Bill Cosby has been named this year’s recipient of the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor.
The 71-year-old actor, comedian and activist will receive the award at the Kennedy Center’s Concert Hall on Oct. 26, where he will be saluted by other huge names in comedy.
Kennedy Centre chairman Stephen Schwartzman lauded Cosby’s “groundbreaking brand of humor” in a statement released Wednesday.
The patterned sweaters that Bill Cosby famously donned on “The Cosby Show” will be auctioned off next month, with proceeds going to charity.
Three of Dr. Heathcliff Huxtable’s multicoloured sweaters will be sold on eBay’s Giving Works charity listing arm from June 2 to 12, with opening bids starting at $5,000 US per item.
Proceeds will go to the Hello Friend/Ennis William Cosby Foundation, a non-profit educational organization that the actor and his family set up in memory of Cosby’s son Ennis, who was murdered in 1997.
“My mother and father were going through a storage closet, and I happened to be there and pounced on these sweaters,” daughter Evin Cosby, who is a board member of Hello Friend, said in a statement.
“I told them that the price of what some of these sweaters might sell for could make a big difference in the lives of thousands of children.”
“The Cosby Show” was one of the most popular sitcoms on U.S. television when it aired from 1984 to 1992, even spawning a successful spin-off show, “A Different World.”
Bill Cosby has settled a civil suit with a woman who said the comic drugged and sexually assaulted her at his home near Philadelphia.
The specific terms of the settlement will stay confidential, says Cosby’s publicist.
The woman, from Toronto, claimed the assault happened after he gave her pills. Cosby’s attorneys reported he gave her Benadryl after she complained she couldn’t sleep. The alleged assault happened in 2004, when she was working at Temple University, Cosby’s alma matter.
The woman waited a year before going to the police, though local police refused to file criminal charges.
