Netflix Postpones Launch of Bill Cosby Comedy Special
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Jemal Countess/Getty Images(NEW YORK) — In the wake of multiple sexual abuse claims against Bill Cosby, Netflix is postponing the premiere of the veteran comedian’s comedy special, a Netflix spokesperson confirmed to ABC News.
“At this time we are postponing the launch of the new stand up comedy special Bill Cosby 77,” the spokesperson said in a statement released Tuesday night. Cosby’s rep, David Brokaw, released a statement to ABC News, saying, “My client agrees with Netflix.”
The special was taped on the comedian’s 77th birthday in July. It was scheduled to run on Netflix on Nov. 28.
Earlier in the day, supermodel Janice Dickinson became the latest woman to come forward with abuse allegations against Cosby.
In an interview with Entertainment Tonight, Dickinson claims the comedian sexually assaulted her in 1982. She said they first met when her agent set up a meeting with him to discuss a possible role for her on The Cosby Show. They met for a second time over dinner. Dickinson said Cosby gave her a glass of red wine and a pill, which she asked for because she was menstruating and had stomach pains.
“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 said. “Before I woke up in the morning, the last thing I remember is Bill Cosby in a patchwork robe, dropping his robe and getting on top of me.”
Dickinson said she tried to write about the assault in her 2002 autobiography, but Cosby and his lawyers pressured her and the publisher to remove the details.
When ask why she chose to tell her story now, the 59-year-old Dickinson said, “I’m doing this because it’s the right thing to do, and it happened to me, and this is the true story.”
A series of women have claimed to have been sexually abused by Cosby over the years, including Joan Tarshis, who came forward on Sunday. Last week, Barbara Bowman published an essay in the Washington Post detailing her own alleged abuse at the hands of Cosby.
Cosby’s attorney, John P. Schmitt, issued a statement earlier in the week, calling the allegations “decade-old” and “discredited.” Schmitt later issued a second statement saying the comedian’s denial “was not intended to refer in any way to Andrea Constand,” an accuser who settled a civil lawsuit against the 77-year-old comedy legend in 2006.
Cosby has never been criminally charged.
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