Now that the cavalier attitudes towards drugs and consent have come straight from the disgraced comedian’s mouth in a 2005 deposition recently obtained by the Associated Press, support for Bill Cosby is evaporating faster than…well, faster than it should have evaporated when allegations of sexual assault were first leveled against him a decade ago. Reruns of his sitcoms are being pulled from the air, Walt Disney World took down its statue of him, his agent dropped him, and he’s been edited out of an upcoming documentary about black stuntpeople, a film the director describes as “the last project standing behind him.” Even Whoopi has abandoned him.
At this point, Cosby’s biography is toxic as well: According to The Hollywood Reporter, a rep for Jerry Seinfeld and David Letterman says he’s asked the publisher of Cosby: His Life And Times to stop using glowing statements from his clients in future editions of book and in promotional materials. (Released last September, Mark Whitaker’s book has been criticized for glossing over the sexual assault allegations against Cosby, leading its author to issue an apology in November.) Seinfeld’s blurb, which is on the back cover of the current edition, read:
“I know certain religions forbid idol worship. If anyone ever told me I had to stop idolizing Bill Cosby, I would say, ‘Sorry, but I’m out of this religion.’ So if you want to join the Religion of Cosby, as I did back in 1966, Mark Whitaker’s wonderful new book would be our Bible.”
Letterman and Seinfeld aren’t alone with distancing themselves from Cosby, either. The Detroit Free Press reports that earlier today publisher Simon & Schuster pulled all celebrity endorsements—including ones from Mary Tyler Moore and Billy Crystal—from web pages for the book, citing “recent events” as the reason for the move.
Even the guy who helped start this whole thing wants to be done with it. Hannibal Buress, who brought the accusations against Cosby back into the public consciousness by talking about them in his stand-up set last fall, tells GQ in a new interview that he has conflicting feelings about being “the Cosby guy.” (Asked a similar question in a recent interview with The A.V. Club, Buress said, “That was one thing that people, the media kind of grabbed on to. I just do my work.”) The publicity surrounding his Cosby material even made Comedy Central postpone Buress’ show, Why? With Hannibal Buress—not that critics, who took to Twitter to accuse Buress of “selling out” Cosby to boost his public profile after the show was formally announced, knew that. “This deal closed, like, June of last year,” Buress says. “That person can’t be argued with.”
