Why Loretta Devine says she’d still go to Bill Cosby’s stand-up show

The Carmichael Show took on the Bill Cosby scandal this season, tackling an issue the public faces whenever presented with an artist celebrated professionally despite allegations of reprehensible personal behavior — think Woody Allen, Roman Polanski and even Chris Brown.

Cosby, a trailblazer for black actors and comedians, stands accused of sexually assaulting more than 50 women. (He’s denied their claims.) The episode dealt with the question of whether it’s shameful to still watch Cosby Show re-runs or see him perform, and star Loretta Divine revealed it was a hard one for her to weigh.

“The moral of the whole thing is that talent trumps morals,” she said Thursday on Dirty, Sexy, Funny with Jenny McCarthy. “That’s what Jerrod [Carmichael] was dealing with in that. He’s saying that if you have talent, what you do as a person is not as valuable. So we still listen to Michael Jackson, although what was said that he was accused of. We still see Woody Allen movies, because talent is more important in this country than what we do.”

So would Devine attend a Cosby performance?

“I probably would go, because I want to see him again,” she admitted.

Devine, 66, also remembered working with another show business icon, Whitney Houston, in the 1995 film Waiting to Exhale.

“She’s so down-to-earth, so regular. At that time, Bobbi Kristina was hanging on her leg and following mommy around,” Devine said, referring to the late singer’s daughter, who died last July after being found comatose in a bathtub that January. “Whitney was the kind of person that she sings without knowing she’s singing. Whenever we took a five-minute break, she would be singing or humming. Very down-to-earth, very playful. I loved her.”

Dirty, Sexy, Funny with Jenny McCarthy airs weekdays from 10 am to 12 pm ET on SiriusXM Stars (Ch. 109).

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