Bill Cosby’s longtime onscreen wife Phylicia Rashad has come out swinging against the sexual assault allegations dogging her former co-star, saying they are part of an “orchestrated” smear campaign to keep the comedian off television.
Phylicia Rashad played Clair Huxtable on the hit 1980s and ’90s sitcom
“Someone is determined to keep Bill Cosby off TV,” she told the Showbiz 411 website. “And it’s worked. All his contracts have been cancelled.”
But Cosby is due to return to the live stage in Canada on Wednesday.
He is due to perform three shows in Ontario, beginning in Kitchener. It will be his first live performance since November.
Protests are due to be held outside the Ontario shows, and some ticket holders have said they will stay away or heckle the star.
Some 20 women — including supermodels Beverly Johnson and Janice Dickinson — have accused Cosby of sexual assault. The comedian, who has not been criminally charged, has denied assaulting the women and also has accused one of trying to extort him.
Earlier yesterday, three women Tamara Green ,Linda Traitz and Therese Serignese sued Cosby for defamation.
Traitz, Serignese and Green are three of at least 23 women who have accused the comedian of sexual misconduct ranging from groping to rape. And after each came forward with the allegations, they were called liars by representatives for Cosby, the defamation suits says.
US network TV Land pulled repeats of The Cosby Show, in which the star played Dr Cliff Huxtable from 1984 to 1992.
Ten performances on Cosby’s North American tour have also been called off.