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Reporter Details Unsettling, Hostile Interview With Bill Cosby In The '90s
Bill Cosby (Photo by Jemal Countess/Getty Images)
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As a growing list of women—including model Janice Dickinson—have been coming out and telling their stories of being drugged and raped by Bill Cosby, one reporter says she believes them and that the comedian has always given her the creeps.
Today Dana Kennedy published in Raw Story a first-person account of an interview she did for the Associated Press with the comedian in February 1992. Cosby, who was 54 at the time of the interview, was in the eighth season of The Cosby Show and had just come out with a book and comedy album. While others at that time may have imagined him to be warm and approachable (not unlike his Mr. Cliff Huxtable character), Kennedy found him "intimidating and menacing" during their meeting at the Kaufman Astoria studios in Queens, New York.
She said he was cold, hostile, and the first words he uttered to her were, "I don't pose," in regards to taking photographs for the interview. Cosby took control of their interview with a 14-minute diatribe on how he didn't trust the media, Kennedy said.
What was most chilling and unsettling is that he gave Kennedy a warning about their talk. "Tell me what you want to ask and we’ll see how it goes," he told her. "If it doesn’t go well, I’ll give you a piece of fruit. I’ll give you an apple or pear and you can be on your way."
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And within less than a week after her story ran, she said she received a package in the mail with a decaying apple with a note from Cosby that read, "Here's your apple."
Cosby said, as reported in the AP story:
"What people don't realize is that we are human beings, too," says Cosby, of his early struggle of fame. "We're made up of different moods. If pushed, we have all different kinds of behavior. The reality depends on the person projecting it on you."
David Green, a reporter at NPR, interviewed Cosby in Nov. 2013, and also mentioned how Cosby disarmed him by taking the reins of their interview as well:
But I've got to tell you, I immediately lost control of the interview. He wrong-footed me at the outset, asking what I had to say for myself that morning. And when I hesitated, he — well, he kind of took me to school. "Mr. Greene," he said in that inimitable paternal baritone, "I think this is your program. And I'm sure that whatever professor you had said, 'For God's sake, don't say, 'Lemme [stutter mumble squeak...]'"
Cosby has faced decades of rape allegations, but recently they've come to light again with the new cases coming forward. A recent video of stand-up comedian Hannibal Burress talking about Cosby sexually assaulting women went viral. And amidst the disturbing new allegations, NBC has cancelled Cosby's upcoming sitcom, and Netflix is postponing a special that was slated to air later this month.
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In regards to Dickinson's most recent allegations, Cosby's attorney Marty Singer told The Wrap, "Her new story claiming that she had been sexually assaulted is a defamatory fabrication."
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