Do you remember reading about Rick James holding a lady against her will, tying her up, and forcing her to have sex? NO? How about then Sean Penn being indicted for domestic assault on his, then wife, Madonna? In our American celebrity culture, we seem to have amnesia in terms of the stars we love. When the scandal first broke, there was an enormous media storm. Every media outlet makes it a point to shove whatever horrible thing they do down our throats. It’s nearly impossible to avoid it. Then, within a few months, the tabloids stopped talking about whatever ‘that’ was. Accused celebrities settle out of court, or are out with a show, or have a very cool new movie, and, just like that, they get bailed out right away. Due to the recent disturbing accusations against Bill Cosby, I was wondering, would he receive a “Get Out of Jail Free?” card.
What is really surprising is the proven fact that these accusations aren’t new. They stretch back to March 8, 2005 when Andrea Constand, former director of operations for the Temple University women’s basketball team filed a lawsuit against Cosby claiming that he had drugged and abused her in his home. However, the suit was dropped, as the local prosecutor refused to press charges. In Constand’s report, twelve other women are named. After that, a second woman, Tamara Green went on The Today Show and accused Cosby of giving her pills and molesting her. Cosby responded to these allegations by denying that he abused any of the ladies. Barbara Bowman, one of the ladies named in Constand’s report, dropped her anonymity, and told People that she too was sexually assaulted by Cosby. I do not remember reading or hearing about any of this. I would assume, given the nature of our medium that it’ll blow up quicker.
A standup clip of Hannibal Buress from October, in which he blatantly refers to Cosby as a rapist during a performance, went viral. This clip later prompted the Daily Mail to publish more in-depth details about Barbara Bowman’s accusations against Cosby. Shortly thereafter, Buress told Howard Stern that he had been calling Cosby a rapist for months to get his attention. Additionally, supermodel Janice Dickinson, recently came out with her own accusations against Bill Cosby of drugging and sexually assaulting her. Now, here we are, in another famous American media storm. I have not been able to Google Bill Cosby without “sexual harassment” connected to it. I’m unsure how this will work, but, I guarantee you, when/if it does, we’ll all be eating pudding again, without batting an eye.
