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Pressure is mounting on veteran US comedian Bill Cosby over long-standing sexual assault allegations, as NBC pulls the plug on a new sitcom and Netflix postpones a planned special.

The double setback came after a lawyer for the 77-year-old Cosby dismissed the claims of a string of attacks made by several women as “decade-old, discredited allegations”.

• ‘Bill Cosby raped me’

“We can confirm that the Cosby project is no longer in development,” NBC said in a statement, declining any further comment on the accusations dogging the award-winning entertainer.

The original cast of The Cosby Show.

That came 12 hours after streaming video service Netflix said it was postponing the launch of a new stand-up comedy special, to be called Bill Cosby 77.

People magazine said the Netflix special was supposed to be a birthday celebration for Cosby, in which he would share stories from his childhood, first romantic relationships and parenthood.

But the allegations of rape and sexual abuse made against him by several women in recent weeks are tarnishing the public image of the urbane actor, famous for his long TV career – especially his role as a doting father on the popular Cosby Show in the 1980s and 1990s.

Another of Cosby’s accusers, former aspiring actress Barbara Bowman, wrote in a Washington Post op-ed this month that the comedian had sexually assaulted her on multiple occasions in 1985, when she was 17.

Ms Bowman said she never went to the police because she feared she would not be believed.

“When I went into the lawyer’s office he laughed at me, he treated me like I was delusional,” she said.

“Who’s going to believe that. Bill Cosby? Dr Huxtible?”

Bill Cosby. Photo: Getty

The Netflix decision came just hours after an interview on Entertainment Tonight with Janice Dickinson, in which the model and TV host alleged that Cosby sexually assaulted her after a 1982 hotel dinner meeting.

Cosby agreed with the Netflix action, said his publicist, David Brokaw. He did not elaborate, and there was no immediate comment regarding Dickinson’s allegations.

The former model, now 59, on Tuesday added her claims to the list, telling Entertainment Tonight that Cosby sexually assaulted her in 1982.

Dickinson said it happened after a dinner they shared in Lake Tahoe, Nevada, where she said she had gone to talk about a job offer from Cosby. At the dinner she said she had red wine and a pill Cosby gave her because she had menstrual and stomach pains.

“The next morning I woke up, and I wasn’t wearing my pyjamas, and I remember before I passed out that I had been sexually assaulted by this man,” Dickinson said.

In other recent charges made public, a woman claimed in an editorial Sunday that she was drugged and raped by Cosby in 1969.

So far, Cosby himself has remained silent on the issue.

Cosby only shook his head on Saturday when asked if he wanted to address the allegations during an interview on US National Public Radio has only intensified the attention focused on him.

Cosby’s lawyer John P Schmitt told entertainment news website The Wrap at the weekend: “Over the last several weeks, decade-old, discredited allegations against Mr Cosby have resurfaced.

“The fact that they are being repeated does not make them true. Mr Cosby does not intend to dignify these allegations with any comment.”

The storm engulfing Cosby erupted last month when comedian Hannibal Buress branded him a “rapist” during a stand-up show in Philadelphia – a clip that went viral.

People who have experienced sexual assault can call the Sexual Assault Crisis Line: 1800 806 292

-AFP