Cosby releases audio to back up book claims

NEW YORK - Days after a Bahamian spokesperson for Anna Nicole Smith’s former nannies accused “Blonde Ambition” author Rita Cosby of attempting to bribe him and his clients, the journalist defended herself by releasing an alleged audio interview with the spokesperson.

In the tape, released to Access Hollywood, Cosby is heard talking with a man identified as “Lincoln.” Cosby said that voice on the tape is Lincoln Bain, the representative for Smith’s former nannies, Quethlie Alexis and Nadine Alexie.

On the recording, Bain tells Cosby that the nannies claimed to have witnessed Smith watching a video of an alleged sexual encounter between Smith’s longtime companion, Howard K. Stern, and Larry Birkhead.

“Can I just ask you then, again just off the record too, was it just Nadine who saw it or was it both of them who saw it?” Cosby asks Bain in the conversation, which she says was recorded on September 8, 2007.

“I think it was just Nadine,” Bain replies. “I can let them confirm with you tomorrow, but I know for sure that Nadine saw it.”

During the recording, Cosby then asks Bain when he first heard about the tape. Though he says he can’t remember the date, Bain implicates the nannies’ lawyer, Elizabeth Thompson, suggesting she was aware her clients had seen a tape.

“I don’t remember the exact date at this time, but I have notes and the lawyer has notes and the lawyer can say the exact date, but they were about to do an affidavit,” he says.

However, Thompson said the nannies have not seen such a tape.

“Despite what might be on this audio tape that purports to be a conversation between Rita Cosby and Lincoln Bain, the two nannies have not seen a tape in which that they can confirm that Howard and Larry appear in it,” she told Access Hollywood on Sunday.

On Cosby’s tape, Bain is heard saying he firmly believes in the truthfulness of the nannies.

“From everything I’ve seen from (them), I would believe anything they say because they ... refuse to lie about anything,” he tells Cosby.

“They would not stretch anything,” he continued. “If anything was being reported and it wasn’t totally accurate they would correct it right then. They refuse to lie about anything, so based on my experience with them, I believe them.”

On Sunday, Bain told Access Hollywood, he believed Cosby’s tape was “doctored.”

“I strongly, without question, believe Rita’s tapes are doctored. They are edited pieces of several different conversations she and I had at different times. I can tell by the different background levels on the audio,” he said. “She is trying to confuse the facts of the matter. This is another in the slew of lies by Rita Cosby who is trying to muddy the waters.”

Cosby’s release of the tape followed appearances by Bain on several media outlets earlier this week including Fox News Channel’s “On The Record With Greta Van Susteren.” During that interview, Bain claimed Cosby called him recently in an attempt to secure a meeting with the nannies.

“I recorded this phone call between myself and Lincoln Bain, the spokesman for the nannies, on September 8, 2007. I was in New York, he was in the Bahamas. At the time, I had not planned on releasing this, but in light of what Lincoln Bain now has said on the air, I feel obliged to release this evidence,” Cosby said in a statement.

Cosby was recently hit by Stern with a $60 million lawsuit, accusing the writer of libeling him in her book. As part of his libel claim, Stern has denied a host of allegations from her book including the alleged encounter with Birkhead.

“Totally false. Totally false,” Stern told Larry King last week.

Birkhead has also denied the allegations.

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