First it was Andrea Constand, then Barbara Bowman
and now Joan Tarshis, makes it the third
woman to accuse Bill Cosby of raping her as a teenager. Joan , a former publicist, wrote an essay for
Hollywood Elsewhere on
Sunday accusing the entertainer of assaulting her on two occasions in 1969,
when she was 19.
Tarshis said
that after it happened, she felt she couldn't speak out because of how others
idolized him but that she is now stepping forward in light of accusations made
by other women.
'I thought
nobody would believe me because of his image, you know, whiter than snow,' she
told
The Wrap.
In the piece for
Hollywood Elsewhere, she explained that she had been in Los Angeles to write
for comedian Godfrey Cambridge and she was introduced to Cosby by two women she
was staying with.
He invited her
to have lunch with him at Universal Studios and 'seemed to take a liking' to
her, she said. He invited her back a few times and always poured her strong
drinks, she wrote.
One day, he
asked her to work on some material with him so she went to his bungalow, where
he poured her a drink and she started talking about her ideas, she said.
'The next thing
I remember was coming to on his couch while being undressed,' she wrote.
'Through the
haze I thought I was being clever when I told him I had an infection and he
would catch it and his wife would know he had sex with someone.
'But he just
found another orifice to use. I was sickened by what was happening to me and
shocked that this man I had idolized was now raping me. Of course I told no
one.'
WHO ARE HIS ACCUSERS? THE WOMEN WHO SAY HE RAPED THEM
In November
2006, Bill Cosby settled a civil lawsuit with Andrea Constand, a former
Temple University employee who claimed he had drugged and sexually assaulted
her in his Philadelphia-area mansion two years earlier.
Her lawyers said
they had the names of 13 other women who had come forward voluntarily with
similar accounts of drugging or abuse at the hands of Cosby - but the
settlement was reached before the other women could testify.
Last month, Barbara
Bowman revealed to MailOnline that she had been drugged and raped by Cosby
in 1985, when she was a 17-year-old aspiring actress. She was one of the 13
women willing to support Constand in 2006.
Joan Tarshis has
become the latest woman to accuse him of raping her. On Sunday, she revealed
she was working as a writer for Cosby in 1969, when he drugged and sexually
abused her on two occasions, she said.
Her mother was
proud of her daughter's new connection and so when Cosby called to invite
Tarshis to a theater production, she felt as if she had to go to the show, she
said.
She met him at
his hotel, where she says his shaving kit was filled with bottles of pills, and
then they went to the show together. In the car, he gave her a drink, she said.
After the show,
she was having difficulties standing up and asked the chauffeur to take her
back home, she said.
'The next thing
I remember was waking up in his bed back at the Sherry, naked,' she wrote. 'I
remember thinking "You old s***, I guess you got me this time, but it’s
the last time you’ll ever see me".'
Afterwards, she
said nothing for 20 years.
'During those
years as I grew into adulthood, I watched Cosby be praised by everyone from
Presidents to Oprah to the Jello Corporation,' she wrote. 'It all made me ill.'
'He’s too
powerful,' she said. 'How can you stop him? I’m just a little person. What am I
going to say? "He raped me?" Who is going to believe that?'
Speaking to The
Wrap after she wrote the piece, she said that she decided to speak out after
other women came forward. MailOnline exclusively shared Barbara Bowman's story
last month.
'All through the
years, before I mentioned it, before anything else came out, I knew I wasn't
the only person,' she said. 'That it wasn't just me... I knew that he was a
serial rapist.'
She said she
hopes her claims go some way to affecting the public's view of him.
She also said
she waited until now because she didn't want her parents to find out. Both are
now in their 90s and the news won't reach them, she said.
'They would have
really, really been damaged by me telling them something, or finding out
something like this,' she said.
Today, she
continues to blame herself, she said.
'It still kind
of feels that way, that I should have known better,' she said. 'I know
intellectually that's incorrect, but that's still a feeling that I have.'
Tarshis, who
lives in upstate New York, became a music publicist in the 1980s and
represented Bob Marley and the Red Hot Chili Peppers, among others. She later
worked as a journalist and is now getting a master's in mental health
counseling, the Wrap reported.
The renewed
attention on Cosby's past began last month when comedian Hannibal Buress assailed
him during a stand-up performance in Philadelphia, Cosby's hometown, calling
him a 'rapist'.
His remarks were
captured on video and posted online, gaining wide exposure.
Adding to the
growing firestorm: One of Cosby's accusers, Barbara Bowman, leveled allegations
of sexual assault against him - first speaking to MailOnline last month and
later in an online column for the Washington Post.
She explained
that in 1985, she was 17 and an aspiring actress when Cosby 'brainwashed me
into viewing him as a father figure, and then assaulted me multiple times'.
Cosby, who was
never criminally charged in any case, settled a civil suit in 2006 with another
woman over an alleged incident two years before.
On Sunday,
Cosby's lawyer said he will not dignify 'decade-old, discredited' claims of
sexual abuse with a response.
John P. Schmitt
said the fact that the allegations are being repeated 'does not make them
true.'
'He would like
to thank all his fans for the outpouring of support and assure them that, at
age 77, he is doing his best work,' Schmitt said.
Also at the
weekend, Cosby stonewalled
National Public Radio host
Scott Simon during an interview with Cosby and his wife, Camille, about their
African-American art collection.
Cosby fell
silent when asked by Simon about 'serious allegations raised about you in
recent days'.
'You're shaking
your head, no,' the host said. 'Do you have any response to those charges?
Shaking your head, no.'
Legendary
saxophonist, Tony Williams, has also defended his friend, saying he is angry
that the claims have resurfaced again and believes the women are just after
Cosby's fame and money.
'No, No. He
don't have to rape anybody,' Williams told
Fox Philly 29 in
an interview on Sunday.
