|
 Cosby will perform Friday in a sold-out show in Melbourne,
Florida, while a Las Vegas show and an engagement in Yakima,
Washington are still scheduled for next week.
Cosby, 77, has never been charged and his lawyers have called
the allegations that have resurfaced in recent weeks
"discredited" and "defamatory."
As more women brought forward claims of sexual assault against
the comedian, Cosby's lawyer Marty Singer said in a statement
late Thursday "we are dealing with these people who are coming
out of the woodwork with unsubstantiated or fabricated stories
about our client."
Singer, one of the most sought-after lawyers by celebrities
suffering hits to their reputation, sent Reuters statements and
background information on two women, questioning their
credibility.
"People coming out of nowhere with this sort of inane yarn is
what happens in media-driven feeding frenzy," he added.
Regardless of the veracity of the allegations, three networks
have already scrapped Cosby shows in recent days, dealing new
setbacks to his career comeback.
NBC canceled a project in development with Cosby while Netflix
postponed a stand-up comedy special. TV Land pulled reruns of
"The Cosby Show" from its schedule.
Therese Serignese from Florida appeared in media Thursday
describing how Cosby allegedly drugged and assaulted her.
Serignese told a television station she met Cosby in 1976 in Las
Vegas, where he invited her to a party and gave her pills. "My
next memory is feeling drugged and him having sex with me," she
told WPTV.
Singer did not refer to Serignese in his statements.
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Cosby has refused to answer reporters' questions about the
allegations, including in an interview with National Public Radio
and a Nov. 6 television interview with the Associated Press that was
released Wednesday.
"I don't talk about it," he said in the AP interview, with wife
Camille by his side.
After the interview and while cameras were still rolling, Cosby
asked that his response not be used. "I would appreciate it if it
was scuttled," he said.
While allegations had been made before, including in a lawsuit from
a woman that was settled in 2006, social media has helped fuel the
controversy.
Cosby's team unwittingly intensified the scandal on Twitter last
week by asking the comedian's followers to create viral memes about
him, and were instead barraged with memes about the rape
accusations.
"The interview on NPR, the inartful meme request, the audio
recording of him trying to get this reporter to change the story,
all of it is another log on the fire," said Jason Maloni, senior
vice president at Levick public relations firm, which has
represented comedian Rosie O'Donnell and disgraced baseball player
Alex Rodriguez.
"One would hope it's not logs on a funeral pyre, but it certainly
looks that way with his inartful responses."
(Additioal reporting by Dan Levine in San Francisco; Writing by Mary
Milliken; Editing by Steve Orlofsky, Bernard Orr)
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