The always composed Phylicia Rashad, who famously played Clair Huxtable opposite Bill Cosby’s Cliff Huxtable on The Cosby Show, has been respectful in her comments toward Cosby since his public fall from grace. In an interview she gave to Grio (below) she sometimes seemed strangely respectful — as if she were speaking of a historical personage, not an actual person with whom she’d worked intimately for most of a decade. Rashad never referred to Cosby as Bill — always as Mr. Cosby — creating a strange distance, as if to communicate how strictly professional, and not personal, their relationship was. In light of recent revelations, the distance seems even more odd — or more telling.
[Phylicia Rashad’s Strange Distance From Bill Cosby]
[Bill Cosby Unsealed Testimony Contains Drug Admissions]
Rashad memorably told a reporter about the Cosby accusers: “Forget these women.” She continued, “what you’re seeing is the destruction of a legacy. I don’t know who’s behind it…” It now appears that Cosby himself was behind the destruction of his legacy. Cosby’s real life wife, Camille, is standing by him despite the recent news. Phylicia Rashad has so far seemed determined to do the same. But other fervent Cosby supporters, like Jill Scott, have turned around with the new info — or proof — and abandoned Cosby. Will Phylicia Rashad join them? After all, many of the alleged victims only came forward once they recognized the strength they could have in numbers.
