them to be able to find their way back to me.” 
 
 He first met Spacey in 1981, when the actor was a guest teacher at a weekend acting class he took in Westchester County; he was then a 12-year-old student. Spacey was 22 and working in the New York theater scene. They met again by chance in line at Shakespeare in the Park in 1983, when the student was 14 years old; Spacey had made his Broadway debut in Henrik Ibsen’s Ghosts the year prior. After that meeting, he says, Spacey gave him his phone number, and the two began a sexual relationship. 
 
 The former student came forward, he says, because he was enraged at Spacey’s response to Rapp’s story. We have done our best to verify his account of his time with Spacey. We confirmed with two sources that Spacey taught at the acting school in 1981; checked the plausibility of dates and other details in his account; and spoke with people close to the former student, who said that he had spoken about his relationship with Spacey as far back as the 1990s. We also spoke with his current therapist, who confirmed that he began speaking about it in sessions in 2015. And we have confirmed the other abusive relationship the former student discusses. We reached out to Spacey to talk about the relationship. He responded through his lawyer, who wrote in an email, “Mr. Spacey absolutely denies the allegations.” 
 
 The following is a condensed and lightly edited transcript of our conversation. We are presenting it as he told it to us because of the nature of the relationship, which is best left to the former student to describe. He entered it enthusiastically as a young adolescent and continued to see Spacey until the unwanted assault. Consent is rarely simple, even among adults. It is especially complicated in the mind of a 14-year-old. This is his account. 
 
 When did you first meet Kevin Spacey? 
 
 I went to Saturday acting classes in Westchester County, outside of New York, around 1981. They would bring working theater professionals in to teach us. I was 12, and he taught at the school, maybe just for half a year. He wasn’t a known person at that time. He was probably just beginning to be a working actor. 
 
 What was the school called? 
 
 It didn’t really have a name. It was an hour of movement, an hour of acting, and an hour of musical comedy. It was in a church, and it was a bunch of kids between the ages of probably 11 and 18, singing and acting. 
 
 
 
 When you were at school, did Kevin Spacey give you attention in that way? 
 
 No. I knew that he knew who I was, but no there was no physical attention. There was no grooming or attention like “Let’s go out for an ice cream.” 
 
 Was there ever any gossip around the students about him? 
 
 No. We were not discussing sexuality. I mean, my group was 12. 
 
 Do you remember what church it was held at? 
 
 It was housed inside of Saint Thomas’s Church in Mamaroneck, New York. There were different age groups, and he came and taught acting classes, and then went away. I met him again the summer of 1983, when I was 14, at Shakespeare in the Park. I was waiting on line with my family. I saw him, and he saw me, and while my parents were waiting for tickets, he and I went for a walk. 
 
 And that didn’t strike anyone as strange? 
 
 No. I had been sexually active for a year then, also with a person ten years my senior — a member of my family, my cousin. Throughout that period, I’m giving off very obvious signals about my relationship with my cousin. I’m wearing his clothes. I’m sleeping over at his house. And my parents are in what seems to me a very profound state of denial about what’s going on. They know I’m gay. I came out to my parents in the eighth grade, when I was 13. 
 
 It’s a shameful moment in the history of my family. But my cousin had sexually abused my older brother when my brother was 11 and he was 17 or 18. He was forgiven by my family and kind of invited back into the fold. My mother told him [to stay away from me]: “If you touch [him], I’ll kill you.” But then I start sleeping over at his house and wearing his clothes, and that goes on really for a year before anybody asks me any questions. 
 
 Did you feel your relationship with your cousin was consensual? 
 
 At the time, I would’ve told you that relationship was completely consensual. That we were boyfriends. I would’ve said, “Yeah, I’m 14, but I’m really smart. I’m really together. And it’s normal that 25-year-old men would want me to be their boyfriend because I’m a grown-up.” 
 
 
 
 Okay, so you are walking with Kevin. 
 
 Yeah, and we’re talking. He was kind of in high seduction mode and gave me his phone number and asked me to call him. He said, “I want to see you, and I want you to come to my apartment.” He said he’d always been really drawn to me at the acting classes, but had stayed away because I was 12. So I’m like [laughs] … now that I was 14. That was probably a 15-minute walk, and then I went back to be with my parents. 
 
 How did you feel? 
 
 I felt like I’d won the lottery. A little drunk with it and very delighted with the attention. I was like a cute, plump little kid who went through puberty really fast and came out the other side as somebody that grown-ups were looking at and saying was beautiful. If your father has never rubbed your head or patted you, and if you have suspected your whole life that he is actually repulsed by you or just bored by you [laughs], you’re hungry. And I had gone through puberty at 11. I had to make this happen. And I was terrified to do that with a boy of my own age. You could be beat up. 
 
 After you talked in the park, when did you and Kevin first meet? 
 
 I called him on the phone the next day, and he told me how he was in love with me and wanted to see me. I went and saw him at an apartment he was renting on the Upper West Side. He had a black Labrador named Snake. He might’ve been walking that dog in Central Park when we bumped into him that night. We started a sexual relationship that first visit, which mostly involved me fucking him. 
 
 Did he ever talk about his personal life? 
 
 There were pictures around his house of Jennifer Jason Leigh. I remember him talking about her as his girlfriend. 
 
 Did you know if he was sleeping with anyone else? 
 
 I assumed that he was sleeping with Jennifer Jason Leigh. 
 
 
 
 How did the sexual part start happening? Did you talk? 
 
 We talked a little bit, but it was more like, “You know why you’re here, I know why we’re here.” I don’t remember a lot of conversation. I remember a lot of physical activity. 
 
 And how did you feel after the first time with Kevin? 
 
 Dizzy. 
 
 What happened afterward? 
 
 I think we lay around and talked some. I was probably just there for a couple hours. I remember feeling like [I was] cheating, going back and forth between these two men. 
 
 In your mind, at that age, there was a kind of drama. 
 
 Oh my God. I’m sexually so compelled with this one man. With my cousin, I’m beginning to perceive his mental illness and his endless need for me at that time. I was part of a troupe of kids working with the director and writer Liz Swados, and that winter, Liz and I got together and she recognized that I was in a lot of psychic distress. She pursued it to the point where I confessed to her that I was trapped in this relationship with my cousin and wanted to get out, but felt like he would fall apart if I left him. She helped me get out. She gave me the words and explained to me also that 25-year-olds don’t have sex with 14- and 15-year-olds, that that’s wrong, that I was not the guilty party and I could leave. 
 
 How many times did you meet up with Kevin after that first meeting? 
 
 My memory is that we met up three or four more times with, again, proclamations that we loved each other. Also, [he was telling me] that there were producers who were really interested in me as an actor and that he wanted to get me auditions. He talked about some play and how he wanted to get me an audition for it. He hadn’t seen me act since I was 12. 
 
 Did anything come of that? 
 
 No, it didn’t result in anything professional. 
 
 Did you ever talk to Kevin about his work? 
 
 I knew at that point he was starting to be a working actor. That was very glamorous to me, that he was having the beginnings of some success in that world. Enough that it seemed like he was going to get me these auditions. That all seemed very believable. When you’re 14, a lot of things seem believable, especially if it’s something nice. I was acting professionally at that time, so that’s another part of why all of this made sense to me: I was commuting into New York and acting and making money. 
 
 You were a working child actor. 
 
 Of course I have a 24-year-old boyfriend and I’m going out to punk clubs. I’m lying to my parents about all of this. And I’m “cheating” on my cousin/boyfriend to go see Kevin Spacey. I’m very caught up in the drama, and it’s now early winter. So now I’m 15. He was in a different apartment, also on the Upper West Side, and I called him from a pay phone, like you used to do, and said, “I’m close by. Can I see you?” I had like 15 minutes before I had to meet my parents and some family friends for dinner. 
 
 He told me to come over, and I went to the apartment. And I thought we were going to kiss and tell each other we loved each other and I was going to go. But he wanted to have sex, and this time he wanted to fuck me, which had never happened to me before. 
 
 He said he wanted to top you? 
 
 He did not say. He just did. I guess he must have come up behind me and yanked down my baggy jeans, and he goes to fuck me and I’m like, “No, I don’t want to.” And he pushes hard, and grabs me, and starts shoving up against my asshole, and it hurts like a motherfucker. I again tell him no, and he tries again. I am strong enough, thank God, both somewhere in my brain and in my body, to get him off of me. I’m sturdy, thankfully. I throw him off of me and I run crying down the stairs and out into the street and then suck it all up and go have dinner. 
 
 Did he penetrate you? 
 
 No. I don’t think so. I know it hurt, so something went somewhere to the point where it hurt, but I remember feeling like I got him. I did not feel like I had been fucked. 
 
 What would you call it? 
 
 I always have said, “He tried to rape me.” I told him I didn’t want that, he went again to do it, I told him no, he went again and pushed harder and grabbed me and pushed harder. I don’t know how I would see that as anything besides an attempted rape, which I was able to thwart. 
 
 Did you feel afraid? 
 
 I don’t know that I felt afraid. I felt betrayed, or in danger, or trapped. In some way it was like, “Oh, I’ve been lured into a trap.” 
 
 I called his number a few days later and there was no answer — he’s gone, and I do not hear from him ever again. One year later, I’m an apprentice at the Berkshire Theater Festival. I see that he’s at the Williamstown Theater Festival [Spacey starred in Williamstown’s production of Real Dreams in 1984], and I contact him there and say I want to see him. And at the last minute I call him and say, “Why didn’t you ever call me? Why didn’t you ever do anything? I don’t want to see you.” 
 
 And what? 
 
 He was like, “Oh, come over. I’m going to drive over.” I had maintained this weird obsession with him, and I turned it at the last minute and said, “I don’t want to see you. Don’t come.” So that was that. And that has been the extent of my contact with him. 
 
 Kevin Spacey and Robin Bartlett in Williamstown’s production of Real Dreams in 1984. Photo: Courtesy of Williamstown Theater/Bob Marshak 
 
 Did you ever tell your parents? 
 
 Nope. But then I remember talking to my friends in my early 20s about it, as he started to get prizes and be in plays and later win a Tony. In the late ’80s, I remember seeing him in the movie Heartburn, playing the thief, and this rage that he was rising up in the world and that I was going to have to look at this person for the rest of my life. 
 
 How did you feel about him when you were 14? 
 
 I was obsessed with him. 
 
 And how do you feel about those feelings now? 
 
 You feel things full body, in a way, when you’re adolescent, right? And some people never learn, but in adolescence, you certainly don’t know yet that a very powerful sexual feeling is not love. You haven’t found that out yet, and some people don’t ever find that out. I was just full of this lust. And that’s why, one year later, even after he tried to rape me, some part of me wanted to see him again. 
 
 When did your thinking around what had happened start to change? 
 
 When do I start to think of him as a sexual predator? 
 
 Yeah. I assume you would call him that now. 
 
 I would call him that to his face. I would call him a pedophile and a sexual predator. When I turned 25, I looked at every 14-year-old boy I could see, to try to understand what those men had seen, because I still on some level thought I had been a tiny adult. That whole year I was 25, I tried to just see the ones who were like six-foot-two, and 200 pounds — they all looked like children. They all looked like somebody who was 10 years old four years ago. Nobody looks fuckable. Nobody … I couldn’t conjure it up. I couldn’t conjure up the desire. It was nauseating to think of having sex with them, and that was, I think, certainly when I understood, on a very deep level, these men were fucked up. Up until then, I just thought about him as somebody who had really done me wrong and tried to rape me, but not as somebody who had functioned as a predator. And then, if you’re interested in sexual predation, you start to read about it, and you realize all these patterns and techniques, and it all kind of falls within a set of practices. 
 
 Is that what you did? You read about it? 
 
 Yeah, like I would talk to psychologists. I know that pedophilia is a sexuality, like homosexuality. You can’t necessarily — you can’t be cured of it. It is in your brain. That’s one of the tragic things about it for those people. You can become someone who does not act on those impulses, but the understanding in the psychological community is … that’s your sexuality. That’s what you’re stuck with. You read and you realize, “Oh yeah, they do this thing.” My cousin had done it. They make themselves beloved. They’re charming and helpful and kind so that the community invites them deeper in. They make themselves indispensable, and that also is a double thing. So that when they are accused, people don’t believe it. “Not him. Mr. Wallace is so great, and he takes the kids camping.” 
 
 So in your view, this is who he is? 
 
 He is a pedophile. When you look at his statement, you realize also he’s profoundly narcissistic. He thinks this is about being caught that he’s gay. And then he is spinning it, right? “Oh, people like gays now. So I’ll throw them that. I’ll say I’m gay and I will betray my whole community and do something else that conflates pedophilia with male homosexuality.” That’s great. Thank you for that. And that was probably the thing that made me want to talk more than anything else. How repulsive that was. 
 
 Okay. I guess this is speaking a little more generally about relationships that gay men have, and often I think that there are older-younger kinds of relationships. 
 
 Yeah. My partner now is 11 years older than I am. I mean, some part of me, almost anyone I’ve ever been seriously involved with has been older. What’s your question? 
 
 Do you think that a 14- or 15-year-old is capable of being in a relationship with a man who is a decade older? 
 
 No. What you need in a relationship, any relationship, involves a power struggle. But you have to start from some kind of equal footing. And a 15-year-old is a child. Everything is already off-kilter. You’re taking from somebody to get this thing you want. 
 
 What did he take? 
 
 From me? 
 
 Yeah. 
 
 Luckily, I threw him off me. I saved myself in many ways in that minute from the much deeper trauma that would’ve come from having been raped. Thankfully, some part of me was strong enough to be like, “Fuck no.” I’m so grateful to that little 14-year-old, that he didn’t say, I have to let him do this or he’ll stop loving me. What he left me with, more than what he took from me, was a sense that I deserved this. And that’s the knot I’m still untangling. Every time I’ve ever told the story, I am compelled to tell people how seductive I was towards these men. I’m compelled to tell people how much I wanted these things because some very deep part of me feels like it’s lying if I don’t say that. If I don’t describe how consensual it was. Some part of me takes a lot of work to understand that I can have been the victim of someone and not be a victim. So that’s all fucked up in my head. 
 
 My introductions to love were, You’re a thing. You’re a tasty thing. And if you didn’t have that, you would have no worth. 
 
 Does the question of consent feel complicated to you? 
 
 Yeah. Sexual abuse is complicated. It’s like when you’re a kid, right, and somebody accidentally touched your penis with a towel, it feels nice. You can’t help that. Like rubbing up against the bed, it feels nice. So if you’re little and somebody touches your penis, it’s terrifying and shameful. At the same time, neurologically, it’s pleasurable. You’re left with that forever. You can’t help it. Teenagers have to be protected from themselves. Children have to be protected from themselves. That’s what adults do. They protect them and they create spaces for them like training wheels where they can begin to get ready. In an ideal world. This is not an ideal world. 
 
 What made you want to talk about Kevin Spacey now? 
 
 The low-level guilt that I’ve kind of carried all this time of knowing, in my brain, that these people repeat offend. They don’t stop. It’s never one and done. Pedophiles, sexual predators, that’s part of it. So knowing full well that he was continuing to do this, that he was out there at large, has made me feel ashamed. So that makes me want to talk. I’m grateful to Anthony Rapp for talking, that opened that door for me. Obviously the most right thing is to put my name and speak, and the second most right thing is to be anonymous and speak. And that’s what I can do. If it was 1977 and it was a newspaper, and I didn’t feel like the world was going to swarm in through the wormhole of my phone and invade my life and strip me of things, and if I also didn’t feel like that was going to become my name … I don’t want that to be my name. ||||| Kevin Spacey made the set of Netflix's "House of Cards" into a "toxic" work environment through a pattern of sexual harassment, eight people who currently work on the show or worked on it in the past tell CNN. One former employee told CNN that Spacey sexually assaulted him. 
 
 The former production assistant, whose account has never previously been disclosed, told CNN that Spacey sexually assaulted him during one of the show's early seasons. All eight people, each of whom spoke to CNN on the condition of anonymity for fear of professional repercussions for speaking out, described Spacey's behavior as "predatory," saying it included nonconsensual touching and crude comments and targeted production staffers who were typically young and male. 
 
 The new accusations follow an explosive article published less than a week ago by BuzzFeed News, in which actor Anthony Rapp said Spacey made sexual advances toward him in 1985, when Rapp was 14 years old. 
 
 On Monday, Spacey released an apology in response to Rapp's account. "I honestly do not remember the encounter, it would have been over 30 years ago," Spacey said. "But if I did behave then as he describes, I owe him the sincerest apology for what would have been deeply inappropriate drunken behavior, and I am sorry for the feelings he describes having carried with him all these years." 
 
 Related: Kevin Spacey seeking treatment after sexual assault allegations 
 
 Spacey's publicist said in a statement on Wednesday that the actor is seeking unspecified treatment following Rapp's allegations. 
 
 On Thursday, that publicist -- Staci Wolf -- said she and Creative Artists Agency were parting ways with the actor. 
 
 Production of Season 6 of the series was shut down this week. Netflix and the production company Media Rights Capital issued a joint statement Tuesday to say that they are reviewing the "situation and to address any concerns of our cast and crew." Spacey is also one of the show's executive producers. 
 
 The former production assistant who spoke with CNN said Spacey sexually assaulted him one afternoon when the assistant was assigned to drive to an offsite location to pick up Spacey and bring him to the "House of Cards" set, which is located about 30 miles outside of Baltimore. 
 
 Related: House of Cards' production halted 
 
 The production assistant says that when he and Spacey were just minutes away from the set and while the car was moving, Spacey, who was driving, put his hands down the production assistant's pants. The production assistant told CNN that the touching was nonconsensual. 
 
 "I was in a state of shock," he said. "He was a man in a very powerful position on the show and I was someone very low on the totem pole and on the food chain there." 
 
 The production assistant asked that what happened next in the car not be described, for fear that it would identify him. 
 
 Once they had arrived on set, the production assistant says he helped the actor take his belongings from the car to Spacey's trailer on set. While the two men were in the trailer, the production assistant says, Spacey cornered him, blocked his exit and made inappropriate contact with him. 
 
 "I told him, 'I don't think I'm ok with this, I don't think I'm comfortable with this,'" the production assistant said. That's when the actor became "visibly flustered," fled the trailer, got in his car and left for the remainder of the day, according to the production assistant. 
 
 The production assistant did not report the incident to any managers of the series or the police, but he did tell a coworker at the time. CNN has spoken to the coworker to corroborate the production assistant's story. 
 
 Related: London theater calls for information after Kevin Spacey allegations 
 
 The alleged sexual assault came months after the production assistant had, he told CNN, complained to a supervisor that Spacey was sexually harassing him. The supervisor's solution was to never let the production assistant be alone with Spacey while they were on set, the production assistant says. 
 
 The assistant said the harassment then stopped for long enough for him to feel comfortable driving with Spacey to the set. 
 
 "I have no doubt that this type of predatory behavior was routine for him and that my experience was one of many and that Kevin had few if any qualms about exploiting his status and position," he said. "It was a toxic environment for young men who had to interact with him at all in the crew, cast, background actors." 
 
 The other people who worked on "House of Cards" with whom CNN spoke all supported the idea that the set could be toxic for young men because of Spacey. 
 
 A crew member who worked on the show for all six seasons said that Spacey routinely harassed and touched him. 
 
 "He would put his hands on me in weird ways," the crew member said. "He would come in and massage my shoulders from behind or put his hands around me or touch my stomach sometimes in weird ways that in normal everyday conversation would not be appropriate." 
 
 This crew member said he did not "feel comfortable" telling Spacey to stop. "That's the worst part about this whole thing. I would love to be able to speak out about this kind of stuff and not fear." 
 
 Related: Kevin Spacey criticized for how he came out 
 
 CNN spoke to a close friend of the crew member, who says that the crew member had told him about Spacey's behavior over the course of the six seasons of the show that it happened. 
 
 When asked on Thursday about the new allegations, Netflix said in a statement to CNN that they sent a representative to the "House of Cards" set on Monday. Spacey did not respond to CNN's request for comment about the new allegations. 
 
 "Netflix was just made aware of one incident, five years ago, that we were informed was resolved swiftly," the statement said. "On Tuesday, in collaboration with MRC, we suspended production, knowing that Kevin Spacey wasn't scheduled to work until Wednesday. Netflix is not aware of any other incidents involving Kevin Spacey on-set. We continue to collaborate with MRC and other production partners to maintain a safe and respectful working environment. We will continue to work with MRC during this hiatus time to evaluate our path forward as it relates to the production, and have nothing further to share at this time." 
 
 MRC, the production company behind "House of Cards," told CNN in a separate statement on Thursday that they have implemented "an anonymous complaint hotline, crisis counselors, and sexual harassment legal advisors for the crew." 
 
 "We are deeply troubled to learn about these new allegations that are being made to the press concerning Kevin Spacey's interaction with members of the crew of House of Cards," the MRC statement said. "As the producer of the show, creating and maintaining a safe working environment for our cast and crew has always been our top priority. We have consistently reinforced the importance of employees reporting any incident without fear of retaliation and we have investigated and taken appropriate actions following any complaints. For example, during our first year of production in 2012, someone on the crew shared a complaint about a specific remark and gesture made by Kevin Spacey. Immediate action was taken following our review of the situation and we are confident the issue was resolved promptly to the satisfaction of all involved. Mr. Spacey willingly participated in a training process and since that time MRC has not been made aware of any other complaints involving Mr. Spacey." 
 
 MRC did not elaborate about the complaint it cited in the statement. They added that they will continue to investigate all claims brought to their attention. 
 
 Other people with whom CNN spoke describe behavior similar to that recounted by the crew member. 
 
 A former camera assistant, who said he witnessed Spacey's behavior but was never harassed by Spacey, said the touching largely occurred in an open space and that "everybody saw." 
 
 "All the crew members commented on his behavior," the former camera assistant said. "What gets me is we have to sign sexual harassment paperwork before the start of the show and apparently [Kevin Spacey] doesn't have to do anything and he gets away scott-free with this behavior." CNN confirmed that Spacey was given guidelines regarding sexual harassment in the workplace. 
 
 Colleagues never complained because they were afraid of losing their jobs, the former camera assistant said. 
 
 "Who is going to believe crew members?" he said. "You're going to get fired." 
 
 Related: Seth MacFarlane joked about Kevin Spacey on 'Family Guy' episode years ago 
 
 A former female production assistant who worked on several seasons of "House of Cards" said she witnessed Spacey's sexual misconduct with crew members on set. 
 
 "It was very known that Kevin was inappropriate, and males I worked with complained to me about how they felt uncomfortable," she said. "Kevin does this thing which was play fights with them in order to touch them." She said she saw Spacey approach "multiple people" to "say hello, greet them, shake their hand and pull their hand down to his crotch and touch their crotch. I have friends say he reached up their shorts on set." 
 
 Spacey also made sexually-charged comments on set, according to a former crew member. 
 
 "There was one instance [when] a grip bent over to pick something up and his ass crack was showing, and Kevin Spacey made a sexual comment about it," he recalled, adding that the comment Spacey made was "nice ass." 
 
 The allegations about Spacey also come as the entertainment world is reckoning with fallout from the Harvey Weinstein sexual harassment scandal. Dozens of women have accused him of sexual harassment and police are investigating assault claims. Weinstein has apologized for his behavior, but he denies all allegations of nonconsensual sex.
– The latest accusations against Kevin Spacey bring the timeline of alleged sexual assault and harassment up to the present: No fewer than eight current and former House of Cards employees tell CNN that the star's behavior, including groping and crude comments, made the set of the Netflix show a "toxic" working environment. The show halted production earlier this week. The workers—who asked to stay anonymous out of fear of ruining their careers—say Spacey targeted young male staffers in a "predatory" manner. One former production assistant says he was in a car on the way to the set with Spacey when the actor suddenly put his hands down his pants. The worker says the nonconsensual touching from someone in a "very powerful position on the show" left him "in a state of shock." The production assistant says after arriving on set, Spacey cornered him in his trailer and made "inappropriate contact." He says after he told Spacey what he was doing wasn't OK, Spacey became "flustered" and left for the rest of the day. House of Cards producer Media Rights Capital says Spacey was reported for sexual harassment in 2012 and it is "deeply troubled" by the new allegations, per the Hollywood Reporter. MRC says it has set up a complaint hotline and legal assistance for workers. In a separate allegation, a man who is now 48 tells Vulture that he had a sexual relationship with Spacey when he was 14 and the actor was 24. He says they met around five times and there was a lot of "physical activity"—but Spacey then tried to rape him. He says he fought the actor off and fled, and Spacey later broke off contact with him.