Nicki keeps a promise
The singer donated to ‘Cosby Show’ actor for a ‘great cause’
Hip-hop star Nicki Minaj, who has been spending time in the UAE this past week, has made good on her promise to donate $25,000 (Dh91,812) to The Cosby Show actor Geoffrey Owens after he was photographed — and job-shamed online — while working at a Trader Joe’s store last month. And Owens paid it forward.
The actor, best known for playing optimist Elvin Tibideaux, donated the money to the Actors Fund in memory of screen and stage veteran Earle Hyman, who played Cliff Huxtable’s father, Russell, on the 1980s sitcom.
Hyman, who died in 2017, “lived his last many years and died at the Actors Home, funded and run by the Actors Fund,” Owens said in a statement to The Times on Wednesday.
“I am extremely grateful to Nicki Minaj for enabling struggling actors to continue pursuing their dreams,” Owens, 57, said.
“I’m happy to be a part of a great cause,” Minaj said in a statement issued through Owens’ team. “I wish Geoffrey much success and want him to know how loved he is. Rest in Peace to Earle Hyman.”
The Actors Fund will use the donation to “provide essential programmes and services to thousands of entertainment and performing arts professionals in need across the country,” according to Brian Stokes Mitchell, chairman of the Actors Fund. Mitchell also said he was “greatly humbled and truly inspired that Geoffrey and Nicki would take action to help their colleagues when they need it most.”