Speaks out Cosby rape allegations
Host O’Donnell speaks out regarding Cosby’s rape allegations:
There are lots of allegations starting in 1969. There are many, many, many, and it’s very hard, I think, for any of us to discuss Cosby in this context. Because he is the beloved father image, the benevolent father that we as a society hold in some way. Even for, you know, anyone who has been the victim of sexual abuse to believe that somebody that you love or know could do that is a very difficult thing.
‘Pull up YOUR pants’
Maher jokes about the recent sexual assault allegations leveled at Cosby during his Real Time monologue.
It was kind of a bad week for the Cos… on the plus side, he has lots of pills lying around that can make him forget the whole thing.
Even for a guy who did a sitcom in the 1980s, that’s a lot of wacky misunderstandings.
I think it is ironic justice that a nation of black teenagers now gets to say to Bill Cosby, ‘Pull up YOUR pants!’
Says Cosby slipped her a Quaalude
Emmons, who ran comedy clubs in the 70s and 80s, tells TMZ that Cosby slipped her a Quaalude as medicine to cure a headache. Emmons says she blacked out then woke up naked in a bed in Cosby’s suite with one of Cosby’s friends. Emmons adds that she confronted Cosby who told her the pill was “just a Quaalude”.
Hecklers offered $1000
Ambra and Wasson, hosts of the radio show, The News Junkie, will pay $1000 for audience members to stand up during the Cosby’s Florida performance, yell something about the sexual assault allegations against him, and videotape their heckling.
The plan is to confront Cosby and force him to address the rape allegations that he has dismissed time and time again. We’re calling this ‘Operation: Cosby Spartacus.’ We’re doing this in hopes that multiple people in the audience will do what the mainstream media has failed to accomplish…We’ve gotten numerous emails and calls about participation and a lot of support from listeners and locals. We believe that Bill Cosby has successfully avoided addressing these allegations for more than 14 years, and we hope to put an end to that silence tonight.
Extra security will be on hand at the 2000 seat venue because of the anticipated protests.
Accuses Cosby of sexual harassment
Model-actress Leslie accuses Cosby of sexual harassment when she is targeted after sending the comedian a letter and photograph. She checks into a Las Vegas hotel and Cosby summons her to his luxury suite:
If you want to act, show me what you’ve got. Pretend you’re intoxicated. He pours me a stiff drink and tells me to act like I was blasted on booze, I couldn’t drink it. I tasted it and put it down. Then he asked me to go into the bathroom and wet my hair. . . . I walked back out, and he had removed his clothing and gotten into bed.
Receives standing ovation
Cosby’s show in Melbourne, Florida begins with a standing ovation from the sold-out crowd. Cosby discusses a local radio station offering cash and prizes to heckle the comedian in a pre-show interview with Florida Today.
So today I was informed of this radio station that is offering money for people to stand up and heckle in order to collect prizes and money. The thing is, these people are prodding and pushing people and asking people to have a frat house mentality. Now suppose someone brings a weapon or decided to do more foolishness. There will be announcements made and the stations made some disclaimers, but what if people don’t listen to what they said and they entice violence? That’s not good for anyone.
‘A guy doesn’t have to answer to innuendos’
Cosby discusses not speaking out about the recent sexual assault allegations leveled against him in an interview with Florida Today.
I know people are tired of me not saying anything, but a guy doesn’t have to answer to innuendos. People should fact check. People shouldn’t have to go through that and shouldn’t answer to innuendos.
Attorney: claims ‘completely illogical’
Cosby’s attorney, Martin Singer, releases a statement in which he calls the new sexual assault allegations against Cosby “completely illogical”.
The new, never-before-heard claims from women who have come forward in the past two weeks with unsubstantiated, fantastical stories about things they say occurred 30, 40 or even 50 years ago have escalated past the point of absurdity. These brand new claims about alleged decades-old events are becoming increasingly ridiculous, and it is completely illogical that so many people would have said nothing, done nothing and made no reports to law enforcement or asserted civil claims if they thought they had been assaulted over a span of so many years. Lawsuits are filed against people in the public eye every day. There has never been a shortage of lawyers willing to represent people with claims against rich, powerful men, so it makes no sense that not one of these new women who just came forward for the first time now ever asserted a legal claim back at the time they allege dthey had been sexually assaulted. This situation is an unprecedented example of the media’s breakneck rush to run stories without any corroboration or adherence to traditional journalistic standards … It is long past time for this media villification of Mr. Cosby to stop.
Details attempted sexual assault by Cosby
Ruehli, a 71-year-old grandmother from New Hampshire, tells Philadelphia Magazine that Cosby drugged and then attempted to sexually assaulted her at his home in 1965.
“He must have drugged me.There is just one point at which I was having a drink and feeling normal and the next I was somehow passed out completely. He must have slipped something into my drink. It’s the only way to go lights-out like that. I woke up in the bed. I found myself on the bed, and he had his shirt off. He had unzipped his pants. I was just coming to. He was attempting to force me into oral sex. He had his hand on my head. He had his cock out, and he had my head pushed close enough to it I just remember looking at his stomach hair. And the hair on his chest. I had never seen a black man naked before.
Bahamas show
Cosby made his first public appearance since numerous rape allegations, performing at Nassau’s Atlantis Resort in the Bahamas. .Seated on stage wearing a grey sweatshirt with the message “Hello Friend” written across it, Cosby never mentioned the sexual abuse claims making headlines in his 90-minute set. He talks about his life, including stories about his childhood growing up in the projects of Philadelphia, his long marriage to Camille, and observations about life in the Bahamas. Camille shows up briefly at a post-show reception, but her husband did not. Despite the recent claims, a few audience members give him a standing ovation.
#BillCosby talking about growing up in in the housing projects of Philly. At a show in the #Bahamas #Cosby pic.twitter.com/4DpNPhoy6b
— Robert Zepeda (@RobertZepeda) November 21, 2014
Alleges sexual assault at Johnny Carson show taping
Moritz, who played Rose in One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest and was in Cheech & Chong’s Up In Smoke and had television parts in the 70s, says Cosby put his penis in her mouth in the NBC studio in New York before a taping of Johnny Carson’s Tonight Show in 1971. She says he promised that she would become a star through his direction, before then assaulting her:
He took his hands and put them on the back of my head and forced his penis in my mouth, saying, ‘have a taste of this. It will do you good in so many ways.’
Cosby’s lawyer responds:
We’ve reached a point of absurdity. The stories are getting more ridiculous…Mortiz is a lawyer who was disciplined by the California State Bar and ordered not to practice.
TMZ confirms this, saying Mortiz cannot practice because she didn’t report certain quarterly reports. The nature of the reports is unclear from the documents.
Criminal history highlighted
After she accuses Cosby of trying to drug her 40 years ago at a beach, a lawyer for Cosby highlights Traitz’s criminal history including trafficking Oxycodone, possession of a controlled substance, and obtaining a controlled substance by fraud, for which she was jailed for more than three years and released in 2012. Traitz has also been jailed on various other charges including ID theft, battery, and drugs offenses. Cosby’s lawyer:
There was no briefcase of drugs and the story is absurd.
‘I was NOT taken advantage of by Cosby’
Raven-Symone, who played Cosby’s grand-daughter on The Cosby Show takes to instagram to say she has not been abused by Cosby:
I was NOT taking advantage of by Mr. Cosby when I was on the Cosby Show! I was practically a baby on that show and this is truly a disgusting rumor that I want no part of! Everyone on that show treated me with nothing but kindness. Now keep me out of this!
‘Beyond our knowledge’
Werner and Carsey, producers of The Cosby Show, speak about the allegations against Cosby:
The Bill we know was a brilliant and wonderful collaborator on a show that changed the landscape of television. These recent news reports are beyond our knowledge or comprehension.
Pulls reruns of ‘The Cosby Show’
TV Land pulls reruns of The Cosby Show from it’s lineup, including marathons of the show scheduled to run between Thanksgiving and Christmas. TV Land also deletes the show’s page from its website.
Recounts Cosby assault
Ferrigno, wife of Lou Ferringo, claims that she was almost sexually assaulted by the star at a party in 1967. She says Cosby lunged at her and forcefully kissed her at a party when she was just a teenager, while his wife was home.
I feel so bad for these women. I was the lucky one…I mean “lucky” in that he didn’t harm me. It harmed me emotionally all my life but he didn’t physically harm me.
Accuses Cosby of rape
Serignese says she met Cosby, who was putting on a show at the Las Vegas Hilton, in 1976, when she was 19. After a party she was alone with Cosby and he offered her some pills.
I took them, didn’t know what they were didn’t even ask. I just was intimidated I guess and I took them. Then my next memory is feeling drugged and him having sex with me.
Cosby let her stay at his penthouse suite for several weeks, but asked her to leave when when she told him she might be pregnant (she wasn’t). She saw Cosby several times in the years following, but got married and moved on. In the mid 90s she got into financial trouble and reached out to Cosby, who said that Cosby had promised here $500 if she went to school and got all ‘A’s. Costby sent her $15,000 in total, but never heard from him again. In 2005 she says became a witness for another case, but the case was settled out of court.
I’m gonna say to Bill Cosby. You do owe me an explanation for why you did this to me. I want an apology. I want you to apologize for hurting me. I want you to apologize for taking advantage of me.
AP releases unedited interview
AP releases the full exchange between its reporter and the Cosbys from its November 6 interview. Cosby refuses to answer the allegations which, at that time, had come to media attention because of Hannibal Buress’ comments.
No, no we don’t answer that…There’s no response…There is no comment about that…I don’t want to compromise your integrity on that.
The Cosbys then ask the journalist and the producer to “scuttle” that part of the interview.
We thought by the way because it was AP that it wouldn’t be necessary to go over that question with you…the reason why we didn’t say that up front is because we thought that AP had the integrity to not ask.
The AP says it made no agreement to not publish the comments.
‘Not a lie’
In a follow-up interview on ET, Dickinson defends her claims against Cosby in a tearful interview..
It is not a lie. It is my right as a woman. I have to speak up and you have to be able to go in and just be brave and do it for all the women that can’t come forward. The loss of innocence that I suffered and that these women suffered is why I’m sitting here today. And I don’t care about what Cosby or networks or anybody says, you will hear me.
Green, another of Cosby’s accusers, calls into ET during Dickinson’s interview. Dickinson:
You were there, you know what happened to you. I didn’t go to the police the next day because I didn’t have the courage or the strength.
Dickinson claim: ‘A lie’
Cosby’s lawyer releases a statement:
Janice Dickinson’s story accusing Bill Cosby of rape is a lie. There is a glaring contradiction between what she is claiming now for the first time and what she wrote in her own book and what she told the media back in 2002. Ms. Dickinson did an interview with the New York Observer in September 2002 entitled ‘Interview With a Vamp’ completely contradicting her new story about Mr. Cosby. That interview a dozen years ago said ‘she didn’t want to go to bed with him and he blew her off.’ Her publisher HarperCollins can confirm that no attorney representing Mr. Cosby tried to kill the alleged rape story (since there was no such story) or tried to prevent her from saying whatever she wanted about Bill Cosby in her book. The only story she gave 12 years ago to the media and in her autobiography was that she refused to sleep with Mr. Cosby and he blew her off. Documentary proof and Ms. Dickinson’s own words show that her new story about something she now claims happened back in 1982 is a fabricated lie.