In Deposition, Bill Cosby Presents “An Unapologetic, Cavalier Playboy”: Report

The scandal surrounding Bill Cosby just keeps getting worse. But the entertainer who for years cultivated an image of fatherly wholesomeness and morality had no qualms about his sexual exploits, according to a New York Times report on a court deposition that took place 10 years ago over four days.

In the deposition he doesn’t regard any of his behavior as assaults, rape or molestation. Indeed, the Times reports, “He presented himself in the deposition as an unapologetic, cavalier playboy.” Previous reports on parts of the deposition said he freely acknowledged obtaining prescriptions for Quaaludes in the 1970s to give to women he wanted to have sex with.

Information in that deposition already returned to haunt Cosby a little over a week ago. The statute of limitations has run out on America’s Next Top Model judge Janice Dickinson’s accusation of drugging and raping her 30 years ago. But Cosby’s admission in the deposition that he used drugs to have sex with women “is a game changer,” Dickinson’s attorney Lisa Bloom told Deadline. A new court filing seeking a jury trial said “Cosby, through his attorney, called Janice Dickinson’s rape disclosure a lie. Ms. Dickinson alleges that Mr. Cosby drugged and raped her. In our litigation we contend that Mr. Cosby’s calling Mr. Dickinson a liar is false and defamatory.”

Beyond whatever fate awaits Cosby in court, financial and other fallout has been swift. NBC pulled the plug on a new comedy project, CAA dumped him as a client, and one of his few defenders, Whoopi Goldberg now thinks “all of the information that’s out there kinda points to guilt.” Additionally, a bronze bust of Cosby has been removed from Disney’s Hollywood Studios theme park.

And President Obama, who said no mechanism existed for him to revoke Cosby’s Presidential Medal of Freedom, commented that “If you give a woman — or a man, for that matter — without his or her knowledge a drug, and then have sex with that person without consent, that’s rape. And I think this country, any civilized country, should have no tolerance for rape.”