NEW YORK • Another axe has fallen on Kevin Spacey while Simon Cowell has revealed that he had been in sexual harassment situations before.

Spacey, dogged by sexual misconduct allegations over the past week, is now being excluded from an upcoming 50th anniversary special of The Carol Burnett Show, reported Variety.

The two-time Oscar winner was involved in the taping of the programme last month in Los Angeles, performing a musical number with legendary comedienne Burnett and actresses Kristin Chenoweth and Bernadette Peters.

He is also out of favour at Netflix, where producers of the show House Of Cards are said to be mulling over killing Spacey's character.

The idea is to allow the Emmy-nominated series to continue and not harm the job security of the many others who work on the show.

Spacey is already counting his losses from Netflix cancelling a Gore Vidal biopic, Gore, in which he was set to portray the writer; and Sony Pictures yanking his film, All The Money In The World, from a movie festival in Los Angeles.

Over in London, reality TV show host Cowell said on Monday that he was "put in situations" in the early days of his music industry career.

Speaking at the Music Industry Trusts Award in aid of charities, he said: "Look, I have grown up in the music business. Even as a kid, I was put in situations when I was first working - you know, it's not a very nice business.

"But people get what they deserve. That's all I'm going to say," he added of the fallout that has swept by big names such as producer Harvey Weinstein and director Brett Ratner.

Cowell's red-carpet appearance was his first in public since he fell down the stairs in his London home late last month. He fainted as he was going to get some milk.

While he has since recovered and gone back to work on the X Factor show, Hollywood is still licking its wounds in the aftermath of a sexual storm that has led to projects being shelved, sets shuttered and even the Oscars rattled.

On Tuesday, a potential buyer walked away from the Weinstein Co, nudging the struggling studio closer to the brink. After disagreeing on price, Colony Capital, the private equity firm, ended talks with the boutique studio to buy some or all of its assets, reported The New York Times.

The acquisition effort had also broken down, in part because of Colony's desire to structure any purchase in a way that would not enrich Weinstein, according to people briefed on the matter.

Weinstein has a roughly 20 per cent stake in the studio.

Ratner's stock has also fallen, with Warner Bros removing him from the producing role of a much-anticipated adaptation of the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel The Goldfinch.

The Oscar race has been shaken up too. Sony Pictures was betting on Spacey as its awards candidate for his role in Ridley Scott's All The Money In The World, but has since scratched that plan.

"This is kind of a lesson for everyone in Hollywood. You know what? Everybody is replaceable," Mr Tim Gray, an editor at Variety, noted.