LOUISA MORITZ - SHE BLEW THE WHISTLE ON COSBY

Louisa Moritz has died at the age of 72.

There was Charo. There was Carol Wayne. Then, trying her best to get a passing grade beyond D-list, was Louisa Moritz.

As Moms Mabley used to say, "Say something good about the dead." You know the punchline to that one.

Let's not be Mabley about it, or Rufus Griswold (who penned the notoriously mean obit on his "friend" Poe). Let's be kind and say that Louisa was amusing in her various bimbo appearances. She knowingly followed the footsteps and bra straps of various others who played it blonde and dizzy. Original Louisa Castro, she re-named herself after the St. Moritz Hotel in New York.

She played whores in "The Man from ORGY" (1970) and "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" (1975) and "Sixpack Annie" (1975). She played a variety of other sluts and bimbos and airheads in films and on TV, and frankly, if the #metoo bunch had any clout, Moritz would be considered to women what Stepin Fetchit is to Blacks. An offensive stereotype. Except Moritz appealed not just to people who like denigration in their comedy, she appealed to all men who like to see a woman dress trashy and it doesn't matter if she makes them feel like LAUGHING or feel like doing something else.

Moritz was fun in some of these silly minor TV appearances. It takes some talent to, in Woody Allen's phrase complimenting Art Carney's Ed Nortion role, "play stupid." The actress attended the University of West Los Angeles, and claimed to have become an attorney who only PLAYED the fool for the cameras. As she said, "There are a lot of people out there trying to get anything, and if you're getting dumb blonde roles, hey, it's okay." Apparently as her looks faded, she relied on her legal training to make a living...with some memorabilia show appearances on the side.

The Latina blonde bombshell didn't quite make it to the exalted level of being known for saying "Coochie Coochie," ala Charo. On April Fools Day, 1969, she made her first appearance on Carson's "Tonight Show." Could she become Art Fern's permanent Matinee Lady? Well, she wasn't exactly Carol Wayne or Teresa Ganzel. Neil Simon and Jack Lemmon were the main guests. She turned up exactly four times after that. She appeared once more in 1969 when Joe Namath guest hosted (she was eye candy on a short-lived show Namath starred in). She turned up three times in 1971. Joey Bishop guest hosted (July 23). A month later (August 23rd) Johnny hosted and lothario Bob Crane was the main guest. On August 26th, with Joey Bishop guest-hosting again, she appeared along with Cliff Gorman and Kreskin.

Bill Cosby was not a guest on any of that handful of shows Moritz appeared on.

However, she contended that Cosby was hanging around "The Tonight Show" during one of those five tapings. Here's how she recalled it as quoted in US magazine:

What Cosby allegedly did was not any more arrogant or presumptuous than what dozens of other big stars did at the time, and presumably, are only NOW beginning to stop doing. He pushed his, uh, weight around.

Had Moritz ever been chased around a casting couch? Caught over and over? How did she break into show business playing prostitutes? How many times did she happily give it up because a producer, director or star suggested it might help her career? She didn't answer those questions when she joined the publicity parade against Cosby. Was it because it would've made her seem a tad trampy?

Playing the victim is one thing. Being the victim is another. In too many cases, in or out of show biz, the male has locked the door and there's nobody who will hear a sound. Or, the male has played a game with liquor or drugs. Or, a "consensual" encounter went wrong.

This incident happened in the green room of "The Tonight Show," and presumably, Moritz could have backed off, opened the door, told Cosby she had a cold sore, or done any number of things besides servicing him for a few moments.

If you believe her story, and there's no reason why one shouldn't, Cosby, a veteran of the Playboy mansion, and of women throwing themselves at him, was being dismissive and obnoxious. But it wasn't exactly non-consensual.

Women do know how to deal with men's advances. Not every actress has said YES to every film director or TV star, even when behind closed doors and under the familiar threat of "you'll never work in this town." Not every woman who has been the unfortunate victim of a flasher, has dropped her jaw and stayed put for abuse.

One reason Moritz's story wasn't reported all that often in the press, is that she was a professional actress who had played tawdry roles way too often. When the Cosby accusers began to line up, it was mostly women with serious complaints of being given pills without their knowledge. Some of the women were not in show business at all, just flattered at Cosby paying attention to them, or conducting business and not expecting a social drink to lead to a dimly remembered but peculiar morning after.

It's quite likely that some of the Cosby accusers did not welcome the added distractions of Moritz and a few other faded D-listers who seemed to be looking for publicity and a cash settlement to go away. At the time, the ex-actress was selling her autograph at dubious minor memorabilia shows, lucky to find some hapless drooling geek who remembered her in a movie and wanted to pay her $20 to sign a picture. Hopefully it wasn't just the money, but also the feel-good of being remembered, that made Moritz come back to these shows time and again.

Reporters who sighed and wrote up Moritz's rather sad little anecdote might have better spent their time investigating the death of Carol Wayne, which seemed to be a lot less consensual. Murder, in fact. Or they could've stayed with the chronicles of the more credible women who weren't just huffing about being mistreated by a swell-headed big-time star, but pointing out allegations that involved no consent at all.

In the end, the obits on Moritz have concentrated on her being a prostitute in one famous film, "Cuckoo's Nest," playing a bimbo in a Cheech & Chong movie, and for a jaw-dropping bit of foolishness that she did not, for even a second, find offensive enough to protest. Usually, when a man exposes himself, a woman doesn't just nod her head and do whatever else he wants. Blaming men in power for taking advantage, or being selfish, denies what happened when Marie Antoinette was in power, or Countess Bathory or Imelda Marcos. It's sadly a part of human nature that any boss, either gender, can be a bastard or a bitch.

UPDATE

Sure enough, Louisa made the front page...because of the Cosby allegation. Is it surprising that some cynics think that some crime reports are done to gain publicity and attention? Moritz was forgotten until she came forward to remind people she was still alive. The Daily News offered a minor nod to one of her few (small) roles in a movie anyone heard of.