It’s only been a little over a day since we last reported on someone coming out with allegations that they were raped by Bill Cosby—because that’s the world we live in now—and just this evening another woman has come forward: supermodel Janice Dickinson. Speaking with Entertainment Tonight, Dickinson says Cosby invited her to visit him in Lake Tahoe in 1982 so they could, ostensibly, discuss her singing career. The two had dinner, and then Cosby—allegedly—drugged her and then sexually assaulted her. As for why she’s coming forward with this now, Dickinson says it’s because “it’s the right thing to do.”
A Vice article published before Dickinson’s interview aired—but updated since—points out that her 2002 memoir No Lifeguard On Duty does reference this Lake Tahoe meeting with Cosby, and while he does come across extremely creepy, it does not mention any sexual assault. According to Dickinson’s Entertainment Tonight interview, though, that’s because the book’s publisher was pressured by Cosby’s lawyers to leave it out. Also, as Vice notes, Dickinson’s book was released several years before the first of Cosby’s accusers—a group that now includes 15 people—came forward, so it does seem like she’s been sitting on this for a long time. Plus, it’s worth pointing out that Dickinson’s story of Cosby getting her drunk and sneaking her a pill of some sort matches what we reported on yesterday about the claims that Joan Tarshis made in a Hollywood Elsewhere article about Cosby sexually assaulting her as well.
All of this comes only a few days after Bill Cosby’s upcoming appearance on The Late Show was quietly canceled, and after he gave an interview with NPR in which he refused to acknowledge the accusations at all. NBC is also still trying to figure out what to do with a Cosby-focused sitcom that it’s developing, but now the odds of that being made are getting worse every day.
[h/t Gossip Cop and Jezebel]