People's new cover is out early again this week, and there's Bill Cosby. In the Guessing Game post I had begun to formulate in my head, Mr. Cosby was at the top of my list of potential cover stories, although at age 77, he is way, way outside People's target demographic, not to mention that's he's now most famous for being an accused rapist. I figured it would probably be a sidebar story, but People goes for it, putting Cosby front and center. They didn't, however, use a current photo; the cover pic is from 25 years ago ("... at the height of his fame.")
As many of the current news stories have pointed out, some of these accusations have been around for years, they just didn't get traction and widespread coverage until now. In fact, People had a long article about it, titled "Bill Cosby Under Fire," in the issue dated December, 18, 2006, and a lot of it sounds very familiar:
What Cosby never mentioned [during a performance on Nov. 10, 2006] was the civil lawsuit he settled just two days earlier with Andrea Constand, 32, a former Temple University employee who claimed Cosby drugged and sexually assaulted her in his Philadelphia-area mansion in 2004. Constand's lawyers Dolores Troiani and Bebe Kivitz ended up with 13 witnesses, most referred to in court documents as "Jane Does," who came forward voluntarily with strikingly similar claims of drugging and or abuse by Cosby. Terms of the settlement, reached before any of the women could testify, were not disclosed. But PEOPLE reporters have interviewed five of the women and share three of their stories now.
But none of them stand to profit from suing Cosby for monetary damages; the statute of limitations on all their charges has expired. And their stories, which take place in several cities and span two decades, illustrate the same pattern of behavior, primarily the accusation that Cosby, then one of the most powerful entertainers alive, targeted them because they were vulnerable and gained their trust by promising to help their careers. PEOPLE contacted Cosby to get his response to the allegations; through his longtime publicist David Brokaw, Cosby said he had no comment.
Read the entire article here.
How will this end? No way to know. As lawyers are pointing out, Cosby is almost certainly not in any legal jeopardy, and since the women are telling their stories publicly, there's no incentive for him to buy their silence. It's also unlikely that he'll submit himself to any kind of "purge and redeem" interview with Oprah, Matt Lauer or Anderson Cooper. I'm hoping that very soon he'll tell his lawyers to shut up and stop spouting nonsense, cancel his remaining "appearances" and disappear from public view. Let him spend the rest of his years quietly pondering the good, the bad, the ugly and the indefensible of his legacy.
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