Last week, in a spectacular PR failure, a tweet from Bill Cosby's official Twitter account invited fans to generate memes from photos of the comedian with the hashtag #CosbyMeme. A quick search of that hashtag shows just how wrong things went. People used the opportunity to hammer Cosby on rape allegations that are again swirling just as the comedian is stepping back into the public eye.
The meme fiasco came after alleged victims started speaking to the press about their accusations. Barbara Bowman, who accused Cosby of rape 30 years ago, wrote an op-ed for The Washington Post about her struggle to get people to believe her story. Publicist Joan Tarshis detailed her accusations to Hollywood Elsewhere. That brings the total number of women who have accused Cosby of rape to 14. Cosby was scheduled for interviews with Queen Latifah and David Letterman but both have been canceled.
Cosby's lawyer, John P. Schmitt, has said that the accusations are "discredited" and that "Mr. Cosby does not intend to dignify these allegations with any comment."
The resurfaced allegations have put
It's unlikely Netflix will pull the special since it's already been shot and paid for and despite the allegations, Cosby still has lots of fans.
But NBC is in a more difficult position. The network is working to bring Cosby back to TV. NBC was the home for The Cosby Show, which ran from 1984 to 1992 and led to a comedy renaissance at the network that included Family Ties, The Golden Girls and Cheers.
According to Variety, Cosby has a pay or play deal with NBC for the new show, which means the network has to pay him a penalty if it doesn't commission a pilot.
In a sign of the clout that Cosby still wielded, under the deal orchestrated by his reps at CAA, it’s understood that the penalty fee is to be paid to Cosby rather than the studio developing the script, which is Sony Pictures TV. Writers Mike O’Malley and Mike Sikowitz were tapped to write a domestic vehicle for the comedian. The studio is not believed to have delivered a finished draft script to the network yet.
Because there's no script yet, it would be easy enough for NBC to scrap the project. Plenty of sitcom ideas never make it to pilot and many of those that do end up with a pilot never make it to television. It might be worth the penalty in this case. Although most of the allegations are old, the renewed furor is taking on a new life of its own.
Cosby has so far refused to speak out about the allegations. When NPR reporter Scott Simon asked Cosby about them in a radio interview about Cosby loaning 62 pieces of his collection of African art for a show in Washington, Cosby just sat silently and reportedly shook his head "no."
