Beverly Johnson’s Book — What Bill Cosby Is Suing Over

Lawyers for embattled TV personality Bill Cosby have filed a lawsuit against the model Beverly Johnson, saying she lied about Cosby in order to gain attention for her memoir. Cosby’s camp claims defamation. Johnson is one of the few famous names among the more than three dozen women who have accused Cosby of sexual assault — in a string of alleged incidents over the course of four decades.

[Phylicia Rashad’s Strange Distance From Bill Cosby]

Johnson’s book, The Face That Changed It All: A Memoir, was published in August, nearly eight months after Johnson first joined the ballooning group of Cosby accusers. The book is described by the publisher as “revelatory and redemptive.” In the book she describes being “drugged — and drugged good” by Cosby in the 1980s. Both Johnson and Cosby were then at the heights of their fame. Johnson was the first black model to be on the cover of Vogue. She appeared on approximately 500 magazine covers in her career.