BILL COSBY – the beloved sitcom father figure who battled shocking charges he has an illegitimate daughter – is making a TV movie in which his character fathers a love child.
It’s a bizarre project for the 62-year-old comedy king, who admitted that in ’70s, he two-timed his longtime wife, Camille.
That affair exploded in Cosby’s face three years ago, when a young woman named Autumn Jackson claimed that she was his secret daughter from the tryst – and would bare all unless he paid her off.
The validity of Jackson’s claim was never determined, and she served time on an extortion conviction. But the public airing of charges has been an ongoing thorn in the side of the veteran funnyman.
In his new movie, to be aired on cable channel TNT later this year, Cosby portrays Gordon Dicks, a jazz musician described as “a confirmed bachelor as devoted to his free lifestyle as he is to his jazz career.”
According to the TNT plot summary, “Gordon’s life takes a surprising turn when he discovers that a brief love affair he had while in Vietnam resulted in a daughter he never knew existed.”
He travels to Italy for a dramatic first meeting with her, a trip that “inspires him to take chances in life and love that he previously hadn’t dared.”
Cosby not only stars in the still-to-be-titled flick, he also co-wrote it and is an executive producer.
The TV legend, whose most recent sitcom – CBS’s “Cosby” – was canceled after a four-year run, stunned fans by admitting he had cheated on his wife.
His confession came after Jackson approached Cosby, insisted she was his love child and demanded $40 million to keep her story out of the tabloids.
Cosby admitted the woman with whom he had a tryst was Jackson’s mom, but denied he was Autumn’s dad. He also acknowledged he had been providing some financial support for Jackson.
The Jackson case was doubly painful for Cosby because, on the same day she demanded the money, his 27-year-old son, Ennis, was shot dead in a botched robbery on a Los Angeles highway.
Cosby spokesman David Brokaw said there is “absolutely no connection” between Cosby’s script and his personal life.
“He first came up with this idea 30 years ago … so this is a story that has been on his mind four years longer than she’s been alive,” Brokaw said, referring to Jackson. “It has nothing to do with her.”
Cosby was in the Big Apple yesterday to give the commencement speech at the Fashion Institute of Technology’s graduation ceremony at Radio City Music Hall.
The cigar-chomping entertainer – who picked up an honorary degree – told the 2,700 robed grads that most would soon be starting internships at prestigious firms.
“‘Intern’ is French for ‘slave,'” he quipped.
Cosby, who starred in the long-running NBC smash “The Cosby Show,” began as a standup comedian and rocketed to fame in the ’60s as a wisecracking spy on TV’s “I Spy.”