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Bloomberg

Behind his affable exterior and patterned sweaters, Bill Cosby built an entertainment empire that earned him more than US$400 million.
Now the 77-year-old comedian and actor is under siege from sexual assault allegations that imperil future earnings from new projects, public speaking and endorsements that could total millions of dollars a year.
Cosby has not faced any prosecution tied to accusations dating back decades. In 2006, he settled a lawsuit brought by one of the women, Andrea Constand.
The latest claims to surface have torpedoed an attempted comeback for a comedian who spent decades cultivating a squeaky clean image and chiding others to behave.
NBC said it was withdrawing from a sitcom in development with Cosby, while Netflix shelved a stand-up comedy special it planned to run the day after Thanksgiving. Viacom's TV Land will even stop airing reruns of The Cosby Show.
While Cosby's peak earning years are behind him, he was making appearances ahead of the debut of the Netflix stand-up comedy special, and for a recent loan of art to the Smithsonian's National Museum of African Art.
As a sign of how swiftly publicity has engulfed him, his website featured at its top yesterday a statement from his lawyer about the allegations.
Cosby declined to comment on any of it in an interview about the art loan with National Public Radio that aired last Saturday. He has cancelled other public appearances, including a guest spot on The Late Show with David Letterman.
"Over the last several weeks, decade-old, discredited allegations against Mr Cosby have resurfaced," his lawyer, John Schmitt, said in a statement last Sunday. "The fact that they are being repeated does not make them true. Mr Cosby does not intend to dignify these allegations with any comment."
A new statement was posted to clarify that the lawyer's comments did not refer to Constand, who filed her lawsuit in 2005. She claimed to have located at least 10 other alleged victims of sexual assault by Cosby.
Many of Cosby's television shows, including Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids, still air. Most visible are reruns of The Cosby Show, which led the ratings for four years in the 1980s and generated more than US$1 billion in syndication fees after its initial broadcast run, with the revenue split between Cosby and producer Carsey-Werner Television.
In 1992, the year the show concluded, Forbes estimated Cosby's net worth exceeded US$300 million.
The show continues to run on Viacom's Centric cable network and on Hulu Plus, generating fees for Cosby and his partners.
Cosby has served as the spokesman for brands including Coca-Cola and Kraft Foods Group's Jell-O. He was hired as a Jell-O spokesman in 1974, doing television commercials and other advertisements for the dessert until 2003, said a spokeswoman.
"He can't bring that perception back credibly now," said Jeetendr Sehdev, an adjunct professor of marketing at the University of Southern California who researches celebrities branding. He called the crisis the "death of his brand".
The age of the allegations of sexual assault and rape make any prosecution unlikely because they are both time barred by the so-called statute of limitations, and the claims would be hard to verify after all this time, legal experts said.
"You're talking about claims of sexual misconduct that happened 20 or 30 years ago," said Bennett Gershman, a professor at Pace Law School and a former prosecutor in the Manhattan District Attorney's Office. "These are just very, very difficult allegations to prove."
Investigators looking into older allegations tended to wonder whether the incident actually happened and why the person did not report it immediately, Gershman said.
Women who might sue Cosby over the alleged attacks would face similar obstacles with jurors, he said.
Notwithstanding the media attention to the women's claims, damage to Cosby's reputation may be the worst injury he suffers from all the furore.
"It's been dogging him for a long time; it will continue to," Gershman said. "It certainly is in the public mind going to sully whatever reputation he has in terms of his character, but I don't think it's going to go anywhere legally."


Bill Cosby's lucrative brand under fire after sexual assault allegations

Bill Cosby has served as the spokesman for brands including Coca-Cola and Kraft Foods Group's Jell-O.

Business

Companies

Havingearned US$400m from endorsements and shows, TV star's future earnings are at risk


Behind his affable exterior and patterned sweaters, Bill Cosby built an entertainment empire that earned him more than US$400 million.


Bill Cosby's lucrative brand under fire after sexual assault allegations

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}Havingearned US$400m from endorsements and shows, TV star's future earnings are at risk

Havingearned US$400m from endorsements and shows, TV star's future earnings are at risk