Yours for just £228: a Kevin Spacey stainless steel gold-tone Fourth of July ‘adversity ring’

America’s 250th anniversary celebrations are not exactly going to plan. A wealth of acts have pulled out of semiquincentennial concerts. An mock-up of Donald Trump’s planned Triumphal Arch at the Great American State Fair is visibly oozing. Some of Disney’s celebratory Americana apparel range was found to have been made in China. But, as ever, things could be worse. After all, you could have chosen to spend the anniversary wearing a Kevin Spacey ring. Because, in a sentence that nobody could have ever expected to read, Kevin Spacey is selling a special edition signet ring to commemorate America’s independence. That’s right, if you have £110 (£228 if you want it personalised) and are prepared to wait three months for delivery, then you – yes, you! – can be the proud owner of a “gold-tone” stainless steel ring that not only says “I love America” but also “I am willing to overlook numerous complaints about Kevin Spacey’s sexual impropriety.” The ring bears the legend Per Ardua, Ad Astra (“Through adversity, to the stars”), which is not only the motto of the RAF (a weird choice for a ring commemorating America’s independence) but also seems to be about Kevin Spacey’s belief that he will have a credible career again. It also has a giant “FU” on it, because of course it does. The FU stands for Frank Underwood, the character Spacey played on Netflix’s House of Cards until Netflix stopped employing him and an arbitrator ordered him to pay its production company $31m for violating the show’s harassment policy (although in 2024 this was reduced to $1m). Again, this is a strange thing to put on a ring in the year 2026. Kevin Spacey has won two Oscars, for The Usual Suspects and American Beauty, and surely that represents the peak era of his career. And yet, rather than Keyser Söze, he’s referencing a television series that has become toxic from its association with him. Chris Rock has a routine about people liking music from the period when they lost their virginity, and a …