Bill Cosby Joked About Drugging Women For Sex

VILLAGE VOICE: Cosby’s dozen-plus accusers tell similar stories: that, after having a drink with Cosby, they felt drugged and confused as he had his way with them. Curiously, Cosby himself once made such scenarios the center of a stand-up routine: Witness “Spanish Fly,” a cut from his now-unfortunately titled 1969 LP It’s True! It’s True!. In it, Cosby describes being a kid and hearing about a wonder drug — “Spanish Fly” — that would make a girl go crazy once it was put into her drink. He presents this as a horny/goofy lark of an idea, a myth that kids buy into all over the world. More disturbingly, Cosby then describes his adult interest in such a drug, especially on a trip he took to Spain with Robert Culp of I Spy — both Culp and Cosby, he claims, were desperate to get their hands on some Spanish Fly. MORE

WIKIPEDIA: Cantharidin (etymology: Greek kantharis, beetle) is a powerful irritant vesicant (blister-inducing) substance obtained from many blister beetles, and sometimes given the nickname “Spanish fly”. Cantharidin is claimed to have aphrodisiac 1415684668693_wps_44_Bill_Cosby_invited_the_inproperties, as a result of its irritant effects upon the body’s genitourinary tract, and can result in poisoning if ingested.[3] Ingestion of blister beetles from infested hay causes similar serious toxic symptoms in animals.[4] As it passes through the body, cantharidin irritates the genitals resulting in increased blood flow that can mimic the engorgement that occurs with sexual excitement.[3] For this reason, various preparations of desiccated Spanish flies have been used as some of the world’s oldest alleged aphrodisiacs, with a reputation dating back to the early western Mediterranean classical civilizations. The ease of toxic overdose makes this highly dangerous, so the sale of such products as Spanish fly has been made illegal in most countries. MORE

PHILADELPHIA MAGAZINE: [T]here’s something else, along with the plight of poor people, dogging Bill Cosby. His lawyers have gotten it pushed to the back burner, down to a simmer, and maybe it will amount to nothing, yet there is also the possibility that it will bubble up to destroy him. A young Canadian woman he met in Philadelphia through Temple University is accusing him of drugging her and then, when she was in a near-comatose state, molesting her. It went nowhere legally — the woman, Andrea Constand, waited a year before going to police, it boiled down to a he said/she said (Cosby claimed the sex was consensual, according to ABC News), and the police dropped the case for lack of evidence. But Constand filed a civil complaint in federal court in Philly last year, suing for an unspecified amount of money over $150,000. It is still Cosby’s no against her yes, except for one difference: CosbyRapeFamousThirteen women are waiting to be deposed in the suit; in a court filing, Constand’s lawyer says that all of them — with nothing to gain, with no payout waiting, with their own statutes of limitations run out — have stories about Bill Cosby as well, and some of them will claim a similar drug-and-fondling M.O. MORE

NPR: Two of Cosby’s accusers, Bowman and Tarshis, have noted that NBC is developing a new show starring the comic, intended as a family-oriented comedy, suggesting it shouldn’t move forward. Quickly as media attention can move on these days, there is still a sense that Cosby will have trouble appearing on a major media outlet until he comments further; already, there have been planned interviews canceled on the Queen Latifah Show, Late Show with David Letterman and with The Associated Press. Selling the public on a new TV show or movie requires lots of public appearances and conversations with media figures and journalists. Can Cosby run that gantlet without saying more than he already has? And will TV viewers feel strange watching Cosby play a grandfatherly figure with such ugly allegations still in the public sphere? MORE