A statue of Bill Cosby has been
removed from a Disney theme park in the wake of revelations the comedian
admitted in court he gave a woman drugs before sex.
The bust had been part of a Hall of Fame exhibit at Disney's Hollywood Studios theme park in Florida.
Documents
unsealed this week revealed Cosby testified in 2005 he had obtained
Quaaludes with the intent of giving them to women he wanted to sleep
with. Mr Cosby is facing a series of sexual assault claims dating back decades.
The 77-year-old has denied the accusations and has never been criminally charged.
Calls are mounting for other public tributes to the Cosby Show star to be removed, among them a mural at a Washington DC restaurant he has been known to frequent.
However,
the Smithsonian's National Museum of African Art, also in Washington,
issued a statement on Tuesday saying it would continue to display
artworks lent to the institution by Cosby and his wife Camille.
The
museum said it was aware of the recent revelations about Cosby and that
it "in no way condones this behaviour", but said the exhibition was
about the artworks and not their owners.
Some figures in the entertainment industry have also commented on the
revelations in recent days, either to offer tacit support for the
comedian or to publicly distance themselves from him.
Speaking on
her TV show The View on Tuesday, Whoopi Goldberg reserved judgement by
saying "you are still innocent until proven guilty" and that Cosby had
"not been proven a rapist".
Former supermodel Janice Dickinson,
who has accused Cosby of drugging and raping her in the early eighties,
responded by calling Goldberg a "stupid woman" who "needs to be fired"
from her talk show spot.
Dickinson also called the release of the sealed court documents a vindication.
"It shows that he and all his people knew all along that we were telling the truth," she told People Magazine, while opening up about the impact of going public.
"It's
been extremely difficult for my two children and my fiance and my
friends and it has been extremely hard for me. It's so painful," said
the 60-year-old.
"I want an admission of guilt. This is not over
until we get a fair judge and jury and he can go under oath and stand on
trial under oath for what he did to me."
Singer Jill Scott - formerly a staunch Cosby advocate - tweeted on Monday that she was "completely disgusted" and that the comedian's "own testimony offers PROOF of terrible deeds."
Film
producer Judd Apatow, one of Cosby's most vocal and consistent critics,
said he did not feel the unsealed files, obtained by the Associated
Press news agency, revealed "anything new".
"It is only new to people who didn't believe an enormous amount of women who stated clearly that [Cosby] drugged them," he said in a statement to Esquire magazine.
"We
shouldn't need Bill Cosby to admit it to believe 40 people who were
victimised by him," continued the director and producer of Knocked Up,
The 40-Year-Old Virgin and other film comedies.
"Maybe now more
people in show business and all around our country will stand up and
tell the people he attacked that we support you and believe you."
The
removal of Cosby's likeness from Disney's Hollywood Studios, part of
the Walt Disney World resort, followed a petition on the Change.org
website that said the replica was "inappropriate".
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