Rosie O'Donnell says Bill Cosby sexually harassed staffer

Commack-raised Rosie O'Donnell said Bill Cosby behaved inappropriately toward a staffer during an appearance on the comic's '90s talk show. Credit: Composite: Getty Images / Jamie McCarthy, left; Getty Images / David Maialetti-Pool
Comedian Rosie O'Donnell said Sunday that Bill Cosby, currently serving 3 to 10 years on a sexual-assault conviction, made a lewd comment to a staffer of her former daytime talk show during one of his appearances there.
Speaking via remote video on Bravo's late-night "Watch What Happens Live," the Commack born-and-raised O'Donnell, 58, told host Andy Cohen "a story about what happened to a staff member on our show." She described an unnamed "very tall … larger woman, very great producer" who was assigned to Cosby, appearing as one of the program's "mystery guests."
With Cosby, now 82, in the guests' waiting room, "The producer goes in and she's talking and saying to Bill Cosby, 'You know, she's not going to know that it's you.' And he said, 'All she has to do is put her hand right here.' And he put his hand near his penis. 'And she'll know it's me.' "
The producer, O'Donnell said, "started crying and got up and left." The executive producer, "who was an African American man … he went in and had a big discussion with Bill Cosby about what's appropriate and what's not, and then they didn't tell me about it until after the show. So … I was one of those people who was not surprised by … the charges against him."
She added that during her time on the daytime panel-discussion show "The View," on which she was a co-host from 2006 to 2007 and again from 2014 to 2015, "They would not discuss it. Every time I tried to bring it up, it became a little fight."
Cosby's spokesman, Andrew Wyatt, said in a statement to Newsday, "Here's the multimillion dollar question: Why Now? 'The Rosie O'Donnell Show's' first episode aired in 1996 and the show ended in 2002, but she waits until 24 years later to accuse Mr. Cosby of making lewd comments to a female producer. This is just another attempt for a well-known celebrity like Rosie O'Donnell and many others to create false allegations about Mr. Cosby, in order to gain attention for themselves and their new projects that are not doing well. Remember, on March 23, 2020, Ms. O'Donnell tried reviving 'The Rosie O'Donnell Show' for one night only and her efforts were catastrophic."
O'Donnell's livestream fundraiser on Sunday, March 22, which featured dozens of stars including Kristin Chenoweth, Neil Patrick Harris, Lin-Manuel Miranda, Bernadette Peters, Chita Rivera, Northport native Patti LuPone and Syosset-raised Idina Menzel, collected more than a half-million dollars for The Actors Fund and received positive reviews.
Comedy legend Cosby, a four-time Emmy Award winner who broke a television color barrier in 1965 when he became the first African-American star of a weekly drama series, "I Spy," was convicted in April 2018 of three counts of aggravated indecent assault. He was sentenced that September and has appealed his conviction.
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