ColumnWell, Bill Cosby will have to stand trial. Great news, but why did it take so long for Cosby to be called out? The answer is simple: Because he’s a Hollywood asshole.

That may sound harsh, but it’s true. Hell, just look at recent headlines that have graced news sites over the past few weeks:

“Camille Cosby’s Dramatic Deposition Transcript Unsealed”

“Elijah Wood on Child Predators in Hollywood: ‘If You Can Imagine It, It’s Probably Happened'”

“My father, Woody Allen, and the danger of questions unasked”

Yeah—it ain’t good.

To examine our sweeping, asshole allegation, let’s examine the stories behind the headlines.

Bill Cosby

On Tuesday, a Pennsylvania judge decided there was enough evidence to go forward with Bill Cosby’s trial. “Cosby faces three counts of felony indecent assault from a 2004 case involving Andrea Constand, an employee at his alma mater, Temple University,” CNN reports.

“She was the first of more than 50 women who have accused Cosby of sexual misconduct.” If he is convicted, he could spend up to 30 years in prison.

As you know, we’ve been following this issue for a long while. While we can’t say Cosby definitely harmed these women, we do think it’s incredibly strange that some people, such as his wife, other comedians, and fans, still think he’s totally innocent.

Cosby’s wife

During a February deposition, Cosby’s wife refused to answer numerous questions that pertained to a libel lawsuit.

“Within the transcript, after asking Camille about how much she values integrity in herself and others, Cammarata asks, ‘Now, can we agree that throughout your marriage, Mr. Cosby acted with a lack of integrity?,’ The Hollywood Reporter reports.

“Pressley jumps in and tells her client that she isn’t obligated to answer a question if the information was gained through a conversation with her husband or an attorney. ‘And I won’t,’ Camille responds.”

His fans

Earlier this year, Vice interviewed a few of Cosby’s fans about why they think the comedian is innocent.

“One of the people defending Bill Cosby to this day is Wilmington, Delaware, native Crystal Lambert, who tells me via Facebook that she’s been a fan of the comedian ‘since Mortimer Ichabod Marker and Jello pudding pops,’” Vice reports.

“She hasn’t read the deposition and plans to direct prayer to the situation rather than scrutiny. ‘We as the public have a civic duty to back a man that gave and taught us so much,’ she says.”

Comedians

And let’s not forget when Damon Wayans’ said that Cosby’s accusers were unrapeable.

We get that it’s hard to imagine Cliff Huxtable as a serial rapist, but that character was just that—a character. And if Cosby really did harm all the women who have accused him over the years, it’s truly disgusting that he hasn’t been brought to justice… yet.

Elijah Wood

While it looks like this story isn’t nearly as shocking as many media outlets once thought, I think we all can agree that Wood’s basic accusation is still correct: Hollywood is filled with a lot of bad people.

The conversation started on Tuesday when Wood said that he thinks that Hollywood is rife with “vipers” who prey on people—especially people without power, such as children.

“Wood, now 35, drew parallels between such experiences and the prolific sexual abuse perpetrated by TV host Jimmy Savile,” The Guardian reports. “‘You all grew up with Savile’ said Wood. ‘Jesus, it must have been devastating. Clearly something major was going on in Hollywood. It was all organised. There are a lot of vipers in this industry–people who only have their own interests in mind.’”

Now, it turns out that Wood said most of these things because he had just seen the film “An Open Secret,” a documentary about the abuse of young males in Hollywood.

“Mr. Wood is not the only actor to suggest that abuse of child actors is underreported: Corey Feldman, who worked in children’s films in the 1980s, said in 2011 that pedophilia was ‘the No. 1 problem in Hollywood,’ calling it ‘the big secret,’” The New York Times adds.

So, although Wood doesn’t have personal experience with abusers in Hollywood and doesn’t necessarily know anyone who has been abused, I think it’s safe to say that his thoughts are still valid.

Woody Allen

By now everyone has heard that Woody Allen may have sexually assaulted his daughter, Dylan Farrow. It’s hard to ignore the piece that Ronan Farrow, Dylan’s brother, recently penned for The Hollywood Reporter, which discusses why Hollywood is filled with people who can ignore terrible things stars do.

And although Ronan states that not all media or people in Hollywood are to blame, there is still a large group who choose to do nothing about the claims brought against stars.

“…the old-school media’s slow evolution has helped to create a culture of impunity and silence,” Ronan writes.

“Amazon paid millions to work with Woody Allen, bankrolling a new series and film. Actors, including some I admire greatly, continue to line up to star in his movies. ‘It’s not personal,’ one once told me. But it hurts my sister every time one of her heroes like Louis C.K., or a star her age, like Miley Cyrus, works with Woody Allen. Personal is exactly what it is—for my sister, and for women everywhere with allegations of sexual assault that have never been vindicated by a conviction.”

Now, all of the above stories are incredibly disturbing and discouraging, but as Ronan points out at the end of his piece, people are starting to speak out about assaults and Hollywood doesn’t look so golden anymore. It’s a small change, but it’s still change.

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ColumnThe Bill Cosby case is in full swing and already — already — there’s a lot of equally wonderfully cringe-worthy and soul-crushing gems emerging from the grand ordeal.

Let’s begin with the legal and end with the commentary from the peanut gallery…

It all started on February 3, 2016 when a judge decided that a Pennsylvania sexual assault case against Bill Cosby could continue. While Cosby’s team thinks the decision to move forward is “wrong,” the case, “in which former Temple University employee Andrea Constand accuses the TV star of assaulting her in his home in 2004, will go forward,” CNN reports. The preliminary hearing for this case is planned for March 8.

In addition to this criminal case, “Cosby is also facing a lawsuit from Tamara Green, Therese Serignese, Linda Traitz, Barbara Bowman, Joan Tarshis, Louisa Moritz, and Angela Leslie over denials by his reps that they were sexually assaulted. Last November, a judge rejected Cosby’s motion to dismiss, which put in motion more Cosby testimony to come.”

However, on February 10, 2016 it was reported that Cosby wants the “proceeding paused.” Here are the details according to The Hollywood Reporter via Cosby’s motion:

“The District Attorney of Montgomery County has pursued his charges at the eleventh hour, years after an initial investigation in 2005 determined that no charges should be filed… The state’s case relies on Defendant’s previously sealed testimony, given by Defendant in a civil case that was made public — demonstrating the direct impact that civil litigation can have on criminal matters. And it is precisely for such reason, i.e., the preservation of Defendant’s right against self-incrimination, that this civil action should be stayed during the pendency of Defendant’s criminal case.”

It also appears that Cosby will be making similar motions soon.

And just a few days ago, on February 9, Cosby received good news from California courts. An L.A. Superior Court judge “agreed with the actor-comedian’s lawyers to toss an amended complaint by Janice Dickinson in her defamation suit against Cosby and his former attorney Marty Singer,” Deadline reports. “In a tentative ruling read from the bench, Judge Debre Weintraub also allowed Singer to be dismissed from the case.”

In addition to all the legal updates about the various Cosby cases, Kanye West recently joined the discussion about the comedian, and, surprise — West’s thoughts are stomach turning.

According to The USA Today, West took to twitter on Feb. 9 and tweeted: BILL COSBY INNOCENT !!!!!!!!!!

Not sure if he used enough exclamation points.

While the tweet was posted without further explanation, one can assume that West is a Cosby supporter, and thinks the current legal battles the comedian is facing are bunk. No one really knows what’s going on in West’s head — honestly, we wonder if West even knows — it’s still rather disturbing that he’s putting those kinds of thoughts out there.

Sure, Cosby is innocent until proven guilty, but Cosby’s accusers had enough trouble coming forward — they don’t need Ye dismissing all of their experiences.

This whole Cosby ordeal is far from over, so, rest assured that we’ll be here to report on all the gory, depressing details.

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Sweaters Bill Cosby Should Never Ever Wear (Ever!)

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The post And the Bill Cosby Case Marches On: #NowWhat appeared first on EcoSalon.

Multiple women have accused Bill Cosby of rape — 46 women have come forward in the past five decades. And for all we know, there could be many other women who have decided to remain anonymous. Kudos to New York magazine’s representation of those women, and all other women, who have chosen to remain silent about their rapes. Thanks to these women, the world now sees that Cosby is a definite creep.

Since all of these rape victims have recently been somewhat vindicated (thanks to the documents that were released in a 2005 civil lawsuit), all of Cosby’s work has become un-watchable and mockable. We didn’t want to miss out on the finger-pointing fun, so we’ve rounded up a few Cosby sweaters and sweatshirts that he would have worn in jest, but now that we know what we know about the comedian, are just plain creepy.

Image: Pinterest

The Sex Joke Turned Visual Assault

We are well aware that the negative connotations of this sweater are pretty obvious, but we had to include it. What once could have been laughed off as a silly but sexy Bill Huxtable sweater meant for Clair at a Christmas party is now a sweater that could cause bystanders at that party to gag.

Image: Etsy UK

The “I’m With the Times” Joke Turned Twitter Disaster 

We all know that Twitter conversations with celebrities can go badly very quickly. So, if we saw Cosby wearing this in an attempt to be hip, we’d laugh and start a hashtag campaign to the tune of #WhyWeHateCosby, and we’d have fun counting all the ways.

Image: CafePress

“I Can Make a Drink” Shirt Turned “I Know How to Drug” Shirt

Cosby has a history of drugging drinks, so we’d rather never see him touch another glass, or insinuate that he knows how to make a drink, ever again.

Image: Pinterest

The “Pastime Sweater” Turned “I Love Drugging” Sweater

Cosby has admitted to drugging women to sleep with them. So, if he wore this shirt, it would basically be confirming what we already know — that he like sleep so much that he uses drugs to get women into that “no consent” state.

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The post Sweaters Bill Cosby Should Never Ever Wear (Ever!) appeared first on EcoSalon.

So, there’s a new social media trend: Women are protesting bans on female nipples by photoshopping male nipples on their breasts. Now, that’s not a bad idea, really, but if a male nipple can stop female body policing, perhaps those magical nipples can stop other pesky things that annoy us, too.

Problem #1: Donald Trump’s loud, racist mouth

Donald Trump has never exactly been a loveable, open-minded guy, but we really didn’t think he was this dumb. A few weeks ago, Trump decided to run for president. That’s fine. But during his announcement speech, he thought it would be a great idea to state that Mexico is sending the United States its rapists and criminals… frown face. And even now, a few weeks later, Trump still doesn’t get why his words were so terrible. We’re hoping if we slap one large nipple over his loud mouth, he’ll cease saying such stupid lies.

Problem #2: Bill Cosby’s drug handling fingers

For the past year (let’s be honest — for the past few decades), Cosby has been denying that he drugged and raped multiple women. This past week, documents from a civil lawsuit were leaked that proved that Cosby, in fact, admitted to “getting prescription Quaaludes to give to women he wanted to have sex with,” reports CNN. We’d love to slap 10 tiny male nipples all over Cosby’s fingers to stop him from dispensing another pill ever again.

Problem #3: That NYPD police officer’s dirty wang

So, apparently Michael Iscenko, a NYPD sergeant, found one of his co-workers attractive. No big deal, right? Office romances happen all the time! Well, this guy decided to show his attraction by splashing his semen on the woman he had a crush on… Ugh. Ew. Gross. No. We’d like to make sure this never happens again by placing nipples all over this guy’s penis (think of it as a nipple-based chastity belt).

Have you read about any incidents in the news that you’d like to make inoffensive by placing a male nipple on? If so, share in the comments.

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