Phylicia Rashad: Stop Before You Attack Her– Bill Cosby Could Be Anybody

I am very dismayed by the attacks I’m seeing on Phylicia Rashad. She spoke to me reluctantly, and did not want to become part of the media grinder. She was defending her friend, and I encouraged her. Frankly, no matter what Gloria Allred, Janice Dickinson or Beverly Johnson says, everything leveled at Bill Cosby is just an allegation. There are no police records, no arrests, convictions, trials, etc.

This doesn’t mean I think he’s innocent or not guilty. (Just watch the vultures turn this way now.) But Bill Cosby deserves a defense from his friends if they choose to give one. Not only that, but Phylicia Rashad is no dummy. Some accused her of trying to save her residuals from The Cosby Show. That’s insane. There is no financial motivation. Rashad is a smart woman. She is allowed her opinion. Give her credit for defending someone she knew for a dozen years at the height of his fame.

Something I didn’t tell you– Phylicia has been asked to play Michael B. Jordan’s grandmother in “Creed,” Ryan Coogler’s updated “Rocky” movie. This means she’s Apollo Creed’s widow. What coup for Coogler and producer Irwin Winkler. Rashad has a Tony Award for Best Actress in “A Raisin in the Sun”– the 2004 production that featured Sean Combs. She is a highly regarded dramatic actress, up there with Rosemary Harris and Angela Lansbury (not as old, certainly) and Janet McTeer– in the top tier.

I do think if Meryl Streep or Glenn Close had said the same things about Bill Cosby, no would have dared criticize them.

And for those celebrities that have: just think what would happen if allegations started pouring out of the wood work about you. Regardless of truth. To be tried in public, and ruined, is something so easily done to anyone. I looked at stories about Steve Kroft today and winced.

Bill Cosby Comments On George Zimmerman’s Killing Of Unarmed Trayvon Martin

Bill Cosby’s comments on George Zimmerman in regards to the Trayvon Martin case via CNN Transcript:

Candy Crowley: So you saw more a gun issue than a race issue?

Cosby: How are you going to solve a race issue when it becomes he said, she said or he said, he said? And the other question is, what is solved by saying he’s a racist that’s why he shot the boy? What solves that? This. [Makes gun symbol with hand] And what is he doing with it? And who taught him and told him how to behave with this? It doesn’t make any difference if he’s a racist or not racist. If he’s scared to death and not a racist, it’s still a confrontational provoking of something.

I don’t know what happened, but I know that this — I used to have a gun. The policeman who okayed it said to me, “Mr. Cosby, when you pull this trigger, you can’t call it back.” And so I had the gun in my pocket. And the reason why I had it was to protect my family. But I also knew that anything that went on outside–and it appeared to be something that wasn’t on the OK, I went out with my gun. And the thought was if this person is not right or if that doesn’t move when I say move, I’m going to show that I have a gun.

Cosby goes onto say:

“Cause people on drugs really don’t care, they don’t – they don’t think well, and they will kick in your door. So you gotta protect yourself in your own home. But I also believe that when you tell me that you’re going to protect the neighborhood that I live in, I don’t want you to have a gun. I want you to be able to see something, report it, and get out of the way because you happen to be a part of the neighborhood – I don’t want you to get hurt and I don’t want you to hurt anyone.”