It’s been a rough few weeks for Bill Cosby. Ever since accusations of sexual assault popped up in the headlines for the beloved comedian, he’s faced hefty criticism at every turn. Aside from being accused of raping or assaulting several women, he’s been called a hypocrite or worse by people all across the media.
Janice Dickinson is the latest to accuse Cosby of sexual assault, claiming he took advantage of her following a stay in rehab. From Entertainment Tonight:
Following her stay in rehab, Dickinson says Cosby reached out to her during a trip to Bali and had her travel to Lake Tahoe, because he was performing there and wanted to offer her the job they had discussed as well as help her with a singing career.
Dickinson says they had dinner in Lake Tahoe, and claims that he gave her a glass of red wine and a pill, which she asked for because she was menstruating and had stomach pains…
“The next morning I woke up, and I wasn’t wearing my pajamas, and I remember before I passed out that I had been sexually assaulted by this man,” she tells ET. “… Before I woke up in the morning, the last thing I remember was Bill Cosby in a patchwork robe, dropping his robe and getting on top of me. And I remember a lot of pain. The next morning I remember waking up with my pajamas off and there was semen in between my legs.”
It might seem like a perfect example of dog piling at first glance, but Dickinson’s claims might have weight if a note pointed out by Vice and The AV Club is found to be true:
A Vice article published before Dickinson’s interview aired—but updated since—points out that her 2002 memoir No Lifeguard On Duty does reference this Lake Tahoe meeting with Cosby, and while he does come across extremely creepy, it does not mention any sexual assault. According to Dickinson’s Entertainment Tonight interview, though, that’s because the book’s publisher was pressured by Cosby’s lawyers to leave it out. Also, as Vice notes, Dickinson’s book was released several years before the first of Cosby’s accusers—a group that now includes 15 people—came forward, so it does seem like she’s been sitting on this for a long time. (via)
Like I mentioned over the weekend, all of this is hard to prove without evidence. I don’t think anyone wants to deny justice to a victim or condemn an innocent man, but it is hard to take sides definitively in this story. If it’s true, it’s a glaring oversight of the law. If it isn’t true, you’re assassinating a man’s character on a national stage.
The sure thing here is that the story is sad all around. It might eventually go away, but it is hard to forget any of these details in the age of the Internet.
UPDATE: Following this newest round of accusations, Netflix has decided to shelve their upcoming Bill Cosby special. From Deadline:
With the controversy surrounding Bill Cosby showing no signs of subsiding as more women come forward with rape allegations, Netflix has scrapped its plans to premiere the Bill Cosby comedy special it had scheduled for Thanksgiving. “At this time we are postponing the launch of the new stand up comedy special ‘Bill Cosby 77′,” Netflix said in a statement.
This raises some questions about the future of his proposed NBC series. We’ll have more on it as soon.
(Via ET / The AV Club)