AUDASE

Appearance by Bill Cosby With David Letterman Canceled as Rape Allegations Swirl

By BILL CARTER NY TIMES

Criticism of one of television’s most beloved stars, Bill Cosby, is escalating with renewed attention to allegations that he sexually assaulted women in several incidents decades ago.

The latest evidence is the cancellation of a planned appearance by Mr. Cosby, scheduled for Wednesday, on David Letterman’s late-night show on CBS. The show declined to say on Friday whether Mr. Cosby withdrew from the appearance or the show made the decision to replace him. "We can’t comment on the booking process," a spokeswoman for the show, Kim Izzo-Emmet, said.

But Regis Philbin, who has always been Mr. Letterman’s go-to guest in case of a late cancellation, is now listed on the show’s website as the main guest that night. The news of the Letterman cancellation was first published by Newsday.

The move follows by a few weeks the cancellation by Mr. Cosby of a guest appearance on the Queen Latifah daytime talk show. In that case, the show reported that the change was made at Mr. Cosby’s request. Mr. Cosby did visit with Stephen Colbert on Sept. 24 on Comedy Central and with Jimmy Fallon on NBC’s "Tonight" show on Aug. 18.

On Thursday, The Washington Post posted online a first-person article by a former actress named Barbara Bowman, who said that Mr. Cosby had drugged and raped her on more than one occasion in the mid-1980s during a period of time when he was mentoring her as a young actress. That was at the same time he was starring in the biggest hit on television, "The Cosby Show."

Ms. Bowman’s allegations follow similar charges by other women, one of whom, Andrea Constand, filed a civil suit against Mr. Cosby in 2005, which promised to include testimony from 13 other then-unnamed women. One of those was Ms. Bowman, she said in her article. The suit was settled for an undisclosed amount. Both Mr. Cosby and his attorney have issued denials of the charges at various points.

This week, an effort to kick up some favorable attention for Mr. Cosby, in the form of a thread on Twitter instigated on behalf of Mr. Cosby, blew up into a chorus of nasty comments about him sexually assaulting women. The stand-up comic Hannibal Buress stirred a new round of attention on the allegations when he assailed Mr. Cosby in a routine on stage in Philadelphia last month.

The fallout may continue for Mr. Cosby. NBC had previously announced a new project with the comedian in which he would star as the patriarch in a new multigenerational sitcom. The status of that project has not yet changed officially, but it does not have a script, according to NBC.

 

From Huffington Post 11.14.2014

 

Barbara Bowman is one of the 13 women who has come forth accusing Bill Cosby of sexual offenses. In a piece published in The Washington Post on Nov. 13, Bowman revealed details of the assault, which she writes occurred "multiple times" to the then-17-year-old actress in 1985.

In a Friday interview with HuffPost Live, Bowman spoke about the "slow and methodical and meticulous process" by which the veteran entertainer violated her.

"Bill Cosby didn't just walk into the room and start drugging me and touching me and being inappropriate with me," she told host Alyona Minkovski. "It was over a period of time."

The allegations received increased media attention this week after Cosby's Twitter page unintentionally invited the Internet to reference the rape claims brought against the 77-year-old actor. A video of comedian Hannibal Buress asking why the rape accusations have not be addressed went viral, prompting others to wonder why it took a man acknowledging the issue for the public to pay attention.

Bowman is familiar with this lack of regard for victims' testimony. She recalls "questioning" herself after her own experience, wondering if she was justified in considering herself a victim. She remembered thinking "Did this happen? It couldn't have happened, it's my imagination," she said. "Then, when I realized it did, or it probably did, and that gut feeling of sickness comes over you -- it's embarrassing. It's shameful. It's very, very scary."

That fear, Bowman explains, was exploited by her assaulter. "[Bill Cosby] is a very, very scary man and very using of mind manipulation," she said. "He really zeroed in on my insecurities and my vulnerabilities as a young woman."