Janice Dickinson has come forward and accused Bill Cosby of rape, saying he sexually assaulted her in 1982 after inviting her to Lake Tahoe.
Dickinson, known as one of the first supermodels, publicly accused Cosby of sexual assault in an interview with Entertainment Tonight on Tuesday. The model, who was then in her mid-20s, alleges that Cosby invited her to Lake Tahoe, where he was performing and gave her a drink and a pill that she believed was simply a pain reliever.
“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… 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,” Dickinson told ET.
Echoing the dozen or so other allegations of rape against Bill Cosby, Dickinson describes the comedian as pursuing her under the guise of being a mentor for her potential acting and singing career. Dickinson had previously mentioned this Lake Tahoe encounter in her 2002 memoir No Lifeguard on Duty: The Accidental Life of the World’s First Supermodel, though, in her book, she claimed that Cosby simply tried to pressure her into having sex with him and that she successfully refused. Dickinson also wrote about how she had been fresh out of rehab and immediately fell off the wagon during her evening with Cosby:
“After dinner he asked me back to his room, and I went. But I stopped myself at the door. ‘I’m exhausted,’ I said, begging off. His eyebrows went a little funny.
‘Exhausted?’ he asked, and it was clear he was trying hard to keep his tempher in check. ‘After all I’ve done for you, that’s what I get? I’m exhausted.’
‘Well, gee, Bill,’ I stammered. ‘If I had known it was going to be like this–“ He waved both hands in front of my face, silencing me. Then he gave me the dirtiest, meanest look in the world, stepped into his suite, and slammed the door in my face.”
Dickinson now claims that she detailed her assault in the original draft to her publisher HarperCollins –to what extent is unclear – but that Cosby and his lawyers stopped the story from being told in its entirety.
When asked why she hadn’t disclosed the assault to any family or friends, Dickinson answered that she was afraid of going against such a beloved, powerful man. “Stuffing feelings of rape and my unresolved issues with this incident has driven me into a life of trying to hurt myself because I didn’t have counsel and I was afraid. I was afraid of the consequences. I was afraid of being labeled a whore or a slut and trying to sleep my way to the top of a career that never took place.”
Cosby’s lawyer, Marty Singer, responded to Dickinson’s claim on Wednesday, calling it “a complete lie.”
“The only story she gave 12 years ago in her autobiography, as well as her interview with the media, was that she refused to sleep with Mr. Cosby, and he blew her off. You can confirm with (publisher) Harper Collins that she never claimed Mr. Cosby raped her, that no attorney representing Bill Cosby tried to kill the story (since there was no such story) and no one tried to prevent anything she wanted to say about Bill Cosby in her book,” Singer said in a statement.
Until this week, Cosby had remained silent on the growing scandal surrounding his rape allegations, which came into the public eye in 2006 when he settled with Andrea Constand, a woman who accused Cosby of drugging and raping her. It was reported that 13 other women came forward in the suit, claiming that Cosby had similarly drugged and raped them, though they were not part of any settlement between Constand and Cosby. The story was brought back into the public eye after a recent biography of Cosby completely ignored the allegations of rape against the comedian and, most recently, when Cosby’s ‘Cosby Meme’ generator idea backfired.
On Nov. 13, The Washington Post published an op-ed by Barbara Bowman, a woman who was asked to testify during the trial of Constand vs. Cosby, titled “Bill Cosby raped me. Why did it take 30 years for people to believe my story?” “Cosby won my trust as a 17-year-old aspiring actress in 1985, brainwashed me into viewing him as a father figure, and then assaulted me multiple times,” Bowman wrote.
When asked about the accusations over the weekend in an interview with NPR, Cosby remained silent, merely shaking his head to signify he was not going to answer any questions regarding the allegations against him. However, on Sunday, Cosby’s lawyer issued a statement saying, “Over the last several weeks, decade-old, discredited allegations against Mr. Cosby have resurfaced. The fact that they are being repeated does not make them true.” The statement was later amended to clarify that it did not apply to Cosby’s settlement with Constrand. It is also worth noting that no charges for sexual assault have ever been filed against Cosby, and, as such, no allegations have ever been legally investigated or “discredited.”
Over the past few weeks, Cosby has canceled appearances on both The Queen Latifah Show and the Late Show with David Letterman, and Netflix announced Tuesday that it would be delaying the release of Cosby’s new comedy special, which was meant to premiere on the site on Nov. 28. “At this time we are postponing the launch of the new stand-up comedy special Bill Cosby 77,” said a Netflix spokesperson.
Cosby currently has a new family sitcom in development with NBC and the network has not yet commented on the allegations, nor given any indication as to whether or not the project will also be put on hold.
After Cosby released his statement, former publicist Joan Tarshis came forward and claimed Cosby also raped her twice in 1969. Cosby has not responded to the claims by Tarshis, but Tarshis has been speaking to the media. Her recent interview with CNN’s Don Lemon has gained attention after the television host asked Tarshis why she didn’t bite Cosby when he allegedly forced her to perform oral sex, sparking critics to start the Twitter hashtag ‘#DonLemonReporting.’
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