Judd Apatow demands statements from Bill Cosby's wife, TV partner

  • 08/07/2015
Judd Apatow (AAP)
Judd Apatow (AAP)

Outspoken Bill Cosby critic Judd Apatow has turned on the funnyman's wife and former TV partner for defending the comic amid his ongoing sex abuse scandal.

The moviemaker and writer has been criticised for remarks he made about Cosby as more than 30 women came forward with accusations of rape, sexual abuse and inappropriate behaviour over the past 10 months, but he has never stepped down.

And now Cosby's deposition from a 2005 court case, in which he admitted to procuring Quaaludes to give to women he wanted to have sex with, has been released, Apatow has turned on the comic's wife Camille and his The Cosby Show co-star Phylicia Rashad, and demanded they shift their allegiance.

The filmmaker tells Esquire magazine, "I don't think there is anything new here. It is only new to people who didn't believe an enormous amount of women who stated clearly that he drugged them.

"We shouldn't need Bill Cosby to admit it to believe 40 people who were victimised by him. I am sure there are many victims who have not come forward. Maybe now more people in showbusiness and all around our country will stand up and tell the people he attacked that we support you and believe you. I also hope Camille Cosby and Phylicia Rashad will now stand with the victims and not with their attacker."

Others who have supported Cosby, including singer Jill Scott, are now reconsidering the comments they made. In a series of tweets, Scott said she was "completely disgusted" by Monday's revelations, unearthed by the Associated Press.

Cosby's 2005 deposition was in response to a sexual abuse lawsuit against him that was settled in 2006.

The funnyman's lawyer tells ABC News, "The only reason Mr Cosby settled was because it would have been embarrassing in those days to put all those women on the stand and his family had no clue. That would have been very hurtful."

WENN.com