Like most Americans, I spent the 60s, 70s, and part of the 80s in awe of Bill Cosby and his total domination of popular culture. He was the first African American to star in a dramatic television series, I Spy, a show my family in Buffalo, New York, always watched. Cosby cut a striking figure on-screen then. He was funny, smart, and even elegant…
In an essay for Vanity Fair, legendary supermodel and entrepreneur Beverly Johnson details a drugging encounter with Bill Cosby that sounds all too familiar.
Johnson, who is now serving as an international spokesperson for the Global Down Syndrome Foundation, is the latest to come forward with allegations of misconduct against Cosby.
Like many of the women coming forward, she highlights how she was eager to be put and get her “big break.” Lucky for her, she wasn’t so naive that she didn’t know she was being drugged.
I was in the midst of an ugly custody battle for my only child. I needed a big break badly and appearing on The Cosby Show seemed like an excellent way of getting Hollywood’s attention.
Johnson was the first black woman to appear on the cover of American Vogue in 1974.
Here’s what else she says in part:
Looking back, that first invite from Cosby to his home seems like part of a perfectly laid out plan, a way to make me feel secure with him at all times. It worked like a charm. Cosby suggested I come back to his house a few days later to read for the part. I agreed, and one late afternoon the following week I returned. His staff served a light dinner and Bill and I talked more about my plans for the future.
Cosby said he wanted to see how I handled various scenes, so he suggested that I pretend to be drunk…
He insisted that his espresso machine was the best model on the market and promised I’d never tasted a cappuccino quite like this one…
It’s nuts, I know, but it felt oddly inappropriate arguing with Bill Cosby so I took a few sips of the coffee just to appease him…
My head became woozy, my speech became slurred, and the room began to spin nonstop... she remembers before being kicked out of his New York brownstone and being shoved into a taxi.
Once the pyschotropic drugs wore off, Johnson decided she needed to confront Cosby, so she called the private number he’d given her. His wife, Camille, answered the phone. Although she was very polite, she informed Johnson it was late and they were in bed.
