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Janis Ian: ‘Bill Cosby tried to blacklist me over lesbian speculation’

Veteran singer JANIS IAN has spoken out about her own experiences with BILL COSBY during the 1960s, alleging the embattled comedian tried to have her blacklisted because he thought she was a lesbian.
The former child star reveals she had been invited to perform her 1966 single Society’s Child on The Smothers Brothers Hour comedy show, and as she was only 16, she had to be accompanied to the taping by a chaperone.
She struggled to stay awake on set and fell asleep in her female chaperone’s lap before the taping, but her innocent nap threatened to derail her blossoming career.
In a lengthy post on Facebook.com, Ian recalls, “I was exhausted… I needed to sleep. So I fell asleep in my chaperone’s lap. She was earth motherly, I was scared. It was good to rest. We taped the show. I had a ball…
“A while later, my manager called me into her office. ‘What happened at the Smothers Brothers show?!’ I had no idea what she was talking about, and said so. ‘Well, no one else on TV is willing to have you on. Not out there (in Los Angeles), anyway.’ Why? I wondered. And was told that Cosby, seeing me asleep in the chaperone’s lap, had made it his business to ‘warn’ other shows that I wasn’t ‘suitable family entertainment’, was probably a lesbian, and shouldn’t be on television.”
Ian admits she was outraged by Cosby’s reported actions and credits late talk show host Johnny Carson with saving her career after agreeing to have her on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson.
She continues, “I was 16. I’d never slept with a man, I’d never slept with a woman. Hell, I barely been kissed…
“Banned from TV. Unbelievable. Bless Johnny Carson and his producer Freddy de Cordova, one of the nicest men I’ve ever worked with, because they didn’t listen. Or maybe they didn’t give a damn. I don’t know. I do know that they broke the barrier Cosby tried to create.”
Ian, who ‘came out’ as a lesbian in 1993, goes on to share her thoughts on Cosby’s ongoing sex scandal, after more than 30 women went public with allegations of inappropriate behaviour, being drugged or raped, admitting she is appalled that it took so long for the alleged victims to be taken seriously and be heard by the media.
Cosby has never been charged with any crime relating to the multiple allegations, which resurfaced last autumn (14) after comedian Hannibal Buress branded the veteran actor “a rapist” during his own stand-up tour.

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