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| Bill Cosby has offered no direct response to recent allegations of sexual assault. Image: Featureflash / Shutterstock.com |
Comedian Bill Cosby continues to be surrounded by
controversy regarding allegations of rape and sexual assault. Currently, the controversy focuses on a
November 6 Associated
Press interview with Cosby and his wife Camille about a Smithsonian art
exhibit, in which, when asked about the allegations, Cosby replied, “I don’t
talk about it.” He also urged the
interviewer to cut any mention of the issue from the published interview. Subsequently, he refused to speak at all with
an NPR interviewer who brought up the issue.
People Magazine reported
that seven women have come forward regarding alleged drugging and sexual
assault by Cosby in the late 60s and mid-80s, while US Magazine put the estimated count at fifteen.
Cosby’s lawyer issued
a statement last weekend stating that the “decade-old, discredited
allegations against Mr. Cosby” would not receive a response.
However, the allegations have already cost Cosby in
cancelled projects with NBC and Netflix, as well as residual checks from TV
Land, which was going to air old episodes of The Cosby Show over the holidays.
Cosby did face
litigation in 2006, when Andrea Constand, a staffer for Temple University’s
women’s basketball team, accused him of drugging and raping her in his
Pennsylvania home in 2004. At the time,
Cosby’s attorney, Walter M. Phillips Jr., called the allegations “utterly
preposterous,” despite the fact that Constand’s lawyers said they’d found
thirteen “Jane Does” with similar stories.
Ultimately the civil suit was settled out of court, though numerous
women have come forward since 2005 with accusations.
No further legal action has been taken at this time.
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