dawsonrawson
10-09-07, - 12:35 PM
The Guardian reported this story below this morning as did the Tribune which headlined with the story. I just checked the AP and again this story is on the wire. What was Rita thinkin' mannnnnn!!! She take on who????? ROTFL
10/09/07
By N. THOMAS-BROWN, Guardian Staff Reporter
nadine@nasguard.com
The credibility of a book on the life of Anna Nicole Smith, written by former MSNBC correspondent Rita Cosby, has been called into question by two nannies from The Bahamas. They claim that the book "Blonde Ambition: The Untold Story Behind Anna Nicole Smith's Death", is filled with inconsistencies.
Furthermore the nannies, Nadine Alexie and Quethelie Alexis, also claimed that Cosby had never contacted them to get their permission to be used as sources for the book.
Cosby, who is in The Bahamas this week, said that she never spoke to the nannies but stands by her book, "which also attributes the claim of a sexual encounter to a friend of Smith's," according to the Associated Press.
"We have a number of sources," she said. "We have it attributed directly to a private investigator who specifically said that."
Yesterday the lawyer for the two women, Elizabeth Thompson, said that Cosby came to the Bahamas on Sunday, in a bid to get them to validate the book and testify against Howard Stern in
an upcoming lawsuit he filed in the United States, in response to allegations made in the book against him and Larry Birkhead, the father of Smith's toddler. The lawyer claimed the women had also been offered $15,000 by Cosby.
"We were asked to provide Ms. Cosby some information for the nannies to support the book. She had not spoken with the nannies before she wrote the book. She admitted that. I asked her, so you are here to validate the book? She said yes among other things.
Thompson said that when they were initially contacted by Cosby, they told her that there were inconsistencies in the book and that they were not prepared to discuss anything on the telephone. "She then came to (The Bahamas) to speak with us. No one invited her here. She decided that she was coming to speak with us."
Cosby told the AP that she was hoping to speak to the nannies while in The Bahamas.
"It was obvious that they were not readily accessible and we thought it was important to come down here and speak," she said.
In the interim the attorney for the two nannies said that they have not yet decided whether Alexie or Alexis will take action against Cosby.
The nannies said they have spoken with a private investigator who they believed was working for an attorney for Smith's mother. But they never mentioned any alleged encounter between Birkhead and Stern, Thompson said in a meeting with several reporters in Nassau.
The nannies are Haitian immigrants who worked at the gated, waterfront home shared by Stern and Smith.
Smith died of an accidental drug overdose in Florida in February at age 39. Stern, who had been living in The Bahamas with the former model, initially claimed to have fathered Smith's young daughter, Dannielynn, but Birkhead eventually proved he was the father.
Meanwhile media personality Lincoln Bain, host of local program Controversy TV and public relations person for the nannies, alleged that he had engaged in over 63 taped conversations with Rita Cosby in which she had tried to get him to convince Smith's nannies to validate the book and testify against Stern.
"Cosby contacted me and asked if I knew about the book she had written. She said that she only had one issue and this was that she had not spoken to the nannies yet," Bain said. He added that she also asked him to set up a meeting with the two women and told him she wanted to appear on his popular cable show, Controversy TV.
Bain said the nannies refused to accept any offers from Cosby, who flew to The Bahamas from New York accompanied by a man she identified as her publisher.
Bain said that after Cosby arrived she invited him to a meeting, during which she offered to pay the nannies $15,000. "She said that the money could not appear to come through her, because it would make her look bad as a journalist. She said that she was going to let her publisher arrange with some of her friends from a magazine to pay them." Bain also alleged that Cosby claimed that her publisher was prepared to offer the women a book deal.
However, at a meeting with the media later, Cosby denied that she planned to pay the nannies a dime. She said that she had come to the Bahamas because she had been told that there were affidavits that supported certain allegations in her book. She said that her publisher could arrange a $15,000 interview between the nannies and a US entertainment magazine, but as far as he was concerned she was paying them nothing.
Things came to a head Sunday, after Cosby and Bain got into a physical altercation at the Sandals Resort on Cable Beach when Bain took a tape from Cosby's publisher. "When Rita realized that I was not falling for the money I think she and her publisher were trying to set me up so if any of this came to light, it would make me look as if I was trying to
get money from them."
Bain said he grabbed the tape from the publisher, which resulted in Cosby jumping on his back, tearing his shirt and clawing his flesh for the tape which, she claimed was actually a cellphone. The Guardian was made privy to a conversation taped at the scene. The tape clearly records sounds of a scuffle and Cosby asking repeatedly for the tape recorder. She was also heard offering Bain a magazine deal after he
informed them that every conversation they had with him concerning the nannies had been recorded.
Thompson, who is also Bain's lawyer, told The Guardian that she had heard about the fight.
"The police were called and I was called. By the time I got down there everyone had gone," she said.
In the meantime phone calls to Cosby were not answered up to press time.
10/09/07
By N. THOMAS-BROWN, Guardian Staff Reporter
nadine@nasguard.com
The credibility of a book on the life of Anna Nicole Smith, written by former MSNBC correspondent Rita Cosby, has been called into question by two nannies from The Bahamas. They claim that the book "Blonde Ambition: The Untold Story Behind Anna Nicole Smith's Death", is filled with inconsistencies.
Furthermore the nannies, Nadine Alexie and Quethelie Alexis, also claimed that Cosby had never contacted them to get their permission to be used as sources for the book.
Cosby, who is in The Bahamas this week, said that she never spoke to the nannies but stands by her book, "which also attributes the claim of a sexual encounter to a friend of Smith's," according to the Associated Press.
"We have a number of sources," she said. "We have it attributed directly to a private investigator who specifically said that."
Yesterday the lawyer for the two women, Elizabeth Thompson, said that Cosby came to the Bahamas on Sunday, in a bid to get them to validate the book and testify against Howard Stern in
an upcoming lawsuit he filed in the United States, in response to allegations made in the book against him and Larry Birkhead, the father of Smith's toddler. The lawyer claimed the women had also been offered $15,000 by Cosby.
"We were asked to provide Ms. Cosby some information for the nannies to support the book. She had not spoken with the nannies before she wrote the book. She admitted that. I asked her, so you are here to validate the book? She said yes among other things.
Thompson said that when they were initially contacted by Cosby, they told her that there were inconsistencies in the book and that they were not prepared to discuss anything on the telephone. "She then came to (The Bahamas) to speak with us. No one invited her here. She decided that she was coming to speak with us."
Cosby told the AP that she was hoping to speak to the nannies while in The Bahamas.
"It was obvious that they were not readily accessible and we thought it was important to come down here and speak," she said.
In the interim the attorney for the two nannies said that they have not yet decided whether Alexie or Alexis will take action against Cosby.
The nannies said they have spoken with a private investigator who they believed was working for an attorney for Smith's mother. But they never mentioned any alleged encounter between Birkhead and Stern, Thompson said in a meeting with several reporters in Nassau.
The nannies are Haitian immigrants who worked at the gated, waterfront home shared by Stern and Smith.
Smith died of an accidental drug overdose in Florida in February at age 39. Stern, who had been living in The Bahamas with the former model, initially claimed to have fathered Smith's young daughter, Dannielynn, but Birkhead eventually proved he was the father.
Meanwhile media personality Lincoln Bain, host of local program Controversy TV and public relations person for the nannies, alleged that he had engaged in over 63 taped conversations with Rita Cosby in which she had tried to get him to convince Smith's nannies to validate the book and testify against Stern.
"Cosby contacted me and asked if I knew about the book she had written. She said that she only had one issue and this was that she had not spoken to the nannies yet," Bain said. He added that she also asked him to set up a meeting with the two women and told him she wanted to appear on his popular cable show, Controversy TV.
Bain said the nannies refused to accept any offers from Cosby, who flew to The Bahamas from New York accompanied by a man she identified as her publisher.
Bain said that after Cosby arrived she invited him to a meeting, during which she offered to pay the nannies $15,000. "She said that the money could not appear to come through her, because it would make her look bad as a journalist. She said that she was going to let her publisher arrange with some of her friends from a magazine to pay them." Bain also alleged that Cosby claimed that her publisher was prepared to offer the women a book deal.
However, at a meeting with the media later, Cosby denied that she planned to pay the nannies a dime. She said that she had come to the Bahamas because she had been told that there were affidavits that supported certain allegations in her book. She said that her publisher could arrange a $15,000 interview between the nannies and a US entertainment magazine, but as far as he was concerned she was paying them nothing.
Things came to a head Sunday, after Cosby and Bain got into a physical altercation at the Sandals Resort on Cable Beach when Bain took a tape from Cosby's publisher. "When Rita realized that I was not falling for the money I think she and her publisher were trying to set me up so if any of this came to light, it would make me look as if I was trying to
get money from them."
Bain said he grabbed the tape from the publisher, which resulted in Cosby jumping on his back, tearing his shirt and clawing his flesh for the tape which, she claimed was actually a cellphone. The Guardian was made privy to a conversation taped at the scene. The tape clearly records sounds of a scuffle and Cosby asking repeatedly for the tape recorder. She was also heard offering Bain a magazine deal after he
informed them that every conversation they had with him concerning the nannies had been recorded.
Thompson, who is also Bain's lawyer, told The Guardian that she had heard about the fight.
"The police were called and I was called. By the time I got down there everyone had gone," she said.
In the meantime phone calls to Cosby were not answered up to press time.