A LOT AT STAKE
“The Incredible Jessica James” star (above) practices vampire slayer therapy. “Right now, there’s a divisiveness in this country that can feel very soul crushing,” she tells July’s Cosmopolitan magazine. “You have to take time to crawl into bed and watch reruns of ‘Buffy’ and realize that sometimes, that’s OK.”
Pa last-minute cancellation at Monday’s Public Theater Gala in Central Park. But the specter of sexual assault trial, which began earlier that day in suburban Philadelphia without Rashad in the courtroom, was on the mind of her associate
“I am crestfallen,” the “Key & Peele” star confessed. “He was my favorite.”
The 46-year-old actor (photo), who will perform in the Public Theater presentation of “Hamlet” while Rashad is doing “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” this summer, told us how much Bill Cosby meant to him as a kid.
“It does so many wonderful things to my heart when (some) 56-yearold man will say to me, ‘My son and I watch your show,’ ” he said. “That was me and my dad with Bill Cosby albums.”
He also says Cosby’s reversal of fortune raises the question whether audiences should separate artists from their real-life personas.
“In this case I personally don’t think you should,” he said.
Key calls it “egregious” that Cosby purported to be a symbol of morality now that he’s been accused of sexually assaulting dozens of women over the past half-century.
“It would be one thing if you were a rascal, really dirty around the edges and we also found out that you were a cad — no big deal,” he said. “But when you pretend to be the family man . . . and then you’re raping women?”
Cosby stands accused of violating nearly 60 women, but he has not been convicted of any crimes. Key expects that to change.
“My assumption is that he’ll be (found) guilty,” Key said. Whatever the verdict, Key says what’s happened already “breaks my heart.”
“Even if justice is served, we were still betrayed and there’s my downer quote for the day,” he said.
Rashad, who played Cosby’s on-screen wife, Clair Huxtable, from 1984 to 1992 on “The Cosby Show,” has not been present for the opening days of the embattled comic’s trial. Neither has Cosby’s real-wife,