Elton John and David Furnish have taken the stand as part of Kevin Spacey’s defense in the actor’s trial for sexual assault in the U.K.
Both John and Furnish gave evidence separately via videolink from Monaco. They were called to testify regarding Kevin Spacey’s presence at the couple’s annual White Tie and Tiara ball in the early 2000s and whether Spacey had ever visited their house in Windsor separately from the ball.
John, who played his last ever gig as a touring artist in Sweden last week, was wearing a black jacket and white shirt with orange tinted glasses.
He was asked whether he recognized one of the alleged victims who has accused Kevin Spacey of sexual assault and said he didn’t recognize the man or his name.
John also asked about Spacey’s presence at the White Tie and Tiara ball, which was held annually for a period of “maybe 15, 16 years” at John and Furnish’s home in Windsor. The event was hosted by the Elton John AIDS Foundation and sponsored by OK Magazine, who would provide photographers and publish the resulting images in their magazine.
John said he recalled Spacey arrival at the event in 2001 because “he arrived in white tie. He came on a private jet and he came straight to the ball,” John told the prosuection barrister, Christine Agnew KC.
When Agnew asked whether Spacey had come directly from the private jet, John replied with a smile: “I assume so, yes. I don’t think he was wearing white tie on a commercial flight.”
“One never knows, I suppose,” Agnew said drily.
Furnish, who was dressed in a black jacket, white shirt, tan pants and sockless deck shoes, was also quizzed about Spacey’s presence at the ball. Furnish testified that Spacey had only ever attended one of the balls, in 2001.
Pressed on whether the “House of Cards” actor had ever attended the ball in any other year, Furnish was adamant he hadn’t. Furnish said he had gone through OK’s photo archive and could not find any photographs of Spacey at the event in any year except 2001.
Asked whether it would have been possible for Spacey to have attended the ball and not been photographed, Furnish replied that if a “star of Kevin Spacey’s magnitude” had turned up and refused to be photographed, it would have resulted in an “impossible situation” for the foundation.
“It never happened,” Furnish said. “It was understood that we were promoting a charity that involves eradication of stigma around the disease and if a celebrity wanted to come they would be photographed and appear in OK.”
Spacey has pleaded guilty to 12 charges of sexual assault against four men at Southwark Crown Court in London, U.K. The case, which is in its fourth week, continues.
More to come…
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