Consequences of Cultivating the Rich & Famous

Another legendary entertainer might well be about to dramatically fall from grace and head in the same direction as Rolf Harris and Jimmy Savile.   Whoever would have thought Bill Cosby would be next though?   Is nothing/no-one sacred?   Though to be fair, even Cliff Richard has been under a murky cloud of suspicion recently so anything is possible.   A mere decade ago such accusations would have been utterly unthinkable.  However, back in the nineteen thirties I am reliably informed that society in general regarded scoutmasters as totally beyond reproach.   And it seems only yesterday that priests and vicars were thoroughly respectable and we didn’t lightly hurl rebukes in their direction for sneaky sexual practices.

Nevertheless, I must be honest and say that I feel let down by Bill Cosby.  He is not the wholesome individual I thought him to be.   I certainly won’t be watching any more of those endless replays of his nineteen sixties television series that can be found late at night on obscure Sky channels. And I won’t be reserving my comments until after the investigation/s that inevitably will follow the latest allegations either. I'm going to put my cards on the table.

I will say here and now that I for one completely believe the allegations that are currently being made against Cosby – well most of them.  I think he did indeed cultivate the company of attractive young women, and offer them headache pills that turned out to contain date-rape drugs.  And I wouldn’t have put it past him to have spiked their gin and tonics with something similar.   I certainly believe that he assisted them in removing certain items of clothing and endeavoured to have sexual intercourse with them.  I believe that he succeeded most of the time.   Oh - and I also believe that he frequently forgot to ask their permission.

Furthermore, I believe that it would not be beyond the realms of possibility that he and they, as a rule, parted on a reasonably friendly basis.   One of them certainly did because she says they remained in touch for the next twenty years.  I mean, twenty years would constitute something of an attachment.  They probably exchanged more than Christmas cards during that time.

What is harder to believe is how traumatized these attractive young women, who were once oh so eager to cultivate his company, have become as they have grown older.   Still, I know that trauma can build up over years, especially so when it’s viewed side by side with behavior that is later bitterly regretted.   Let’s hope that counseling can help – or even compensation perhaps.