Carolyn Thompson | The Associated Press
New lawsuit filed against Bill Cosby
The new lawsuit was filed by a former Playboy model after a new California law was passed.
Fox-26 Houston, Fox-26 Houston
NEW YORK – A woman who worked as a stand-in on “The Cosby Show” in the 1980s said in a lawsuit Tuesday that Bill Cosby drugged and sexually abused her after offering to join her in her acting career to supervise.
The anonymous accuser said that shortly after he met Cosby while working on his show, he began giving her style tips and doing acting exercises with her in his dressing room. When he invited her to his home, she accepted, she said, in part because of “Cosby’s good image as ‘America’s Dad,'” the lawsuit says.
When she got there, she said she had passed out during an acting practice after apparently drinking wine laced with an intoxicant. She awoke “partially undressed and vomiting into a toilet,” the New York State Supreme Court lawsuit says.
An unidentified actor on the show later commented to her that Cosby “could do whatever he wanted with impunity on ‘The Cosby Show,'” according to the lawsuit, which seeks damages for assault, battery, intentional infliction of emotional distress and falsehood Imprisonment is required.
The lawsuit accuses NBCUniversal, as well as Kaufman Astoria Studios and The Carsey-Werner Company, of negligence in connection with Cosby’s alleged conduct. Representatives for the companies did not immediately respond to email messages seeking comment Tuesday evening.
What is the Adult Survivors Act?
It is the latest in a series of lawsuits against Cosby under New York’s expiring Adult Survivors Act, which gives victims of sexual abuse a one-year window to file claims that would otherwise be barred by time limits. This window closes on Thanksgiving.
A spokesman for Cosby, 86, declined to comment on the specifics of the lawsuit but suggested that the review windows that exist in New York and elsewhere should be closed because they are being used to prey on wealthy celebrities.
Joan Tarshis, One of Bill Cosby’s first accusers is suing the actor for alleged sexual assault
“When will it stop and who will be the next man to fall victim to these flashback windows?” spokesman Andrew Wyatt wrote in an email.
Cosby has been accused of rape, sexual assault and sexual harassment by more than 60 women, including several who filed lawsuits under the Adult Survivors Act last year. He has denied all allegations related to sex crimes.
Cosby was the first celebrity to be tried and convicted in the #MeToo era and spent nearly three years in a state prison near Philadelphia before a higher court overturned the conviction and released him in 2021.
Cosby was “a father figure”: Woman accuses Bill Cosby of drugging and sexually abusing her in the ’80s