It truly is not a good time to be Bill Cosby......
Was it only a generation ago that Bill Cosby played the role of America's Dad, with a No. 1-rated family sitcom, a runaway best-seller about fatherhood and a lucrative ad career built around his Everyman image.
His legacy as a pioneering African-American entertainer seemed secure. Early success as a stand-up comic was followed by a starring role in "I Spy," the 1960s TV hit. In the 1980s, he starred as Dr. Heathcliff Huxtable in "The Cosby Show," one of the first sitcoms centered on an affluent African-American family.
Now, his career stands threatened by allegations of sexual misconduct — with media companies running away from the man they once embraced in a hurry..
The scandal will "certainly shoulder its way into" the way Mr. Cosby is remembered, even after his death, said Martin Kaplan, professor at the Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism at the University of Southern California.
"Obits traditionally have a 'who' sentence at the start," Martin Kaplan added. "Until now, his would have been: 'Bill Cosby, who ...' followed by something about the Huxtables and being America's Dad. Now I think that sentence will continue with ... this sad, sordid history now unfolding."
The onetime father figure is battling claims that he sexually assaulted women, including aspiring actresses looking to break into showbiz. The alleged victims who have recently stepped forward include former model Janice Dickinson, whose rape claim was vigorously denied by a Cosby attorney this week.
The escalating crisis of image forced NBC officials on Wednesday to scrap plans to develop a Cosby comedy pilot in which he would have played the grandfather in an extended family.
"We can confirm that the Cosby project is no longer in development," said a person with knowledge of the situation who was not authorized to speak publicly. By Wednesday afternoon, the cable network TV Land announced it was pulling episodes of "The Cosby Show" from its channel indefinitely.
Those actions followed an interview with Dickinson that aired Tuesday on "Entertainment Tonight" that prompted Netflix to back out of a special in honor of the comedian. "At this time we are postponing the launch of the new stand-up special 'Bill Cosby 77,' " a Netflix spokesman said in a statement.
The program, taped on the performer's 77th birthday, had been scheduled to premiere Nov. 28. The statement neither gave a reason for the postponement nor specified whether it would be rescheduled.
Meanwhile, a coalition of civil rights and women's groups on Wednesday called on the Treasure Island resort in Las Vegas to postpone an upcoming appearance by Cosby pending an investigation of his alleged victims' claims.
Although these allegations have only recently gained national attention, they date back decades...I had heard whispers about this before...But I'm not hearing whispers now..It's LOUD!
In 2005, Temple University staffer Andrea Constand sued Mr. Cosby, claiming he drugged and groped her during a visit the year before to his Philadelphia home. During that case, 13 other women came forward with similar stories and were prepared to testify, according to published reports. But her lawyers reached an out-of-court settlement with Cosby in 2006; the terms were not disclosed. The scandal died down so much that it was not mentioned in Mark Whitaker's biography of Cosby published earlier this year. "There were no definitive court findings," Whitaker explained to the Huffington Post.
Further back, in 1997, a woman named Autumn Jackson who claimed to be Cosby's biological child was convicted of trying to extort millions of dollars from the entertainer. Cosby admitted to a relationship with Jackson's mother but denied paternity.
The accusations returned to the spotlight last month after a routine by stand-up comedian Hannibal Buress made fun of Cosby's fatherly image in light of the allegations of sexual misconduct.
Hanibal Buress' stand up routine, captured on a jerky smartphone camera, quickly ricocheted around the Internet. It went "viral as they say and America once again was OUTRAGED!! I tell you it seems like we are outraged about something or someone every week... It proved the match that lighted the fuse. On Nov. 13, The Washington Post published a first-person piece by Arizona artist Barbara Bowman in which she claimed that Mr. Cosby had drugged and repeatedly raped her in 1985, when she was a 17-year-old aspiring actress.
My thing is this...These women have been silent for all these years..Now some comedian, who few people ever heard of outside of serious comedy groupies tells a joke...a joke he has been telling for months and all of a sudden ALL of these women suddenly remember Mr. Cosby assaulted them in 1972, 1977, 1982 ,1985 et al...I'm just saying...True or not...It does make you wonder or at least it should....Most of these cases were settled out of court(meaning somebody took some cash for their silence...) and are so old he can't be prosecuted for them even if he is in fact guilty....Again..If you weren't there, you don't know..Only Mr. Cosby and the girls know for sure....We should remember...These are just accusations...I can accuse somebody of doing anything....With no concrete proof or action it means nothing...
A lot of us forget that....We just join in with the crowd and hope to GOd...Nobody discovers the skelaton bones in our own closets and puts it on the internet!
7 comments:
One reason to smear Bill is he's in works of buying a network along with others to put back family oriented shows on tv. We know how he feels about the plight of us. We know how he feels about positive imagery among black folk. Now if a man like Bill get his own network then shows like real housewives, and those other shows we love would have serious competition and sponsors are about money and networks make too much money to have a idealist like Bill to have that kind of power. That's Just One Reason These Charges and timing of it came out
Set Up from the Get Up!
You say something enough, people will believe it. There are many that didn't and still don't believe Obama is president.
Remember one of the devil's jobs is to destroy and to destroy you need to deceive the people around him or he's support (fans), then there can kill the values that he displaying to you and I.I don't know about you, but the man had been a role model since the Cosby kids,yes Fat Albert and the gang.Me personally can't say one way or another, but he's character says otherwise.
I don't think this has anything to do with race or destroying his legacy ... It's not like he's in the prime of his career ...the comments on this post is exactly why woman don't report rape!!! If my daughter came to me and said " Mommy so and so raped me 12 years ago" I am not going to say "well your timing is suspect or I think this is a set up" close your eyes for a minute and think about if one of these women were your mother or daughter. I work with rape victims and there are a bunch of reasons why they don't report ...fear no one will believe them is at the top of the list. Will you criticize the young daughter who was raped by her father but didn't tell anyone until she was a teen? Sometimes all it takes is for one person to come forward...sometimes that is what gives these women the courage to speak up...knowing that they are not alone.
@James Perkins- James is cheating on your wife being a good role model for young black men?
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