NEWSMAKERS

NEWSMAKERS

Bill Cosby sues model over drugging claim

LOS ANGELES

Bill Cosby sued supermodel Beverly Johnson for defamation Monday, calling her a liar over her claims that the comedian drugged and attempted to sexually assault her in the 1980s.

Cosby’s lawsuit contends Johnson has been using the story to try to rekindle her career.

Johnson’s “false allegations against Mr. Cosby have been the centerpiece of her attempted resurgence and she has played them to the hilt, repeatedly and maliciously publishing the false accusations in articles, interviews and television appearances,” Cosby’s lawsuit states.

It seeks unspecified damages and an injunction preventing the model from repeating her claims that the comedian drugged her with a cappuccino in his New York home in the 1980s.

Obama does Seinfeld’s online talk show

HONOLULU

President Barack Obama will be Jerry Seinfeld’s first guest when the seventh season of his online talk show, “Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee,” opens Dec. 30.

The show features the New York comedian picking up fellow comics in classic cars and taking them out for coffee and conversation.

Obama and Seinfeld spoke at the White House earlier this month. The White House says they took turns circling the South Lawn in a 1963 Corvette Stingray split-window coupe before chatting over coffee in a basement dining room.

Tony-winning actress Patricia Elliott dies

NEW YORK

Patricia Elliott, who won a Tony Award on her Broadway debut, went on to star opposite David Bowie in “The Elephant Man” and spent 23 years aboard the TV soap opera “One Life to Live,” has died. She was 77.

Elliott died of cancer Sunday at her home in Manhattan, according to her niece, Sally Fay.

Elliott made her Broadway debut as Countess Charlotte Malcolm in the original production of Stephen Sondheim’s “A Little Night Music” and won the Tony for best featured actress in 1973.

Associated Press