Bill Cosby used to be Richard Pryor's mentor... until Pryor made a clean break from the Cosby school of comedy in the '70s. “They always say ‘be clean,'" Pryor told an interviewer around that time. "They want you to be something that really doesn’t exist at all.”
Today, speaking on the podcast Allison Rosen is Your New Best Friend, Jennifer Lee Pryor, who was married to Richard for two different periods of his life, called Bill Cosby "a hypocrite" because he always accused Richard of being vulgar, and looked down on him for using profanity in his act. She defended her husband before slamming Cosby: "Richard was dirty on the outside, but he was a good person... He was clean on the inside."
Pryor laid into Cosby, saying:
"He hated Richard, because Richard worked dirty; Bill worked clean. … Bill’s just a fucking hypocrite, and dirty on the inside. It was a well-kept secret that Bill fucked everything that moved. This kind of shit that we’re finding out about is beyond. I wasn’t aware of this kind of business. There are people in the business who were aware of it, and they’re coming out now too. There are 34 women who have stepped forward."
Rosen then asked if Cosby's wife since 1964, Camille, could've known about her husband's many (alleged) rapes and sexual assaults. "Of course she knew," Pryor responded. "Why is she going for the 'okie-doke,' as Richard would say? That's anybody's guess. I can guess why—ka-ching," she said, making a cash register sound.
Pryor also praised Hannibal Buress for telling the touchy joke about Cosby that actually got a ton of attention and led to more women coming forward in 2014. "Hats off to him. It's never cool to bring a black icon down," Pryor said.
As reported earlier today, another chunk of Pryor's interview was about the Richard Pryor biopic that's been in development for more than five years, and is just now finally getting made. Mike Epps is set to play Richard, and Kate Hudson is playing Jennifer Lee, while Lee Daniels has confirmed that he'll direct, stating that shooting will start in March.
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