Bill Cosby sexual assault controversy draws criticism

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

On Saturday, NPR broadcast an interview with Cosby that was taped last week in which he refused to answer questions about the assault allegations. Instead he shook his head when Scott Simon, the host of "Weekend Edition Saturday," asked if he had any response to the accusations.

Regis Philbin, who has always been Letterman's go-to guest in case of a late cancellation, is now listed on the show's website as the main guest Wednesday night. The news of the Letterman cancellation was first published by Newsday. The cancellation on Letterman's show follows by a few weeks the cancellation by Cosby of a guest appearance on the Queen Latifah daytime talk show. In that case, the show reported that the change was made at Cosby's request. Cosby did appear on Stephen Colbert's show Sept. 24 on Comedy Central and with Jimmy Fallon on NBC's "Tonight" show on Aug. 18 .

Allegations

On Thursday, The Washington Post published a first-person article online by a former actress named Barbara Bowman, who said Cosby had drugged and raped her on more than one occasion in the mid-1980s during a 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.”

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

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

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

New York Times