This Is Us' Kevin Spacey name-check goes to Christian Bale

LOS ANGELES - Christian Bale won what embattled Kevin Spacey lost: the privilege of being name-checked on "This Is Us."

Tuesday's episode of the NBC drama included a 2008 flashback scene in which a struggling actor learns his roommate has gotten a role in a major movie.

In the scene filmed before Spacey was accused of sexual misconduct, the thrilled roommate refers to a Kevin Spacey film.

But "This Is Us" producer 20th Century Fox Television said it decided to remove Spacey's name, citing "recent events." Viewers instead heard the project identified as "a Christian Bale movie."

In the wake of the Harvey Weinstein scandal, actor Anthony Rapp alleged Spacey made sexual advances toward him in 1986, when Rapp was 14. Spacey has said he doesn't remember the alleged encounter reported by BuzzFeed News last weekend but apologized if such "drunken behavior" occurred.

The cascading fallout for Spacey includes a halt to production on his Netflix series "House of Cards" and the loss of an award he was to be given later this month by The International Academy of Television Arts & Sciences