 In 2009, she opined that Roman Polanski's rape conviction of a thirteen-year-old in 1977 was not "rape-rape", later clarified that she had intended to distinguish between statutory rape and forcible rape.The following year, in response to alleged racist comments by Mel Gibson, she defended Gibson and said that she knew that he was "not a racist".In 2015, Goldberg was a staunch defender of Bill Cosby from the outset of his rape allegations, asserting he should be considered innocent until proven guilty, and questioning why Cosby had never been arrested or tried for them.