A few days after Bill Cosby was booted from the Academy Of Motion Picture Arts And Sciences for being found guilty on sexual assault charges, the Kennedy Center has decided to rescind Cosby’s Kennedy Center Honors and Mark Twain Prize For American Humor. Cosby was awarded with the former in 1998 and the latter in 2009. This news comes from Variety, which also shared the following statement from the Kennedy Center:
The Honors and Mark Twain Prize are given to artists who, through their lifetime of work, have left an indelible impact on American culture. As a result of Mr. Cosby’s recent criminal conviction, the Board concluded that his actions have overshadowed the very career accomplishments these distinctions from the Kennedy Center intend to recognize.
This is a slightly more direct comment than what The Academy said last week, which was simply that Cosby (and Roman Polanski, who was also expelled) had failed to uphold the organization’s “values of respect for human dignity.” Late last month, Cosby was found guilty of three counts of aggravated indecent assault against Andrea Constand, a former employee of Temple University—which has also rescinded an honorary doctorate it had granted to Cosby.