Bill Cosby rape allegations: downfall of an American hero

EDITOR'S UPDATE: Since this column was posted, Associated Press reports that on 2 December 2014 Judy Huth, aged 55, filed a lawsuit against Bill Cosby at the Los Angeles county superior court, claiming he assaulted her sexually at the Playboy Mansion in 1974 when she was 15.

Few stars have had as far to fall as Bill Cosby, the beloved comedian whose 1980s sitcom The Cosby Show not only made him a record-breaking fortune, but earned him the status of ‘America’s Dad’ for his portrayal of amiable patriarch Cliff Huxtable.

But fallen he has, tripped by allegations of historic sex abuse that, although not all new, have finally begun to stick.

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Cosby, now 77, was not just a “celluloid hero” in the manner of John Wayne or even Ronald Reagan. He was revered because, like President Obama today, he seemed to be living proof that a black man could transcend the race divide which is America’s curse, and by doing so prove to whites as well as blacks that America is capable of getting over it.

Not only was The Cosby Show, in which the family was all black, watched by more people than any other show, it was watched by more white people than any other show. Cosby’s spin-off book, Fatherhood, dispensing quips and advice, was a huge bestseller.

By the end of the 80s, his status was so high that a speech in which he admonished young black men for feckless lifestyles – and for speaking and dressing in a way that alienated mainstream America and perpetuated a caricature – became a national campaign.

The accusations of sexual abuse come from as many as 13 women, at least five of them identifying themselves in public and pointing the finger at him from the studios of major television news programmes.

There is a pattern: all the women describe being given pills and alcohol, passing out, and waking to find themselves violated.

In the latest twist, film footage has emerged of Cosby telling jokes during a 1969 stand-up comedy show in Greenwich Village about his enthusiasm for using a “date-rape” drug he calls Spanish Fly.

On Tuesday night, the former model turned reality-TV host Janice Dickinson told the network television show Entertainment Tonight that Crosby had drugged and assaulted her in 1982. She is the highest-profile accuser so far.

Now 59, Dickinson said she had first met Cosby when she tried out for a part on the show. Soon afterwards, she was in rehab for drugs and alcohol and it was after her release that Cosby “reached out” to her and invited her to Lake Tahoe.

She said that they had dinner and that he gave her a glass of red wine and a pill which he offered in response to her complaint that she was suffering from menstrual cramps.

"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 told Entertainment Tonight.

"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."

Cosby has resolutely said nothing. In 2004 he did settle a private prosecution mounted by one of his alleged victims. His lawyers have issued blanket denials, and described Dickinson’s story as “an outrageous and defamatory lie”.

But by last night the accusations had reached critical mass and Cosby was dumped by the industry he once dominated.

The NBC television network announced that it was dropping plans to make a new version of The Cosby Show, with Cosby as patriarch and grandpa. Netflix dropped a “special” - Bill Cosby at 77 - which was to have been streamed on 28 November. Scheduled appearances on various chat-shows have been cancelled.

Perhaps it was always too good to be true. After all, Cosby is a performer, and this is hardly the first time a rich and powerful actor has been accused of sexual misbehaviour. An ego is an ego, and a Hollywood ego is a Hollywood ego.

In September, as the allegations built, the New Yorker magazine wrote: “For five of its eight seasons, The Cosby Show was the most popular show on television, and its success earned its principals the kind of riches typically associated with less funny industries. (Cosby tried and failed to buy NBC; Tom Werner, the executive producer, succeeded in buying the San Diego Padres and then the Boston Red Sox.)

“Its success also inspired an ongoing argument about what it meant that so many white viewers were choosing to spend so much time with a fictional family that was black, rich, and content. The Huxtables didn’t have much to say about black poverty, and some worried that their prominence somehow made black poverty easier to overlook.”

The article’s author, Kalefa Sanneh, went on to describe “the notion that, with enough time and effort, African-Americans could build their own communities, fix their own problems. Depending on the emphasis, this can seem like either a very conservative dream or a very radical one, and both interpretations help explain why The Cosby Show made some racial liberals uncomfortable.”

Cosby, relishing his role as well as his earning power, may have over-reached. His crusade to persuade young black men to pull up their trousers, speak English and behave themselves was always more popular with whites than blacks.

It might be no coincidence that Cosby’s downfall was triggered by a black comedian, Hannibal Buress, during a stand-up show in Philadelphia, Cosby’s own home town, in September. Buress flatly accused Cosby of “rape”.

Cosby has been convicted of no crime. But a black hero in a white world has proven to have feet of clay. That is a bitter outcome in a nation that needs Bill Cosbys.