Disgraced actor Bill Cosby at one time was the highest-paid television actor in Hollywood. His base salary for his iconic TV show “The Cosby Show” was widely reported to be $1 million per episode.
He also owned 20 percent of the long-running show, according to Celebrity Net Worth. Today, the former actor and comedian is still being reported as worth an estimated $400 million, even after having spent three years in prison for drugging and sexually assaulting Andrea Constand in 2004. He had been sentenced to 10 years in 2018, but was released on June 30, 2021. Constand was one of 60 women who accused Cosby of sexual misconduct.
Since his arrest in 2015 and his subsequent incarceration, Cosby’s legal fees have piled up. Now that he is out, people are demanding their money. Late last month, a jury has ordered Cosby, 84, to pay one of the victim of sexual assault $500,000.
Judy Huth said Cosby sexually assaulted her in the 1970s when when was 16. He successfully sued the man once called “America’s Dad.” In the civil trial, the jury found that he had sexually abused Huth, now 64, in 1975 at the Playboy Mansion. Although he was orded to pay half a million dollars, Huth was awarded no punitive damages, which Cosby’s team called an “astonishing victory.”
Such a judgment is unlikely to materially affect Cosby’s fortune, even after his legal fees are taken into account. The comedian, who has seen his revenue stream from syndication of his shows drastically reduced since the sexual misconduct claims against him became widely known, nevertheless is thought to have retained assets that include an artwork collection and a real estate portfolio worth more than $100 million.
Cosby’s spokesperson Andrew Wyatt said his attorney, Jennifer Bonjean, will appeal the verdict and Huth will “never receive a payday,” Variety reported.
Wyatt said: “If the jurors had awarded punitive damages to Judy Huth it would have been in the range of $10 million-plus, which would have been a devastating loss to our legal efforts and the Cosby family.”
But Huth isn’t the only trying to get money from Cosby. One of his former law firms, said Cosby still owes over $2.75 million in legal fees.
Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan, of Los Angeles, claimed in 2021, that Cosby still hasn’t paid $2.75 million in legal bills that a judge ordered the comedian to pay. The firm has filed another lawsuit.
The lawsuit, filed in Manhattan Supreme Court, said the firm is still owed the money after a judge ordered Cosby to pay, Page Six reported.
The firm also wants 10 percent interest, pushing the amount they say they are owned to $2.98 million.
