Judi Dench has divided the internet over recent comments she made defending disgraced superstar Kevin Spacey, who she described as a 'good friend'. She attacked the idea of removing him from 'All the Money in the World', and praised him for his acting performance over the years.

Judi Dench at the premiere for 'Murder on the Orient Express'Judi Dench at the premiere for 'Murder on the Orient Express'

Indeed, it's Spacey's 'acting performance' that has long been an issue for those, including 'Star Trek' star Anthony Rapp, who have finally found the courage in recent years to voice their accusations of sexual assault after the trauma of seeing him so highly venerated in Hollywood for so long.

For 83-year-old Judi Dench, it seems that such offences - even when apparently committed against children, as Rapp was at the time - are not enough to break a strong friendship.

'I don't know about the conditions of it, but nevertheless he is, and was, a most wonderful actor', she said at a press conference at the San Sebastian International Film Festival this week. 'I can't imagine what he is doing now. And a good friend.'

Such a comment might leave a bitter taste in your mouth, but does she perhaps have a point when she talks about the ethics and repercussions of cutting him out of Ridley Scott's J. Paul Getty biopic 'All the Money in the World'?

'I can't approve, in any way, of the fact that - whatever he has done - that you then start to cut him out of the films', she said. 'Are we to do what happened when he was replaced with Christopher Plummer? Are we to do that throughout history?'

'Are we to go back throughout history and anyone who has misbehaved in any way, or who has broken the law, or who has committed some kind of offence, are they always going to be cut out? Are we going to extrude them from our history? I don't know.'

Many people have agreed that rewriting movies like that is a slippery slope. One Twitter user wrote: 'Crimes should be investigated and punished, no doubt about it. But demands of redaction are just frightening. The natural end point of social media acting as judge, jury and executioner doesn't bear thinking about.'

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On the other hand, Judi has received backlash with social media users saying her comments were 'egocentric' and they 'crossed a line'.