Rudy Huxtable, played by the actress Keshia Knight Pulliam, was one of the most popular cast members on “The Cosby Show.” As the youngest daughter in the house, starting at age 5 in 1984, she was wide-eyed, innocent, spirited and got the most attention from her parents, Cliff and Clair.

After the show wrapped up in 1992, Pulliam went on to graduate from Spelman College and do some acting here and there. Unlike her TV sister Lisa Bonet, whose rift and distance from Cosby has been well documented, Pulliam has remained a staunch admirer and supporter.

And Monday, when Cosby walked into the courthouse cane-in-hand for the start of his sexual assault trial, Pulliam was on his arm.

Her appearance at Cosby’s trial has caused a stir and debate about why she went and what it means.

Television critic Ellen Gray said on Philly.com that Pulliam’s presence at the trial now blurs the line between Cosby and his TV persona, Cliff Huxtable. In a commentary headlined, “Why I wish ‘Rudy’ had skipped Cosby’s trial,” Gray wrote, “[Pulliam’s] presence, almost certainly part of a well-planned public relations campaign on the part of the defense, also encourages us to conflate Cosby and Cliff, and what’s good for one isn’t so good for the other.”

“What does the former The Cosby Show actress Keshia Knight Pulliam have in common with Ivanka Trump?” asked Ira Madison in a Daily Beast article called “The Ivanka Effect.” It’s “the men they choose to stand by,” he wrote.

“It’s hard to find anything admirable in a woman who claims to be a feminist while standing by a father figure with an alleged history of sexual assault,” the article said.

“Striding into court with accused serial rapist Bill Cosby as he began his sexual assault trial today, she embraced the exact kind of ethically dubious complicity that Trump has throughout her father’s campaign and presidency,” the publication wrote.

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SOURCE: Amber Ferguson 
The Washington Post