[O]f all the demonstrations Bill Cosby has had to endure, the latest one being introduced by a teenage artist in Florida could be the most embarrassing.
A young artisan is hoping to have his nude statue of Bill Cosby replace the current ones in front of the TV Hall of Fame at Disney in Orlando, Florida. The other statue is at Disney’s Hollywood Studios in California.
Teenager Rodman Edwards created the art, which he calls “Fat Albert Cries for Dr. Huxtable.” Edwards sculpted a piece of an older, out of shape Dr. Cosby, in the nude.
His genitalia’s covered with a picture of the cartoon character “Fat Albert,” who is crying.
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| Artist Rodman Edwards hopes to make a political statement with this statue of Bill Cosby. |
Edwards said he came up with the design after his disappointment in Bill Cosby, for misrepresenting his TV roles and characters, as well as the messages they are supposed to communicate.
“As a fan, I think I just felt compelled to depict two of Bill Cosby’s creations at odds with each other, because Bill Cosby seems to be at odds with what I always thought Dr. Huxtable stood for,” sculptor Rodman Edwards said.
Although he is just a freshman in high school, Edwards has had his work featured at various festivals and fundraisers, including one attended by Hillary Clinton, in San Francisco.
Now Edwards is being represented by Cory Allen, of Cory Allen of Contemporary Art (CACA). Allen bills his St. Petersburg, Florida – based studio as the world’s first “public relations gallery.”
He said Rodman captured Cosby’s real character with “Fat Albert Cries for Dr. Huxtable.”
“I think this is a more appropriate statue than the one depicting America’s Dad at the TV Hall of Fame,” Cory Allen quipped. “Hall of Fame statues should not be exempt from reevaluation. Sometimes they need to be removed or replaced. Joe Paterno’s statue was taken down following the 2011 Penn State sex abuse scandal. Maybe the TV Hall of Fame and Disney should take note.”
Bill Cosby has never faced a judge or a jury, but the comic has gone from being one of America’s most beloved figures to being one of the most demonized.
The Comedian’s upstanding reputation began to unravel publicly in 2005 and 2006, the years multiple women publicly accused him of “inappropriate touching” and other improprieties.
A civil lawsuit was settled out of court with one of the accusers, preventing the testimony of 13 other women with similar charges.
For eight years, coverage on the rape accusations was scattered until 2014, when fellow entertainer Hannibal Burress’ joke about Cosby’s alleged conduct went viral.
As if to make up for that lost time, in November and December of 2014, over 20 women came forward with new accusations. Each woman’s complaint was similar: Bill Cosby dropped a pill in their drinks, and then sexually forced himself upon them as they lay dazed helpless.
Some of Bill Cosby’s former “Cosby Show” co-stars have supported him, like Phylisha Rashad and Malcolm-Jamal Warner, while others, like Sydney Poitier, have scolded him.
Although Cosby soldiered on in the face of the allegations, the finger-pointing has severely tarnished the 77-year-old comedian’s legacy.
Recently, at a number of his performance, hecklers and demonstrators have disrupted his shows. In fact, there’s a mounting protest against his appearance at The Wilbur Theatre this weekend in Boston, Massachusetts.
And to complicate his life, the nude sculpture of Cosby, “Fat Albert Cries for Dr. Huxtable – Proposal for TV Hall of Fame,” will debut at CACA’s showroom in St. Petersburg, Florida, on February 20, 2015.
