NEW YORK, Jan. 8 (UPI) -- Actress Phylicia Rashad says she was misquoted in a entertainment column printed Tuesday, claiming she never said "forget these women" in regard to Bill Cosby's sexual assault accusers.
"Forget these women," Rashad is quoted as saying to ShowBiz411's Roger Friedman during a promotional lunch for the film Selma.
"What you're seeing is the destruction of a legacy. And I think it's orchestrated. I don't know why or who's doing it, but it's the legacy. And it's a legacy that is so important to the culture ...Someone is determined to keep Bill Cosby off TV. And it's worked. All his contracts have been cancelled."
Rashad did not say her entire statement was falsely reported, only the phrase "forget these women."
"That is not what I said," Rashad told ABC News.
"What I said is, 'this is not about the women. This is about something else. This is about the obliteration of legacy.'"
"I did not misquote Phylicia Rashad," asserts Friedman on ShowBiz411.
"There was never the meaning in 'Forget those women' that she was saying to actually forget or dismiss then. She meant, 'those women aside' -- as in, she's not talking about that, she's talking about Cosby's legacy being destroyed. It was conversational."
Friedman removed the offending portion of Rashad's statements from his initial article.
Rashad's clarified comments come on the heels of three additional Cosby accusers coming forward. Attorney Gloria Allred condmened Rashad upon introducing her clients
"Phylicia, you should be supporting these women," Allred said.
"Phylicia, if anyone did to you or to your daughter, your sister or or your mother, what Cosby is alleged to have done to these women, I have no doubt that you would not be saying forget these women."
