Filmmaker drawing attention to 2011 comments by Bill Cosby calling rape ‘annoying’
LOS ANGELES _ Bill Cosby‘s comments calling rape a form of bullying and “annoying” have been released by a filmmaker who interviewed the comedian in 2011.
Documentary filmmaker Cassidy McMillan said Cosby made unsolicited comments about rape during the interview, which was to discuss a project she was working on about bullying and violence faced by some young girls.
“This rape thing is annoying, it is sickening,” Cosby is heard on three minutes of audio posted on the website RadarOnline, which is owned by the National Enquirer. The magazine ran a story last week with a headline on its cover, “Cosby Confesses.”
The comments were made during part of a broader discussion about the bullying and McMillan’s work chronicling the story of a 12-year-old Canadian girl who killed herself after being bullied, according to a partial transcript of the conversation posted on the website www.ourweekly.com. The partial transcript was posted by a freelance journalist who was on the phone when McMillan and Cosby spoke.
McMillan provided audio of the hour-long interview with Cosby to the Enquirer, and RadarOnline posted a three minute clip on Monday.
Cosby’s attorney Marty Singer did not return a phone message seeking comment Tuesday.
The comedian also discussed how his own daughter had been bullied and how he and his wife handled it.
Cosby has been accused by more than two dozen women of sexual misconduct, including allegations by many that he drugged and raped them in incidents dating back more than four decades. Cosby, 77, has never been criminally charged, and most of the accusations are barred by statutes of limitations.
The comedian also said at the time that the only real recourse for rape victims is through the court system.
“Rape, there is no freedom unless in a courtroom,” Cosby is heard telling McMillan and another journalist in audio posted by RadarOnline.
After the Enquirer released its story, McMillan appeared on a radio talk show hosted by Gloria Allred, a prominent Los Angeles attorney who has hosted several news conferences with women who have accused Cosby of drugging them and sexual misconduct. Allred represented Judy Huth, a Riverside County woman who sued Cosby last year, claiming the comedian molested her when she was 15 years old at the Playboy Mansion.
McMillan did not return email messages requesting an interview.
She told Allred she was surprised by Cosby’s casual mentions of rape in a discussion of bullying, but let him talk about it. She said the interview was arranged by Cosby’s publicist and he was aware he was being taped.
“The whole thing was just disturbing,” McMillan told Allred, adding that Cosby was polite to her on the call. “Why he kept going on this track of rape and sexual assault, my own personal opinion _ I was troubled by it and I thought it was obviously on his mind. The conversation was troubling to me and seemed to be an indicator of something deeper on his mind.”
In addition to the lawsuit by Huth, Cosby has been sued by four women including model Janice Dickinson for defamation. The lawsuit hinges on recent denials of sex abuse allegations by Cosby’s representatives.
The Associated Press
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