The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Steve, Vikki teaming up again, and you’re invited
Longtime local broadcasters Steve McCoy and Vikki Locke, who woke up Atlantans and kept them company on their commutes for decades, are teaming up once again for a live event tonight — and they’d love to see you there.
Salt Factory Pub, with locations in Roswell, Alpharetta and Woodstock, is launching a yearlong fundraising effort to benefit area nonprofits starting with Team Fox, the foundation actor Michael J. Fox started to raise money for Parkinson’s disease research. Like Fox, McCoy has been diagnosed with Parkinson’s.
With medications keeping his symptoms managed, McCoy stays busy doing voice-over work, and he, Locke and their former Star 94 cohort Tom Sullivan produce a regular podcast. All three will be at the Salt Factory at 102 S. Main St. in Alpharetta from 6 to 8 p.m. tonight, and we have a feeling the evening will provide plenty of fodder for a future episode.
All three Salt Factory locations will donate a portion of proceeds throughout the month to Team Fox. Other charitable recipients will be named soon.
“I believe that by giving back, you can make a difference,” restaurant group owner Hicham Azhari said.
‘Cosby kid’ offers support
Bill Cosby’s television daughter, Atlanta actress Keshia Knight Pulliam, walked arm-in-arm with him into a Pennsylvania courthouse on Monday. He’s letting everyone know how much he appreciates the support.
“Thank you to Cliff and Claire’s 4-year-old daughter( Rudy) and the brilliant Spelman alumnus,” Cosby’s verified Twitter account posted following the day’s proceedings. That was followed by a three-hashtag post saying simply, “#TheCosbyShow, #KeishaKnightPulliam (sic) and #CameToCourtToHearTheTruth.”
Pulliam, now a new mom herself, played little Rudy on “The Cosby Show” as a child.
Spelman severed its ties with Cosby in 2015 as allegations of assault began piling up, the AJC’s Ariel Hart reported.
Like Pulliam, two of Cosby’s daughters attended Spelman, and Cosby and his wife, Camille, donated $20 million in the late 1980s – the largest-ever personal gift to a historically black college or university at the time. It helped fund a new academic center housing state-of-the art classrooms, labs and a fine arts museum; as well as the endowed professorship.
Spelman canceled the professorship and returned the money.
Pulliam’s television brother Malcolm-Jamal Warner, known as Theo Huxtable on the popular sitcom, has been more muted in his response.
“I think what was more difficult was to separate the headlines from the headlines. The media paints a certain picture that if you don’t do due diligence and actually spend time looking through the stories that are being told, you are just going on what you’re being spoon-fed,” he said during a 2016 interview with “Extra.” “I’m neither defending him nor throwing him under the bus, I’m looking at the media’s role and how the media forms public opinion.”
During an appearance on “The Real” last year, Warner complained that Cosby’s legal woes were having an economic ripple effect on him.
“It’s literally taking money out of my pocket,” Warner said, as “Cosby Show” reruns had been yanked off the air. “It personally affects me.”
(They’ve since returned to the airwaves.)
Cosby, 79, is standing trial on the accusation he assaulted Temple University employee Andrea Constand in 2004. He has entered a not-guilty plea and said during a radio interview on the eve of jury selection he did not expect to testify during the trial.