Lee Weaver, the familiar character actor known for his work on The Bill Cosby Show, the Loni Anderson-starring Easy Street and the Coen brothers’ O Brother, Where Art Thou?, has died. He was 95.
Weaver died Sept. 22 at his home in Los Angeles, his family announced. He “wove joy, depth and representation into every role he played and everything he did,” they said.
Weaver played Brian Kincaid, the brother of Bill Cosby’s gym teacher, Chet Kincaid, on 1969-71’s The Bill Cosby Show, and he stole scenes as the exhibitionist Buck Naked on the Steven Bochco series Hill Street Blues in 1982-84 and NYPD Blue in 1994.
On the 1986-87 NBC comedy Easy Street, Weaver and Jack Elam portrayed a couple of down-on-their-luck roommates who move into a mansion recently inherited by a former Las Vegas showgirl (Anderson). That show, created by WKRP in Cincinnati’s Hugh Wilson, was canceled after one season.
In O Brother, Where Art Thou? (2000), Weaver had a memorable scene as the blind man who gives three escaped convicts (George Clooney, John Turturro, Tim Blake Nelson) a ride on a railroad handcar and some mysterious advice about their future.
Weaver, in fact, turned up in several other notable movies during his long career, among them Vanishing Point (1971), Heaven Can Wait (1978), The Onion Field (1979), Bulworth (1998), How Stella Got Her Groove Back (1998), Donnie Darko (2001) and The 40-Year-Old Virgin (2005).
The son of a chef, Lee Wellington Weaver was born on April 10, 1930, in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. He was raised by his Aunt Mattie and Uncle Lee until he was 14, when he left home to attend high school in Tallahassee and then Florida A&M.
At 22, Weaver enlisted in the U.S. Army and served for four years, then headed to New York, where he worked as a linotype engineer for The New York Times and moonlighted as a promoter at the legendary Birdland jazz club. There, he booked such acts as Cannonball and Nat Adderley, Miles Davis, Dizzy Gillespie, Thelonious Monk, Sarah Vaughan, John Coltrane, Herb Ellis, Lee Morgan, Freddie Hubbard and the Heath Brothers.
(Cannonball Adderley, a childhood pal and the best man at his wedding, recorded a Yusef Lateef-written song called “The Weaver” in honor of him that was featured on the saxophonist’s 1964 album, Nippon Soul.)
In one of his first acting gigs, Weaver played assorted natives on the 1955-56 syndicated series Sheena: Queen of the Jungle and a reporter in Al Capone (1959).
In 1967 and ’68, he appeared on episodes of the Cosby-starring NBC series I Spy. And when Cosby was a guest host on The Tonight Show back then, Weaver, in a recurring bit, would be announced as a guest but fail to make it on the show because Cosby would run out of time. Weaver was then seen getting angry in his dressing room.
Years later, Weaver would show up on The Cosby Show and on the Cosby-created A Different World.
Weaver kept busy in the 1970s with work on such TV series as Adam-12, Kojak, Sanford and Son, Good Times, The Jeffersons, Soap and Starsky & Hutch and films including Cleopatra Jones (1973) and House Calls (1978).
He provided the voice of Alpine on the 1985-86 animated series G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero and in a pair of movies.
His résumé also included the features The Lost Man (1969), Kiss Me Goodbye (1982), The Buddy System (1984), Wildcats (1986), The Two Jakes (1990), The Scout (1994), The Thirteenth Floor (1999) and Max Rose (2013) and guest stints on 227, It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia and The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air.
Most recently, he played Mel Cordray on two episodes of Grace and Frankie.
With his wife, actress Ta-Tanisha (Room 222), he had a daughter, Leis La-Te.
Bill Cosby has been staying out of the pubic eye, reportedly fearing he will be killed by a fame-seeker or a relative of one of his sexual assault accusers. The aging comedian now reportedly fears for his wife Camille’s life.
Radar Online reports, Cosby’s representative, Andrew Wyatt, revealed the 86-year-old and his spouse, 79, “don’t like being prisoners in their own home” but must limit their public interaction to protect their safety. Cosby fears an accusers’ family member could kill them.
Insiders told the publication last year that Cosby “fears for his life”. The former comedian is afraid to leave the house as he believes someone could murder “for fame.”
Cosby Fears for The Lives of His Wife & Representative
Wyatt stated he was “threatened” by relatives of Mr. Cosby’s alleged victims. These threats led him to purchase two firearms, Radar reports. He stated Cosby warned him, “to be safe”. Adding to Bill’s fear, is he and Camille’s recognizability.
Wyatt stated the couple live a recluse life alternating between their homes in Massachusetts and properties in The Big Apple.
“He knows what kind of world they live in,” his rep shared. “Who knows what they’d do to him, his wife, daughters, or grandchildren.”
As previously reported, numerous women have accused America’s former favorite dad of allegations including rape, sexual assault, drug-facilitated sexual assault and other forms of sexual misconduct.
According to ABC News, Cosby was charged with drugging and sexually assaulting one woman in 2004, Andrea Constant. The actor was sentenced to three to 10 years in state prison for his alleged crimes against the former Temple University employee.
The former media mogul was released from prison in Jan. 2021 after his conviction was overturned by Pennsylvania’s Supreme court.
In addition to his legal woes, Cosby and Camille lost two of their five children. Their only son, Ennis, was murdered at age 27 during an armed robbery in 1997. The long-suffering couple also lost their daughter Elsa in 2018 after succumbing to a battle with renal disease. She was 44 years old.
The media personality was not only a famed actor but an author, television producer, and activist. He has won several Emmy Awards, Grammys and People Choice Awards. His fans could not have envisioned Cosby’s legacy would end here. Some of the public believe “Cliff Huxtable” is guilty, while others support his innocence claims.
Cosby is adamant about staying confined to his home, but at least he won’t have to worry about his pudding pops melting as he and his wife have no plans to spend extended time outdoors.
Disgraced comedian Bill Cosby is being accused of drugging and sexually assaulting a teenager in 1986 in a new civil lawsuit filed Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Las Vegas.
This is the latest lawsuit against the former “Cosby Show” star, who has been accused of rape, sexual assault and sexual harassment by more than 60 women. He has denied all allegations.
Cosby, 86, was one of the first major celebrities convicted of sexual assault in the #MeToo era and spent nearly three years at a state prison near Philadelphia before a higher court threw out his conviction and released him in 2021, shocking prosecutors and his accusers.
Entertainer Bill Cosby arrives for a scenting hearing in Norristown, PA, on September 25, 2018.
Bastiaan Slabbers/NurPhoto via Getty Images
When Cosby visited the family’s home in North Las Vegas, he would hand out Jello pudding pops to kids in the neighborhood, the suit claims. Then, when Lasha was 17 years old, Cosby asked her to go a suite at the Las Vegas Hilton, where Lasha worked at the bell desk, to have a professional photographer take headshots, according to the suit.
The photographer took photos of Lasha and then Cosby asked her to wet her hair and put on a robe, the suit says. She did while wearing a skort and a tank top underneath, according to the suit. After the photographer left, Cosby offered Lasha a blue capsule he said was an antihistamine, to help her with her sinus issues because she had been blowing her nose, along with a glass of Amaretto, the suit says.
“(Lasha) took the pill as Cosby had instructed because she trusted him and thought he was a good man. She never imagined that he was going to drug her and sexually assault her,” the suit says.
After running lines with a vocal coach, Cosby gave her another glass of Amaretto and kept asking her if she was okay, according to the suit. When she sat down on a couch, he began rubbing her shoulders and told her she needed to lay down, the suit says.
“He took her down a corridor to a bedroom and laid Plaintiff down on a bed. Cosby lay next to Plaintiff. Plaintiff at this time realized that she could not move. Her eyes were open and she was aware of what was happening but she could not do anything about it,” according to the lawsuit.
“Cosby started touching Plaintiff’s breasts and nipples and was humping on her leg and grunting. Then Plaintiff felt Cosby ejaculating on her leg,” the lawsuit claims.
Lasha then passed out and woke up groggy to Cosby repeatedly clapping his hands, saying: “Daddy says wake up,” according to the lawsuit. Lasha noticed she was naked under her robe, the suit says.
“She was aware that Cosby had had sex with her. The plaintiff never consented to having sex with Cosby. She had been a virgin prior to this assault,” according to the lawsuit.
Cosby then told her to get dressed and leave, and handed her a stack of $100 bills as he escorted her to the elevator, the suit says.
After she got home, Lasha told her sister and a friend what had happened, according to the suit. She also noticed blood stains in her underwear, the suit said. “Cosby called Plaintiff on the phone a couple of days later and asked Plaintiff how she was doing. She said she was not doing well and she was crying. Cosby then said people that talk too much can be quieted,” according to the lawsuit.
Soon after, Lasha was “black-balled” from the entertainment industry, the suit claims. The traumatic incident ended up affecting the rest of Lasha’s life, the suit says.
“She ended up having a downward spiral in her life and suffered many long-term problems, including drug addiction and other pathologies,” according to the lawsuit. “The sexual assault has had lifelong negative impacts on Plaintiff’s life, as it set her down a deleterious path and has tormented her ever since. She still breaks down crying about it to this day, and will likely do so for the rest of her life, or at least until she gets some justice and closure with Cosby facing accountability for his wrongful actions against her.”
Andrew Wyatt, Cosby’s publicist, said in a statement on Thursday that the comedian had no comment, but added: “During the 2018 trial, during cross examination, Ms. Lasha stated under oath, ‘Dr. Huxatable raped and drugged me.’ However, the ‘Cosby Show’ had not come to fruition. Media should vet these women extensively.”
Last year, nine women also filed a lawsuit against Cosby in Nevada. Each woman accused the comedian of sexual battery, assault, and abuse between 1979 and 1992, some in Las Vegas hotels. The women claimed Cosby “drugged or attempted to drug” each of them.
Lasha, who is alleging sexual abuse and sexual exploitation of a minor, battery, assault, infliction of emotional distress and false imprisonment, is seeking compensatory and punitive damages, according to the suit.
Since 2022, thousands of survivors of sexual assault have used New York’s Adult Survivors Act to seek justice for attacks that the state’s statute of limitations would have previously prevented. But that act—which Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul signed in May 2022—allowed only a year for the new civil suits to be filed. A last-minute surge of lawsuits, many against high-profile actors, musicians, and politicians, was filed just before the Thursday, November 24 deadline.
Some suits involved names already familiar to people who follow misconduct allegations. One example is a lawsuit filed against Bill Cosby Tuesday by a stand-in on The Cosby Show who says the comedian drugged and raped her in the 1980s. Cosby, who’s been accused of sexual assault by over 60 women, was convicted for one such alleged attack in 2018, a conviction overturned in 2021 due to a dispute over an agreement with a prosecutor.
The alleged victim in the case filed this week has not been named; via email, Cosby spokesperson Andrew Wyatt suggested that the Adult Survivors Act was being abused, telling the Associated Press, “When will it stop and who will be the next man to be victimized by these look-back windows?”
Cuba Gooding Jr. is another actor who’s faced previous allegations: in June, he settled a civil case involving an alleged 2013 rape just minutes before jury selection was to begin, Deadline reported at the time. Now two women say that Gooding groped them in separate incidents at New York restaurants in 2018 and 2019. (The lawsuit can be viewed online.) Both incidents resulted in criminal charges, to which Gooding pleaded guilty.
According to attorney Gloria Allred, who represents both victims, Gooding’s penalties in criminal cases were insufficient, hence the suits. “Our clients were deprived of the justice they sought in the criminal case,” Allred said. “They are now seeking justice and accountability in their civil cases. We are proud of their courage and intend to vigorously fight for them until they win the justice that they deserve.” A representative for Gooding has not responded to Vanity Fair’s request for comment as of publication time.
Sean Combs, who settled one sexual assault suit last week, now faces two more. One involves an alleged 1990s-era rape, Deadline reports. The other, filed by Joi Dickerson-Neal, claims the music mogul drugged and sexually assaulted her in 1991, when she was a student at Syracuse University. He later used images from the incident as “revenge porn,” she claims.
A Combs spokesperson denies the claims, saying, “This last-minute lawsuit is an example of how a well-intentioned law can be misused. Ms. Dickerson’s 32-year-old story is false and not credible. Mr. Combs never assaulted her, and she implicates companies that did not exist. This is purely a money grab and nothing more.” In a statement, Dickerson-Neal’s lawyer, Jonathan Goldhirsh, writes, “Our client has not been able to escape the continuing impact of the harm Combs caused her many years ago. Through the Adult Survivors Act, she can avail herself to the courts to finally seek justice.”
Guns N’ Roses frontman Axl Rose was also named in a Wednesday lawsuit from actress and model Sheila Kennedy. According to the suit, which was reported on by CNN, among others, Rose attacked Kennedy in a New York hotel room in 1989. Kennedy has made these allegations before, including in her 2016 memoir and 2021 sexual assault documentary Look Away, the Guardian notes.
Kennedy has not responded to a request for comment; Rose attorney Alan Gutman says, “Simply put, this incident never happened. Notably, these fictional claims were filed the day before the New York State filing deadline expires … Mr. Rose has no recollection of ever meeting or speaking to the Plaintiff. He has never heard about these fictional allegations prior to today.”
John Bailey, the cinematographer on Ordinary People, Groundhog Day, As Good as It Gets and dozens of other notable films who endured two “stressful” terms as president of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, died Friday. He was 81.
Bailey diedin Los Angeles, his wife, Oscar-nominated film editor Carol Littleton (E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial), announced.
”It is with deep sadness I share with you that my best friend and husband, John Bailey, passed away peacefully in his sleep early this morning,” she said in a statement. “During John’s illness, we reminisced how we met 60 years ago and were married for 51 of those years. We shared a wonderful life of adventure in film and made many long-lasting friendships along the way. John will forever live in my heart.”
They worked on more than a dozen features together.
The Southern California-raised Bailey served as the director of photography for director Paul Schrader on American Gigolo (1980), Cat People (1982), Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters (1985), Light of Day (1987) and Forever Mine (1999) and collaborated with Lawrence Kasdan on The Big Chill (1983), Silverado (1985), The Accidental Tourist (1988) and Wyatt Earp (1994).
He had another fruitful relationship with director Ken Kwapis, working with him on six films: Vibes (1988), The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants (2005), License to Wed (2007), He’s Just Not That Into You (2009), Big Miracle (2012) and A Walk in the Woods (2015), where he reunited with Ordinary People director Robert Redford.
Bailey also shot Michael Apted’s Continental Divide (1981), Stuart Rosenberg’s The Pope of Greenwich Village (1984), Wolfgang Petersen’s In the Line of Fire (1993), Robert Benton’s Nobody’s Fool (1994), Sam Raimi’s For Love of the Game (1999) and Callie Khouri’s Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood (2002).
In a 2020 interview for American Cinematographer magazine, Bailey said his philosophy was “imbued with an international perspective” — one of his touchstone movies was the Vittorio Storaro-shot The Conformist (1970) — and that he had “a singular focus on the kinds of films I wanted to make, even from the time I was an assistant and [camera] operator.”
“I did not want to do tawdry films,” he added. “I did not want to do exploitive films or violent ones. I really held out, sometimes at great personal expense, literally, in terms of money, to do films that I knew were building a résumé that when I did become a director of photography, that was part of who I was.”
A member of the American Society of Cinematographers since 1985, he received a lifetime achievement award from the group in 2015.
John Bailey (right) with director Lawrence Kasdan on the set of 1983’s ‘The Big Chill’
Bailey also was a longtime board member at the Academy when he followed Cheryl Boone Isaacs as AMPAS president in August 2017, becoming the only one to come from the cinematography branch. He won reelection the next summer before being succeeded by David Rubin in August 2019.
His tenure was marked by a huge increase in members, especially for international and non-Hollywood folks; the ousters of Harvey Weinstein, Bill Cosby and Roman Polanski from the Academy; a Kevin Hart hosting imbroglio; and three moves meant to boost Oscar TV ratings that were torpedoed amid great criticism: the creation of a “popular Oscar,” the elimination of three live best song performances on the show, and the sidelining of four winners’ speeches to commercial breaks.
“I had no idea how stressful that job was going to be,” he said.
The son of a machinist, John Ira Bailey was born on Aug. 10, 1942, in Moberly, Missouri, and raised in Norwalk, California. He edited the school newspaper at Pius X High School in Downey, California, then attended Santa Clara University and Loyola Marymount University, graduating in 1964.
He decided to pursue cinematography while spending two years at USC in a new graduate program for film studies.
Bailey spent more than a decade as an apprentice cinematographer/camera operator for the likes of Néstor Almendros, Vilmos Zsigmond and Charles Rosher Jr. on such films as Monte Hellman’s Two-Lane Blacktop (1971), Terrence Malick’s Days of Heaven (1976) and Robert Altman’s The Late Show and 3 Women, both released in 1977.
The first studio feature he shot as D.P. was Boulevard Nights (1979), directed by Michael Pressman.
Bailey broke through when two films he worked on back-to-back — the stylish neo-noir American Gigolo, just the third film that Schrader directed, and the restrained Oscar best picture winner Ordinary People, Redford’s directorial debut — were released within seven months of each other in 1980.
Boulevard Nights producer Tony Bill had recommended Bailey to Redford. “Not that many first-time directors back then would have hired an inexperienced cinematographer,” Bailey said in 2015 on an ASC podcast, “but Redford certainly had the experience and the confidence [from his years as an actor] to do that.”
For Bailey, the script was always paramount when it came to taking a job, and he had great screenplays to work with on Groundhog Day (1993), co-written by director Harold Ramis, and the best picture Oscar nominee As Good as It Gets (1997), co-written by director James L. Brooks.
His cinematography résumé also included Honky Tonk Freeway (1981), That Championship Season (1982), Without a Trace (1983), Racing With the Moon (1984), Brighton Beach Memoirs (1986), Swimming to Cambodia (1987), My Blue Heaven (1990), Extreme Measures (1996), Living Out Loud (1998), The Anniversary Party (2001), How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days (2003), The Producers (2005) and The Way Way Back (2013).
Bailey also directed a handful of films, including Lily Tomlin’s The Search for Signs of Intelligent Life in the Universe (1991), China Moon (1994), Mariette in Ecstasy (1996) and Via Dolorosa (2000).
Bailey said he sought the Academy presidency primarily to support the organization’s film archive, the Margaret Herrick Library, the Nicholl screenwriting programs and international cinema. “I didn’t want to worry about the Oscars so much,” he said in 2021. “The studios are invested in the Oscars, the studios are going to make sure the Oscars take care of themselves, one way or another.
“Everybody seems to have an idea — and they think their idea is best — about what the Academy Awards should be. The absolute inanity, coupled with the hubris that comes with it sometimes, especially on the part of certain trade and media critics … it just really bothered me that whole Oscar season, day after day, having to read the drivel by some of these journalists that said they knew how to fix the Oscars.”
He and Littleton, who is to receive an honorary Oscar at the delayed Governors Awards in January, had no children.
“All of us at the Academy are deeply saddened to learn of John’s passing,” Academy CEO Bill Kramer and Academy president Janet Yang said in a joint statement. “John was a passionately engaged member of the Academy and the film community. He served as our president and as an Academy governor for many years and played a leadership role on the cinematographers branch. His impact and contributions to the film community will forever be remembered. Our thoughts and support are with Carol at this time.”
Donations in his memory can be made to the Academy Foundation.
Bailey said his formative years in Hollywood taught him that becoming a successful cinematographer had more to do with just learning how to operate the equipment.
“It’s about learning how people work together, forging relationships, dealing with the stresses and the sort of unexpected accidents and gifts that you’re given day to day and developing a perspective that when you go to work in the morning, you’re not executing a blueprint based on storyboards or discussions or anything,” he said. “You are in a living, changing, spontaneous, human flux. Anything can happen at any given moment.”
“Okay, so I’m going to say, ‘Where’s the evidence,’ and then you’re going to present some evidence, and then I’m going to say, ‘Innocent until proven guilty!’ and then you’re going to explain that only applies directly to criminal trials, and then I’m just going to make a violent threat against you.”
Nine more women are accusing Bill Cosby of sexual assault in a lawsuit that alleges he used his “enormous power, fame and prestige” to victimize them.
A lawsuit filed Wednesday in a federal court in Nevada alleges that the women were individually drugged and assaulted between approximately 1979 and 1992 in Las Vegas, Reno and Lake Tahoe homes, dressing rooms and hotels.
One woman alleges that Cosby, claiming to be her acting mentor, lured her from New York to Nevada, where he drugged her in a hotel room with what he had claimed to be non-alcoholic sparkling cider and then raped her.
The 85-year-old former Cosby Show star has now been accused of rape, sexual assault and sexual harassment by more than 60 women. He has denied all allegations involving sex crimes. He was the first celebrity tried and convicted in the #MeToo era — and spent nearly three years at a state prison near Philadelphia before a higher court threw out the conviction and released him in 2021.
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Bill Cosby released from jail after sex assault conviction overturned
Earlier this year, a Los Angeles jury awarded US$500,000 to a woman who said Cosby sexually abused her at the Playboy Mansion when she was 16 in 1975.
The Nevada lawsuit came only a few weeks after Gov. Joe Lombardo signed a bill that eliminated a two-year deadline for adults to file sexual abuse cases. Similar suits have followed other “lookback laws” in other states.
One of the plaintiffs, Lise-Lotte Lublin, a Nevada native, had advocated for the change. She had previously alleged that Cosby gave her spiked drinks and raped her at a Las Vegas hotel in 1989.
The Associated Press does not identify people who say they have been sexually assaulted unless they come forward publicly.
“For years I have fought for survivors of sexual assault and today is the first time I will be able to fight for myself,” Lotte-Lublin said in a statement cited by the Las Vegas Review-Journal. “With the new law change, I now have the ability to take my assailant Bill Cosby to court. My journey has just begun, but I am grateful for this opportunity to find justice.”
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In California, a former Playboy model who alleges Cosby drugged and sexually assaulted her and another woman at his home in 1969 sued him on June 1 under a new California law that suspends the statute of limitations on sex abuse claims.
Cosby publicist Andrew Wyatt blasted such laws in a statement Wednesday.
“Mr. Cosby is a Citizen of these United States but these judges and lawmakers are consistently allowing these civil suits to flood their dockets—knowing that these women are not fighting for victims—but for their addiction to massive amounts of media attention and greed,” Wyatt said.
“From this day forward, we will not continue to allow these women to parade various accounts of an alleged allegation against Mr. Cosby anymore without vetting them in the court of public opinion and inside of the courtroom,” Wyatt said.
In the latest suit, the women contend that Cosby “used his enormous power, fame, and prestige, and claimed interest in helping them and/or their careers as a pretence to isolate and sexually assault them.”
Bill Cosby is being accused of sexual assault by a woman who has filed a suit against him. The claimant is a former Playboy model who alleged that the actor drugged and sexually assaulted her. Bill Cosby has been accused of sexual assault, sexual harassment, and rape by more than 60 women since 2014.
Bill Cosby accused of sexual assault
A former Playboy model named Victoria Valentino has filed a lawsuit against actor Bill Cosby. She claimed that the actor had drugged her and sexually assaulted her in his home in 1969. Victoria, 80, filed a suit against Cosby on Thursday under a law that suspends the statute of limitations when it comes to sexual abuse claims, also known as a “look back law.”
Associated Press reports that Victoria claimed she and Cosby met at a cafe where he approached her after he spotted her crying over the death of her 6-year-old son. Cosby then offered to take Victoria and her friend to a spa treatment. The former Playboy model alleged that Bill then gave both women a pill when they were having dinner together. She recalled that Cosby reasoned the pill would make them “feel better.”
Victoria claimed that Bill drove them both to his home, and she was woken up by the sight of him sexually assaulting her friend. Later he “engaged in forced sexual intercourse” with Victoria as she was not able to do anything due to the effects of the drugs.
The spokesperson of the actor released a statement to Entertainment Tonight in response to the claims. Andrew Wyatt denied all the accusations made by Victoria and claimed that the lawsuit was filed “without any proof or facts.” He criticized while adding that the “look back window” laws “are a sheer violation of all American’s [sic] Constitutional Rights.”
Andrew further stated, “What graveyard can Mr. Cosby visit in order to dig up potential witnesses to testify on his behalf? America is continuing to see that this a formula to make sure that no more Black Men in America accumulate the American Dream that was secured by Mr. Cosby.”
This is not the first time Bill Cosby has been accused of sexual assault. The actor was involved in a civil trial found liable for the sexual assault of a 16-year-old at the Playboy Mansion in 1975. The jury awarded the plaintiff Judy Huth $500,000. Since 2014, more than 60 women have alleged Bill Cosby of sexual assault, sexual harassment, and rape.
A former Playboy model has filed a sexual assault lawsuit against Bill Cosby.
The lawsuit alleges that the now 85-year-old actor sexually assaulted her after they crossed paths at a Los Angeles restaurant in 1969, claiming she was drugged and raped, according to People.
Victoria Valentino has filed the lawsuit against Cosby in Los Angeles County Superior Court, nearly six months after five women who previously accused the disgraced comedian of sexual assault filed a 34-page complaint against the actor in New York’s Supreme Court.
These claims were initially brought forward by Valentino in 2014.
Valentino alleges that after noticing her in distress over the death of her 6-year-old son, Bill Cosby approached her and offered a pill, stating, “Here! Take this! It will make you feel better. It will make us all feel better.”
She then alleges that after consuming the pill, she was rendered incapacitated and subsequently engaged in forced sexual intercourse with Cosby.
In a press release shared by her attorney, Valentino expressed that Cosby exploited her during a time of deep sorrow when she was grieving the loss of her son.
In a statement given to People, Andrew Wyatt, spokesperson for Cosby, characterized the lawsuit as an assault on “the Black men in America.”
“Victoria Valentino has skirted from town to town promoting her alleged allegations against Mr. Cosby to anyone that would give her platform, without any proof or facts,” says the statement. “America is continuing to see that this a formula to make sure that no more Black Men in America accumulate the American Dream that was secured by Mr. Cosby.”
Bill Cosby was convicted on three counts of aggravated indecent assault in 2018, and faced allegations from Temple University employee Andrea Constand, who accused him of drugging and sexually assaulting her in his suburban Philadelphia home in 2004. Although Cosby served more than two years in prison before his conviction was overturned, leading to his release in June 2021.
A former Playboy model who alleges Bill Cosby drugged and sexually assaulted her and another woman at his home in 1969 sued him Thursday under a new California law that suspends the statute of limitations on sex abuse claims.
In her lawsuit, Victoria Valentino, 80, says she was an actress and singer 54 years ago, when she met Cosby, now 85. The comedian and actor later approached her at a Los Angeles cafe, where he spotted her crying over the recent drowning death of her 6-year-old son.
The Associated Press does not identify people who say they have been sexually assaulted unless they come forward publicly.
Cosby offered to pay for a spa treatment for Valentino and a friend, and then sent a chauffeured car to pick the women up for dinner. That evening at a steakhouse, Cosby gave them each a pill, she said in the court filing.
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“Here! Take this!” the lawsuit alleges Cosby said to them. “It will make you feel better. It will make us ALL feel better.”
Bill Cosby’s sex assault conviction overturned by Pennsylvania Supreme Court
Cosby then drove the women to his house, where Valentino passed out on a couch, and later woke up and witnessed him sexually assaulting her unnamed friend, according to the lawsuit. The court documents allege Cosby then “engaged in forced sexual intercourse” with Valentino while she was incapacitated from the drug.
Valentino’s allegations come on the heels of lawsuits last year by six Cosby accusers in New York under a similar provision known as a “lookback” law that allows adults to file sexual abuse cases for allegations that had fallen outside the statute of limitations.
The former “Cosby Show” star, who has been accused of rape, sexual assault and sexual harassment by at least 60 women, has denied all allegations involving sex crimes. He was the first celebrity tried and convicted in the #MeToo era — and spent nearly three years at a state prison near Philadelphia before a higher court threw out the conviction and released him in 2021.
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His spokesperson, Andrew Wyatt, said Thursday that Valentino’s lawsuit lacks “any proof or facts” and that so-called lookback laws violate constitutional rights aimed at protecting crime victims and “those that are accused of a crime.”
“What graveyard can Mr. Cosby visit, in order to dig up potential witnesses to testify on his behalf?” Wyatt asked in a statement. “America is continuing to see that this is a formula to make sure that no more Black Men in America accumulate the American Dream that was secured by Mr. Cosby.”
Bill Cosby says he’ll never show remorse to please parole board
The lawsuit in LA County Superior Court was filed nearly two years after Cosby left prison when the Pennsylvania Supreme Court overturned his 2018 sexual assault conviction. They found he gave incriminating testimony in a deposition about the encounter only after believing he had immunity from prosecution. The trial judge and an intermediate appeals court had found no evidence of such immunity.
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Earlier this year, a Los Angeles jury awarded $500,000 to a woman who said Cosby sexually abused her at the Playboy Mansion when she was a teenager in 1975.
Seven other accusers received a settlement from Cosby’s insurers in the wake of the Pennsylvania conviction over a defamation lawsuit they had filed in Massachusetts. Their lawsuit said that Cosby and his agents disparaged them in denying their allegations of abuse.
Valentino’s lawsuit requests a jury trial and seeks unspecified punitive damages.
A woman who alleges Bill Cosby drugged and sexually assaulted her in 1986 sued the comedian-actor, NBCUniversal and other companies Friday in New York, where five other women filed a similar lawsuit earlier this month.
Stacey Pinkerton says she was a 21-year-old flight attendant and model that year when she claims Cosby drugged her at a restaurant in Illinois and took her back to a hotel room in Chicago. The lawsuit alleges Cosby “engaged in forced sexual intercourse” with her while she was incapacitated from the drugs.
The lawsuit comes more than a year after Cosby left prison after his 2018 sexual assault conviction in Pennsylvania was overturned. Earlier this year, a Los Angeles jury awarded $500,000 to a woman who said Cosby sexually abused her at the Playboy Mansion when she was a teenager in 1975.
Pinkerton says the alleged assault came after she had met Cosby in New York and he promised to help her career. She says she had a role in an episode of “The Cosby Show” on NBC, but did not appear in the final edit.
Months after the alleged assault, Pinkerton said Cosby invited her to his show at a Chicago theater, where she claims he forcefully kissed and touched her.
“Cosby engaged in the same or similar pattern of conduct with his victims,” Pinkerton’s lawsuit says, “including expressing interest in advancing their careers, giving them roles on The Cosby Show, using The Cosby Show and its filming locations as a means to access, isolate, sexually harass, and sexually assault women, using drugs to incapacitate his victims, and forcibly engaging in sexual acts with them without their consent.”
The lawsuit alleges that NBC, Kaufman Astoria Studios and Carsey-Werner Television should have known Cosby was a danger to women and failed to protect Pinkerton from him.
Cosby spokesperson Andrew Wyatt said Friday night that Cosby “continues to vehemently deny all allegations waged against him and looks forward to defending himself in court.”
“As we have always stated, and now America can see, this isn’t about justice for victims of alleged sexual assault, it’s ALL ABOUT MONEY,” Wyatt wrote in an email to The Associated Press. “We believe that the courts, as well as the court of public opinion, will follow the rules of law and relieve Mr. Cosby of these alleged accusations.”
Representatives of NBCUniversal, Kaufman Astoria Studios and Carsey-Werner Television did not immediately respond to requests for comment Friday night. All three companies were involved in the production of “The Cosby Show,” Pinkerton’s lawsuit said.
The lawsuits by Pinkerton and the five other women were filed under New York’s one-year window for adults to file sexual abuse complaints for allegations that had fallen outside the statute of limitations to sue.
Cosby served nearly three years in prison before the Pennsylvania Supreme Court overturned his conviction, finding that he gave incriminating testimony in a deposition about the encounter only after believing he had immunity from prosecution. The trial judge and an intermediate appeals court had found no evidence of such immunity.
Seven other accusers received a settlement from Cosby’s insurers in the wake of the Pennsylvania conviction over a defamation lawsuit they had filed in Massachusetts. Their lawsuit said that Cosby and his agents disparaged them in denying their allegations of abuse.
Today is Friday, Dec. 30, the 364th day of 2022. There is one day left in the year.
Today’s Highlight in History:
On Dec. 30, 1903, about 600 people died when fire broke out at the recently opened Iroquois Theater in Chicago.
On this date:
In 1813, British troops burned Buffalo, New York, during the War of 1812.
In 1853, the United States and Mexico signed a treaty under which the U.S. agreed to buy some 45,000 square miles of land from Mexico for $10 million in a deal known as the Gadsden Purchase.
In 1860, 10 days after South Carolina seceded from the Union, the state militia seized the United States Arsenal in Charleston.
In 1922, Vladimir Lenin proclaimed the establishment of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, which lasted nearly seven decades before dissolving in December 1991.
In 1954, Olympic gold medal runner Malvin G. Whitfield became the first Black recipient of the James E. Sullivan Award for amateur athletes.
In 1972, the United States halted its heavy bombing of North Vietnam.
In 1994, a gunman walked into a pair of suburban Boston abortion clinics and opened fire, killing two employees. (John C. Salvi III was later convicted of murder; he died in prison, an apparent suicide.)
In 2004, a fire broke out during a rock concert at a nightclub in Buenos Aires, Argentina, killing 194 people.
In 2006, a state funeral service was held in the U.S. Capitol Rotunda for former President Gerald R. Ford.
In 2009, seven CIA employees and a Jordanian intelligence officer were killed by a suicide bomber at a U.S. base in Khost (hohst), Afghanistan.
In 2015, Bill Cosby was charged with drugging and sexually assaulting a woman at his suburban Philadelphia home in 2004. (Cosby’s first trial ended in a mistrial after jurors deadlocked; he was convicted on three charges at his retrial in April 2018 and was sentenced to three to 10 years in prison, but the Pennsylvania Supreme Court overturned the conviction in June 2021 and Cosby went free.)
In 2020, Republican Sen. Josh Hawley of Missouri said he would raise objections when Congress met to affirm President-elect Joe Biden’s victory, forcing House and Senate votes. President Donald Trump asked the Supreme Court to overturn his election loss in Wisconsin; it was his second unsuccessful appeal in as many days to the high court over the result in the battleground state. Dawn Wells, who played the wholesome Mary Ann on the 1960s sitcom “Gilligan’s Island,” died in Los Angeles at age 82 from what her publicist said were causes related to COVID-19.
Ten years ago: Recalling the shooting rampage that killed 20 first graders in Connecticut as the worst day of his presidency, President Barack Obama pledged on NBC’s “Meet the Press” to put his “full weight” behind legislation aimed at preventing gun violence. A tour bus crashed on an icy Oregon highway, killing nine passengers and injuring nearly 40 on Interstate 84 east of Pendleton.
Five years ago: A wave of spontaneous protests over Iran’s weak economy swept into Tehran, with college students and others chanting against the government. Forecasters issued winter weather advisories across much of the Deep South ahead of plunging temperatures expected as the new year arrived.
One year ago: In a phone conversation lasting nearly an hour, President Joe Biden warned Russia’s Vladimir Putin that the U.S. could impose new sanctions against Russia if it took further military action against Ukraine; Putin responded that such a U.S. move could lead to a complete rupture of ties between the nations. A wildfire driven by wind gusts up to 105 mph swept through towns northwest of Denver, destroying hundreds of homes and forcing tens of thousands of people to flee. (The wildfire would cause more than $2 billion in losses, making it the costliest in state history; it was blamed for at least one death.)
Today’s Birthdays: Actor Russ Tamblyn is 88. Baseball Hall of Famer Sandy Koufax is 87. Folk singer Noel Paul Stookey is 85. TV director James Burrows is 82. Actor Concetta Tomei (toh-MAY’) is 77. Singer Patti Smith is 76. Rock singer-musician Jeff Lynne is 75. TV personality Meredith Vieira is 69. Actor Sheryl Lee Ralph is 67. Actor Patricia Kalember is 66. Country singer Suzy Bogguss is 66. Actor-comedian Tracey Ullman is 63. Radio-TV commentator Sean Hannity is 61. Sprinter Ben Johnson is 61. Former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is 59. Actor George Newbern is 59. Movie director Bennett Miller is 56. Singer Jay Kay (Jamiroquai) is 53. Rock musician Byron McMackin (Pennywise) is 53. Actor Meredith Monroe is 53. Actor Daniel Sunjata is 51. Actor Maureen Flannigan is 50. Actor Jason Behr is 49. Golfer Tiger Woods is 47. TV personality-boxer Laila Ali is 45. Actor Lucy Punch is 45. Singer-actor Tyrese Gibson is 44. Actor Eliza Dushku is 42. Rock musician Tim Lopez (Plain White T’s) is 42. Actor Kristin Kreuk is 40. Folk-rock singer-musician Wesley Schultz (The Lumineers) is 40. NBA star LeBron James is 38. R&B singer Andra Day is 38. Actor Anna Wood is 37. Pop-rock singer Ellie Goulding (GOL’-ding) is 36. Actor Caity Lotz is 36. Actor Jeff Ward is 36. Country musician Eric Steedly is 32. Pop-rock musician Jamie Follesé (FAHL’-es-ay) (Hot Chelle (shel) Rae) is 31.
Bill Cosby, the 85-year-old comedian, actor, author, and producer, has maintained a low profile since he was released from prison in June 2021. On Wednesday, in a radio interview with WWGH, an FM signal out of Marion, Ohio, he announced that he intended to go out on the road next year.
Cosby has been accused by 60 women of acts including sexual assault, drugging, and rape, and served three years of a three-to-10-year prison sentence on charges of aggravated indecent assault against a woman in his home, before the sentence was overturned because of promises made by a previous prosecutor.
Radio host Scott Spearsintroduced Cosby, who had been teased as a “mystery guest,” as “one of the most prolific people in the history of this country, and possibly the world.” Spears asked if Cosby intends to make a “return to the stage” next year, to which the once-beloved television star said “yes.”
He continued, “yes, because there’s so much fun to be had in this storytelling that I do. And I—years ago, maybe 10 years ago, found out that it was better to say it after I write it, and it is better to say it, and not try to write it the same way [or] to be read by others.”
Elsewhere in the roughly 15-minute chat, Cosby said that his wife, Camille Cosby, has recently brought to his attention that prices at supermarkets are too high and “the markets don’t sell the kind of food that can be trusted.” He also added that, during the holidays, “she is a happy camper to have granddaughters and daughters in the kitchen, chipping in and baking and cooking, and [he’s] happy because she’s happy.”
Cosby also agreed with Spears’s belief that “the cell phone, the internet, the text messaging” has caused a big change in education. “Yes, obviously,” he said. Riveting stuff.
A representative for Cosby confirmed with Variety that he is, indeed, eying a return to the stage next year.
Five women filed a new sexual lawsuit suit against Cosby in New York earlier this month.
Disgraced comedian Bill Cosby is saying that he plans to return to stand-up with a comedy tour slated for 2023.
Cosby, 85, was released from prison last year after the Pennsylvania Supreme Court overturned his criminal sex assault charge, ruling that Cosby should never have been prosecuted per an agreement he made with a district attorney.
The only written evidence of such a promise is a 2005 press release from then-prosecutor Bruce Castor, though his successors say it falls far short of a lifetime immunity agreement.
In 2018, Cosby became the first celebrity convicted of sexual assault in the #MeToo era for the drugging and molestation of Andrea Constand, a college sports administrator. He served three years before being released.
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Cosby spoke publicly about his intention to return to the comedy circuit during a Dec. 28 radio interview with Scott Spears on WGH Talk. Spears asked the comedian if he intended to return to the stage in 2023, to which he responded “yes.”
“Yes, because there’s so much fun to be had in this storytelling that I do.”
Cosby seemed to reference his incarceration and legal battles during the interview, saying, “When we quote-unquote get out of this mess, I know who my enemies happen to be and I know why they are my enemies.”
“I respect people like you,” Cosby told Spears, “and others who have had a clear viewpoint of what has happened to me.
“When I come out of this, I feel that I will be able to perform and be the Bill Cosby that my audience, in person, knows me to be.”
Cosby’s representative, Andrew Wyatt, confirmed to Variety and ET that the comedian is “looking at spring/summer to start touring.”
Reactions on Twitter to Cosby’s intention to start touring were mostly negative.
Bill Cosby is going on tour. Louis CK and Chris D’Elia are already on tour. Trevor Bauer is back in MLB. Donald Trump is running for President again. Matt Gaetz retained his seat. Brett Kavanaugh is a Supreme Court Justice. Tell me again how cancel culture has gone too far?
Earlier this month, five women filed a new sexual assault lawsuit against Cosby under New York’s Adult Survivors Act. Two of the plaintiffs are actors who worked on The Cosby Show, Lili Bernard and Eden Tirl. The three other women are Jewel Gittens, Jeniffer Thomspon and Cindra Ladd.
Bernard, who played the role of Mrs. Minifield on The Cosby Show, said Cosby drugged and raped her on two occasions in 1990 and 1991. Tirl, who played a small role as a police officer on the show in 1989, alleges that Cosby inappropriately touched her without consent while in a dressing room.
Two of the other women, Gittens and Ladd, say that they were drugged and raped by Cosby. Thompson alleges Cosby touched her inappropriately without her consent when she was 18.
Cosby denied the allegations through a statement from his representatives.
Cosby has faced dozens of similar accusations in recent years, with more than 50 women coming forward in 2014 and 2015 to say they had been assaulted by the now-disgraced television star.
Actor Bill Cosby is facing new sexual assault and battery accusations after five women filed a lawsuit Monday under New York’s new Adult Survivors Act.
Two actors who worked on The Cosby Show — Lili Bernard and Eden Tirl — are among the plaintiffs, reports ABC News. The other women listed include Jewel Gittens, Jennifer Thompson and Cindra Ladd.
The lawsuit accuses Cosby of assault, battery, infliction of emotional distress and false imprisonment. The lawsuit also names NBC, the show’s production company and where The Cosby Show was filmed, as well as Universal Media and Kaufman Astoria Studios for their apparent failure to protect the women.
Bill Cosby says he’ll never show remorse to please parole board
The five plaintiffs say Cosby, 85, took advantage of them several decades ago because they were young and vulnerable.
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The lawsuit, filed in Manhattan Supreme Court, said four of the women were allegedly abused in the late ’80s and early ’90s.
“Each plaintiff was sexually assaulted and battered by defendant Bill Cosby in the same or similar manner when he used his power, fame, and prestige, including the power, fame and prestige given to him by (the) defendants … to misuse his enormous power in such a nefarious, horrific way,” the suit states.
Tirl, who played a small role as a police officer on the show in 1989, alleges that Cosby inappropriately touched her without consent while in a dressing room.
Two of the other women, Gittens and Ladd, allege that they were drugged and raped by Cosby. Thompson alleges Cosby touched her inappropriately without her consent when she was 18.
Bill Cosby accuser Sunni Welles reacts to sentencing: ‘You will always be unforgivable’
Cosby has faced dozens of similar accusations in recent years, with more than 50 women coming forward in 2014 and 2015 to say that they had been assaulted by the now-disgraced television star.
His 2018 trial marked the first major trial of the #MeToo movement. He was convicted of the sexual assault of Andrea Constand at the time and was sentenced to three to 10 years in prison. However, he was released in 2021 when the Pennsylvania Supreme Court overturned his conviction, saying his due process rights were violated.
FILE – This June 30, 2021, file photo shows Bill Cosby gesturing outside his home in Elkins Park, Pa., after being released from prison.
