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– Greetings and thanks so much for joining us for this PJTV special, the top celebrity scandals of the year. I'm your host, John Phillips. Joining me here in studio is PJTV contributor and stand-up comic, Stephen Kruiser. Right next to him is the very fair-minded civil rights defense attorney, Leo Terrell. Today we're talking about our picks for the biggest celebrity scandals of the year, and Stephen Kruiser, you're up first. – My top celebrity scandal of the year is the one I didn't want to be true, as a comic, obviously, it's the Bill Cosby story. Even though nothing has quite been proven yet, as time goes on, it just gets worse and worse and worse, and the allegations get worse and worse. You know, it's in such contrast with his public persona and his celebrity persona all these years.

It's horrifying and depressing at the same time. You really didn't want someone you grew up really respecting and idolizing turning out to be a despicable, dangerous human being. It's really been depressing to me. I mean, you get angry about it, too. But it's really been depressing watching the whole thing play out. – True story, Bill Cosby has made more cappuccinos than my neighborhood barista. (laughing) – Very true. Didn't know that. – The man is not without his talents. – Did not know that. I think the Cosby situation has been a tremendously huge story, but the problem is there's no conclusion. That's the problem, it keeps running. No conclusion, whatsoever. And there won't be none. – But there is a conclusion in that his reputation is totally ruined. I mean all these schools that gave him honorary degrees are pulling them back. NBC is shying away from doing any projects with him. At this point, what theater is gonna have him do a stand-up comedy show? Who's going to invite him as a guest on their talk show? Even his defenders, which included Whoopi Goldberg on The View, have backed away from him. He's a man without a country at this point. – Right, and that story's still running and there is no final episode yet. The epilogue has not been written and that's what we're waiting to see. – Do you think the wife stays with him in the long term?

– She wants to be Mrs. Bill Cosby. She could have left anytime earlier. Taken four or five hundred million dollars and live in the Hamptons. So, she's going to remain. – Yeah, I think she's gonna stay with him and this is gonna be like a Pete Rose thing. He's never gonna say anything one way or another, it's gonna be hard to do anything. It could go on forever. It might never get resolved. – What happens when he dies? What's the first sentence in his obituary?

– This is what they're going to talk about. That's what's depressing. – Yeah, that's true. – And even if he ends up somehow, through all of this, getting exonerated, the damage that's been done in the last year is a sad story. There is just no up side to this anymore. No matter how it's resolved.

– How much do you think Hollywood was taken by surprise by this story, and how much do you think everyone knew, but didn't want to admit it? – Okay, it's the latter, because I play golf with a few of his agents, people who work with him, and they knew, they knew about it. So, yes Hollywood was fully aware of it. I think what he was doing in the '70's, '80's, was pretty commonplace. – Yeah, '80's Hollywood knew about it. The older television people knew about it. The stories have come out since, that almost everybody at NBC was aware of it at the time. They were covering for him because he was the cash cow.

I don't know if newer, younger, '90's, 2000, I don't know if those people knew, but you know, it's a gossipy little town and I'm sure that the stories carried through. – Is it really? Do they gossip? – I've heard rumors. – You wouldn't believe what I just read about Stephen Kruiser. – I can't believe it. – All right Leo, what's your top pick for celebrity scandal? – Well, my top celebrity scandal goes to Josh Duggar.

He's one of the sons of Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar. The Duggar Family had a show on TLC called 19 Kids and Counting. The show was cancelled after a court document surfaced that revealed Josh was accused of molesting five underage girls as a teenager. The now 27 year old admitted to what he did and received counseling. This year he was also busted in the Ashley Madison scandal and admitted to cheating on his wife and having a pornography addiction. Look, the guy came out as a Christian, had a tremendous support system. He's a hypocrite. Not just once, but twice when he was exposed on Ashley Madison. To me that was under-reported, because it was an indictment on these guys who sit up there and use God as their platform. – I'm a firm believer that, frequently, whatever your private demons are become your public crusades. And if you're out there preaching to everyone else how they should live their life, you're doing it to overcompensate for something that you're doing in your own life. Like, you know John Edwards, running around lecturing us about poverty. – Right. – When he lives in the biggest house in his county. Or Al Gore lecturing us about energy use, and he's got the biggest electric bill in his county. These people are no different, this guy in particular. The family knew about it. That to me is a more appalling aspect of the story. That they looked at it as a public relations problem and not a children-are-being-violated problem. That part is unforgivable. So to me, the parents are just as tainted as him. – And I like the way you covered it on your radio program, because you really hammer that point that you're making right now. You are absolutely correct. – I was tempted to go with this story – No, you weren't. That was my story. Take it back! – Because I responded to our producer before either of you did. So I was tempted to go with this story. But, I did not want to call this doughy Subway Jared Jr. a celebrity. That's one of the things. I didn't even want to give him celebrity status. But this also speaks to a bigger problem that I have been discussing with some people recently, and nobody really gets into it that much yet, is that across the board with reality television there are some really troubled people that I think reality TV is making worse. There are people killing themselves. Reality TV is just this unhealthy genre right now that, I'm not saying preys upon, but uses as fuel deeply troubled, disturbed individuals.

It happens all the time in reality TV. People are getting busted for stuff, people are killing themselves, lots of addiction, it's just terrible. – That's the free market society working. People are watching and paying for it and it works. – People without talent now have an avenue to become celebrities. – They are celebrities. He had a TV show; he is a celebrity, Kruiser. He had a TV show. – I know, but I didn't want to call him a celebrity. I would have left him in his windowless van. (laughs) – Alright, well you're both wrong. My top celebrity scandal goes to the bad boy of Hollywood himself, who now has HIV. That, of course, is Charlie Sheen. Trying to make the best of a bad situation. The attitude that he has is when life gives you AIDS, make lemon-AIDS.

The actor appeared on NBC's Today Show to tell the world about his HIV positive diagnosis. He did this to end a smear campaign and extortion efforts. The 50 year old admitted that he's paid over $10 million to keep it a secret. Sheen says that he was diagnosed four years ago, but doesn't know how he contracted the virus. Here's why this is a scandal. He says he told everyone that he had it before he had sex with them. As it turns out, a number of women have come forward saying that's not entirely true. Some of the condoms that he was using don't protect against the virus. This is really a bad situation. All that was strategically based on his lawyering, that he was lawyered up, and also he had a doctor there to try to validate his conduct, and say he did not try to transmit the disease. The problem is that this guy is facing a boatload of lawsuits. I'm hoping that someone reaches me so I can sue, but my point is that this guy, obviously, is in denial. Because he denies the fact on how he contacted the virus and he knows how he contacted it. Drugs, prostitution, needles, the whole nine yards. – He hasn't even been sober for most of the last four years. He's been trying to cover it up. The guy's a train wreck of a human being, sadly.

But here's my thing with this. This is gonna make me less popular with everybody here. You know what, if at some point in the last ten years you were a woman and it was late at night and you thought Charlie Sheen was your option for sex. (laughs) I'm freaking sorry. You get whatever comes with that, okay?

Talk about poor life choices staring you right in the face.

He's sitting there, he's smoking, he's high, he's this, he's that, and he's probably got pustules on him and everything and you go, "Yeah, I want some of that." No, sorry. You get no sympathy from me. – You guys should write fortune cookies. – He has a tremendous support system. His father came out and supported him after he came out with the speech. The guy is a train wreck, I agree. But I don't think any woman should basically

submit to whatever happen, happens. No, I think Charlie Sheen had an affirmative obligation. – No, at some point you gotta be honest, but at some point, you have to sit there and make better life choices when it comes to sexual encounters, too. You can't just sit there and go, "Okay, the guy who is out hanging around "with a bunch of drugged out hookers, "sometimes bad stuff happens because of it." If you're the woman who decides you're gonna change the guy who notoriously hangs around with a bunch of drugged out hookers because you feel the love in your heart, well then, maybe you're not making good life choices either. At some point in this country, people have to start being responsible for their sex lives again. – One clarification to something Leo said. You said he hasn't been honest about how he contracted the virus. I think he has. Tiger blood. (laughs) That's gonna do it for today's show. We wanna know what you think about our picks for the top celebrity scandals of the year. Be sure to leave your comments in the comment section below. I'm John Phillips for Stephen Kruiser and Leo Terrell, Thanks for watching.

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