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'Cosby Show' actor Geoffrey Owens says he quit N.J. Trader Joe's after 'devastating' job-shaming
NJ.com Advanced Media ^ | September 4, 2018

Posted on 09/04/2018 10:08:54 AM PDT by SMGFan

The former "Cosby Show" actor job-shamed by some media outlets over the weekend with photos showing him working at a Trader Joe's in New Jersey to make ends meet, said Tuesday he was so upset that he quit his job. Geoffrey Owens

"I was really devastated," Geoffrey Owens, who lives in Montclair, said during an interview on Good Morning America.

But Owens said the outpouring of support he received on social media from the entertainment industry and beyond helped him through it.

"The period of devastation was so short because so shortly after that, the responses my wife and I started to read - literally all over the world ... fortunately, the shame part didn't last very long." "It hurt, but then, it's amazing," he said.

(Excerpt) Read more at nj.com ...


TOPICS: Society; TV/Movies
KEYWORDS: bigglassofreality; cosbyshow; geoffreyowens; montclair; newjersey; traderjoe
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To: bigdaddy45
Geez, you’re another genius.

Well, thank you, but this is just common sense.

He’s minding his own business, and some low-life reporter proclaims “hey, this guy (Geoffrey) was once a big tv star, and now he’s bagging groceries!!”.

And he promptly melts down and quits his job? Yeah, that seems very well-adjusted. He's working a good, decent job - most people in his situation would say that to any reporter who asked, continue working and collecting the positive acknowledgements of normal people who recognize the dignity of real work for a living.

Seems a lot more productive than the snowflake route.
61 posted on 09/04/2018 11:43:29 AM PDT by AnotherUnixGeek
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To: Dr. Sivana
Worst for child actor is between “Richie” on Dick Van Dyke, and the two youngest kids in “The Partridge Family” (

And then there was the faggy little brother on "Who's The Boss?"

You just knew that kid wasn't going to be straight when he grew up.

62 posted on 09/04/2018 11:44:32 AM PDT by dfwgator (Endut! Hoch Hech!)
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To: bigdaddy45

If he really had Lisa Bonet back in the day it doesn’t matter, his ticket is punched.


63 posted on 09/04/2018 11:45:11 AM PDT by jyo19
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To: SMGFan

That is too bad. All legal work is worthy of pride in a job well done. I’m sorry he was shamed and sorry he took it personally. He wasn’t a better human being for being on tv. Didn’t his boss prove that?


64 posted on 09/04/2018 11:46:12 AM PDT by Yaelle
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To: Scooter100

No, Cosby let EVIL rule his world. There are a lot of guys with penises. They don’t all want unconscious female bodies to destroy.


65 posted on 09/04/2018 11:47:37 AM PDT by Yaelle
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To: Phillyred

Amen! Too many people think work is a bad four-letter word!


66 posted on 09/04/2018 11:49:26 AM PDT by MissEdie (I am South Carolina Strong.)
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To: akalinin
And why do we pay heed to their political views?

Because celebrity equates to authority and their opinion a-lines with our’s

Strange isn’t that no one ever sought the political opinion of Bozo the Clown or Jason from Friday the Thirteenth

They’re celebrities

67 posted on 09/04/2018 11:51:35 AM PDT by Pontiac (The welfare state must fail because it is contrary to human nature and diminishes the human spirit.)
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To: SMGFan

Job shaming by media outlets? Who would do such a thing?


68 posted on 09/04/2018 11:56:42 AM PDT by griswold3 (Just another unlicensed nonconformist in am dangerous Liberal world.)
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To: Ticonderoga34; sphinx; 2banana; miss marmelstein; Phillyred; katana; ...
In American Beliefs, John McElroy notes that there were four main colonial powers in America, and each of them found different things and wanted to do different things:

The conclusion is that Americans respect any honest work. If you reflect on English costume drama, you will realize that we didn't get that attitude from England - where the emphasis was on who you were rather than what you did - but in the American melieu where people who were respected because they were useful, and were respected for the caluses on their hands.


69 posted on 09/04/2018 11:57:45 AM PDT by conservatism_IS_compassion (Journalism promotes itself - and promotes big government - by speaking ill of society.)
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To: conservatism_IS_compassion
Excellent post!

There is also the Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain speech from the film "Gettysburg" (excerpt):

This is a different kind of army. If you look back through history, you will see men fighting for pay, for women, for some other kind of loot. They fight for land, power, because a king leads them or -- or just because they like killing. But we are here for something new. This has not happened much in the history of the world. We are an army out to set other men free.

America should be free ground -- all of it. Not divided by a line between slave state and free -- all the way, from here to the Pacific Ocean. No man has to bow. No man born to royalty. Here, we judge you by what you do, not by who your father was. Here, you can be something. Here, is the place to build a home.

But it's not the land. There's always more land.

It's the idea that we all have value -- you and me.

70 posted on 09/04/2018 12:03:54 PM PDT by ClearCase_guy (The MSM is in the business of creating a fake version of reality for political reasons.)
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To: lowbridge

For most in that line of work, starvation isn’t ever more than a few meals away.


71 posted on 09/04/2018 12:12:00 PM PDT by thoughtomator (Number of arrested coup conspirators to date: 1)
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To: lowbridge

Key actors did okay back then but secondary and so on; no so much. A living wage but not a small fortune to buy apartment buildings so they would have income for life.

That’s what I’d do with a largish sum of money anyway. People will always need a place to live and the income from them goes up with the times. A win win. In fact I’d work it out so others managed and took care of the place(s) so I could be anywhere and not shackled to the apartment building(s).


72 posted on 09/04/2018 12:13:46 PM PDT by Boomer
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To: Palio di Siena

Yep, that will help ease the “shame” (that some actor suffer doing regular work!).


73 posted on 09/04/2018 12:17:32 PM PDT by avenir ("But as for you, teach what accords with sound doctrine."--Paul to Titus)
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To: miss marmelstein

Well, that’s hard to figure, unless what I wrote before applies here as well.


74 posted on 09/04/2018 12:19:29 PM PDT by Southside_Chicago_Republican (If liberty means anything at all, it means the right to tell people what they do not want to hear.)
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To: rstrahan

>>>He said that his acting gigs usually lasted less than 10 weeks per gig, so he had to work a second job. Trader Joe’s let him have a flexible schedule so he could work as an actor, make auditions, etc.

Also, Trader Joe’s offers health insurance to employees. That can be major draw for people in the creative arts.


75 posted on 09/04/2018 12:37:57 PM PDT by oincobx
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To: SMGFan

He was working for a living to support his family. I see absolutely nothing wrong with that and nothing to be ashamed about.


76 posted on 09/04/2018 12:43:32 PM PDT by AlaskaErik (I served and protected my country for 31 years. Progressives spent that time trying to destroy it.)
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To: jyo19

Uhhh..... he didn’t have Lisa Bonet. He had her sister.


77 posted on 09/04/2018 12:54:56 PM PDT by bigdaddy45
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To: SMGFan
He is hoping the attention will get him far better employment?

I wouldn't blame him at all if he leveraged this unwanted spotlight into a better position. Should have kept the old job though but perhaps the attention had made it a circus.

78 posted on 09/04/2018 1:56:27 PM PDT by TigersEye (This is the age of the death of reason.)
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To: oincobx

I have a friend who works at Trader Joe’s. He has worked in retail either at stores he owned or at management level his whole career.

The last time we spoke, he was a team member at Trader Joe’s. He loved the job and was paid very fairly.

One thing he said was that they rotate duties very frequently with even the General Manager taking bagging shifts.

How many actors do you see who get a show and are never heard of again. They need to do something.

Some are very successful outside of acting and others just fade into obscurity (or normalcy)


79 posted on 09/04/2018 2:38:35 PM PDT by cyclotic ( WeÂ’re the first ones taxed, the last ones considered and the first ones punished)
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To: bigdaddy45
You know what actors say, bad coverage is better than no coverage at all. Though I never said that was absolutely what transpired, I merely questioned if he could have played a part in it. 8>) Guess I should have used the /sarc tag, as obviously not all can spot it without assistance.

Perhaps this is my legacy: or yours.

80 posted on 09/04/2018 3:11:54 PM PDT by Robert DeLong
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