Wednesday Morning

Okay, we have more tales from women who say they were raped by Bill Cosby, more attacks on the accusers' credibility and a lot of really clueless, insensitive comments about rape from people who oughta know better and don't. And still silence from the Cosby camp. So how long do we think he's going to be able to get away with this? The man has a series of concert appearances booked — one or two most weekends for months to come. I assume the two went on without incident or we'd have heard. At some point, they're going to begin getting disrupted or boycotted or even canceled because of these charges.

I'm still glowing a bit from last night's John Cleese/Eric Idle presentation. What a pleasure to sit in what was clearly a very smart, well-informed audience and listed to two smart, clever men speak with great wit and obvious affection for each other. Years ago, I attended a similar conversation in which Mr. Cleese interviewed William Goldman. I wish there was a place on TV for a weekly hour like this and I don't necessarily mean with John Cleese or Eric Idle as host, though either would be smashing. I mean a place where there could be discussions between bright people who were talking about something other than their current product. Jon Stewart occasionally has such chats and there are many podcasts…but podcasts usually lack what was a vital part of last night's event: A live (and smart) studio audience.

One of these days, I will probably have a long post here about one of my pet topics: Creative people being asked to create for little or no money. I am amazed sometimes at the insensitivity some have to the fact that folks who write, draw, act (etc.) do have to pay mortgages, buy groceries, deal with emergencies and so forth. If the creative person is largely unknown, there's the assumption that the exposure and having their work seen should be reward enough. If the creative person is well-known and established, there's the (often erroneous) assumption that they must be flush with cash so they can afford to do freebees. I'll write more about this soon but in the meantime, you might want to read what happened when a hula-hooping wonder named Revolva was asked to work for free…by Oprah Winfrey's company. We all know how Oprah can't afford to pay people.