Last February, Bill Cosby – ‘America’s favorite TV Dad’ (and faithful husband) – escaped prison when prosecutors investigating allegations of sexual assault concluded that they did not have sufficient evidence to convict him, beyond a reasonable doubt, at trial.
But no one thought that was the end of the story…
Lawyers for his accuser filed motion in court for 10 more women to give evidence of similar sexual assaults that Cosby allegedly perpetrated against them too…
This case seems likely to typecast him forever as a predatory sexual wolf despite his (trademark) sheepish grin.
(“10 More Women Accuse Bill Cosby of Sexual Assault … Rape,” The iPINIONS Journal, April 23, 2005)
As this quote indicates, I became convinced almost a decade ago that Cosby paid off many women over the years to uphold his wholesome “Dr. Huxtable” (or Dr. Jeckyll) image.
I deduced, however, that, as part of the deal, he required each of them to sign a confidentiality agreement promising to keep their mouths shut, in perpetuity, about the dirty “Mr. Coz” (or Mr. Hyde) side of his character. After all, even a self-righteous, arrogant rapist like Cosby (is alleged to have been) would’ve been wary about leaving any of his victims as a “loose end” that could cause him public embarrassment and/or professional work.
Yet he seems to have done just that; now that chick is coming home to roost:
Bill Cosby raped me. Why did it take 30 years for people to believe my story?
This was the sensational and poignant headline that greeted readers in the November 13 edition of the Washington Post. It accompanied Barbara Bowman’s personal account of how Cosby groomed her (when she was just 17) with lavish gifts and promises of acting stardom, and plied her with gut-retching drugs, all to have his way with her.
Incidentally, I’m constrained to note here that there’s something particularly perverse and pathetic about a man drugging a woman into a catatonic stupor to have sex with her, especially when that woman might’ve been perfectly willing to have sex with him without being drugged. More to the point, I’d bet that, with a little grooming, 9 out of 10 of Cosby’s victims would’ve been perfectly willing to have sex with him (and for reasons having nothing to do with his sexual charms).
To be fair, Bowman claims that she fell hostage to a confusing quest to reconcile the genial old man – who posed as a professional father figure, with the dirty old man – who treated her like a high-paid call girl. But she shared enough details to give the impression that a vulnerable (and all too familiar) combination of star-struck awe, lack of financial resources, and overriding ambition might also explain why she kept going back to Cosby for more….
On the other hand, as my April 2005 commentary cited above indicates, there’s nothing new about her claims, or about many other women making similar claims. Indeed, what gives Bowman’s story its poignancy is not just the predatory behavior (she alleges) Cosby exhibited, but the prevailing indifference the media exhibited to that behavior.
But nothing indicates what impenetrable walls she ran into, when she finally decided to go public, quite like Gloria Allred — that perennial legal avenger of all wronged women — refusing to even speak to her. Such was Cosby’s reputation as a sacred cow … back then.
We now live in a Twitter age, however, when even rank gossip on social media, especially about putative sacred cows, invariably ends up in the mainstream media. This was brought into stark relief last month, when a video of stand-up comedian Hannibal Buress riffing off rape allegations against Cosby (during an October 16 performance) went viral online. The mainstream media duly lapped it up by running breaking news reports about Bowman’s decades-old allegations.
Not to mention that it seems de rigueur these days for people to say online things they’d never say in polite society. Cosby experienced this last week when he invited his Twitter followers to “meme” his famous Dr. Huxtable character. Because tweets like “you’re a serial rapist” were among the kindest people hurled back at him.
Ironically, more than anything else, this ill-advised and ill-timed foray into self-promotion on social media signaled the beginning of Cosby’s fall from Grace. For it must have been troubling enough that this stunt forced him to cancel promotional appearances in the mainstream media with everyone from Queen Latifah to David Letterman.
But the nail in the coffin of his Dr. Huxtable fame had to have been the cringeworthy exchange that occurred last weekend, during what he clearly expected would be a “safe” radio interview on NPR’s Weekend Edition Saturday.
Cosby and his wife Camille were promoting the 62 truly impressive pieces of African and African-American art they loaned to the Smithsonian National Museum of African Art for a recently opened exhibition, which runs through 2016.
Unfortunately, no doubt reflecting why he canceled earlier TV interviews and foreshadowing things to come, every mention of their radio interview focused almost exclusively on what he said (or refused to say) about these rape allegations.
To his credit, radio host Scott Simon prefaced the inevitable and unavoidable question, which hovered over the interview like a big black cloud just waiting to burst, by voicing displeasure with his obligation as a news reporter to ask about the rape allegations.
Except that, when he finally asked it, Cosby responded with finger-wagging silence. Simon persisted, asking Cosby again if he had any response to Bowman’s allegations. Cosby persisted, wagging his finger in a manner that conveyed disgust, disappointment, and despair … in sequent toil.
This obliged Simon to wrap their awkward, but very telling, exchange as follows:
SIMON: [You are] shaking your head no. There are people who love you who might like to hear from you about this. I want to give you the chance.
COSBY: [SILENCE]
SIMON: Alright. Camille and Bill Cosby… Thank you both.
This is what has become of America’s favorite Dad and advertisers’ favorite pitchman. But, truth be told, Cosby is probably well-advised to keep his mouth shut at this point. Because there’s nothing he can say to prevent or even diminish the fallout from these rape allegations; and, even though it would make great TV, confessing to Oprah about what inner devil made him do it would do little to rehabilitate his image (as Lance Armstrong can duly attest).
Meanwhile, here’s why things will only get worse for him:
Another woman [publicist and journalist Joan Tarshis] has accused comedian Bill Cosby of sexual assault….
‘Through the haze I thought I was being clever when I told him I had an infection and he would catch it and his wife would know he had sex with someone; but he just found another orifice to use’…
She said the time is right for her to come forward with Cosby’s other alleged victims.
(Washington Post, November 17, 2014)
Even more ominously, after his NPR interview went viral, Bowman revealed that other women are preparing to come out of the woodwork to share eerily similar claims about the M.O. Cosby used for decades to perpetrate serial sexual assaults. This could make the bimbo eruption that made Tiger Woods an international laughing stock seem like a tempest in a teapot – complete with a woman or two coming out with false claims against Cosby in a desperate attempt to garner those Warholian 15 minutes of fame.
Just bear in mind that, if 20 women come out with credible stories, they probably represent less than 10 percent of women who have equally credible stories but are still too embarrassed (or too sensible) to enter this Cosby maelstrom. Not to mention what it says about Mr. Coz’s dark side that the women who, to date, have come out are all White….
Unfortunately, because of statutes of limitation, it’s doubtful that any of these rape allegations will trigger a criminal investigation, let alone an arrest and prosecution. Besides, that Cosby paid off so many of his alleged victims (directly or indirectly) means that their credibility as witnesses, for legal purposes, is hopelessly compromised.
In any event, I suspect it’s only a matter of time before Cosby undergoes a metamorphosis from father figure to tar baby in the eyes of commercial advertisers. This would force NBC to abort development of a sitcom in which he’s scheduled to make a celebrated return to TV next year as America’s favorite (Gran)dad. Hell, it would not surprise me if public outrage forces the Smithsonian to discontinue its exhibition of his African and African-American art….
Frankly, media coverage of Bill Cosby as a serial rapist could prove every bit as deadly to his career in entertainment as media coverage of Anthony Weiner as a serial sexter proved to his in politics.
But if you’re inclined to feel any sympathy for Cosby, don’t! After all, if just one of these women is telling the truth, Cosby should’ve spent most, if not all, of the past 30 years in prison, not on TV or on stage. Especially considering that the following quote from his 1969 comedy album titled, appropriately enough, It’s True! It’s True!, could fairly be read as an unwitting statement of his consciousness of guilt:
You know anything about Spanish Fly… you put some in her drink, man … ahhhhhh … Spanish Fly is groovy. Yeah boy … any time you see a girl: Wish you had some Spanish Fly boy….
Finally, given my allusion above to Tiger Woods, I should note that his wife had enough dignity and self-respect to divorce him. Mind you, none of the women Tiger had extramarital affairs with ever accused him of rape.
By contrast, Cosby’s wife seems determined to continue standing by her man:
I gave up some time ago trying to reason why purportedly liberated women, like Camille Cosby and Hillary Clinton, stand by men who humiliate them.
The ardent feminist in me would like to think this simply reflects their evolved understanding that marriage is about a lot more than (sexual) monogamy. But it may be that they are riding so high on the power trip these marriages afford them that they couldn’t care any less how much their husbands betray traditional notions of fidelity (or legality?).
(“The Hypocrisy of Eliot ‘Ness’ Spitzer’s Assignation with a Prostitute,” The iPINIONS Journal, March 11, 2008)
Enough said.
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