WME Wants Out Of Bill Cosby 1971 Sexual Assault Case

deadline.com:

William Morris Endeavor want nothing to do with Billy Cosby or a sexual assault case against the much-accused comedian. In paperwork filed in LA Superior Court yesterday, WME asserted that they should not be a co-defendant in Linda Ridgway-Whitedeer’s claims that the man once known as “America’s Dad” forced her to perform oral sex on him back in 1971.

Having first went public with the alleged assault in 2015 as dozens of women came forward against Cosby, the plaintiff’s civil suit of September this year says that “at the time of the sexual assault, the William Morris Agency knew, or should have had knowledge of Defendant’s repeated acts of sexual assault.” Now, the agency that Ari Emanual and Patrick Whitesell created out of the 2009 melding of William Morris and Endeavour proclaims they had “no control” over what did or did not happen 52 years ago. “Pursuant to California Code of Civil Procedure …WME denies, both generally and specifically, each and every allegation contained in Plaintiff’s Complaint, and the whole thereof, and each and every alleged cause of action thereof,” the November 15 filed four-page answer to complaint, which you can read here, states “WME further denies that Plaintiff has been damaged in any sum whatsoever or is entitled to any relief of any kind against WME, in this action or otherwise.” In her initial complaint of September 12, Ridgway-Whitedeer details how fellow William Morris client Cosby distinctly requested her in 1971 to audition personally with him for a role in his Robert Culp co-starring Hickey and Boggs film.

It was in an “empty director’s office” in an LA studio with a “closed door” that the alleged assault occurred, quickly and ruthlessly it seems. “Plaintiff, unable to