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In the late 1980s, Lisa Bonet was the radiant heart of The Cosby Show. As Denise Huxtable, she was funky, free-spirited, and fiercely independent—a cultural icon for a new kind of Black woman on television. But behind the scenes, Bonet’s real-life independence clashed with Bill Cosby’s tight control of the show’s brand—and the fallout was swift, public, and painful.

Her story isn’t just about celebrity drama. It’s about how Hollywood punishes Black women for autonomy—and how Bonet, long before the #MeToo era, paid the price for refusing to obey.

This perspective was originally explored on Soulful Screen TV, a cultural commentary platform unpacking Black representation in film and television.

“Denise Huxtable Is Not Pregnant. Lisa Bonet Is Pregnant.”

In 1987, Bonet walked into producer Debbie Allen’s office to share the news: she was pregnant. Allen, then leading the new spinoff A Different World, suggested writing the pregnancy into the show. But Cosby shot it down. According to Allen, Cosby responded bluntly: “Denise Huxtable is not pregnant. Lisa Bonet is pregnant.”

The message was clear: Bonet’s reality was incompatible with Cosby’s vision of respectable Black womanhood. Bonet was quietly removed from A Different World. And just a few years later, she was written out of The Cosby Show entirely.

Rebellion on the Red Carpet

Cosby’s issue with Bonet had started before the pregnancy. In 1987, Bonet took on a provocative role in the erotic thriller Angel Heart, opposite Mickey Rourke. The film, which included a graphic sex scene and voodoo symbolism, earned an X-rating until it was edited for wide release.

Cosby was furious. He told one interviewer, “It’s a movie made by White America that cast a Black girl, gave her voodoo things to do, and have sex.” Behind the scenes, rumors swirled of his disapproval and frustration. To Cosby, Bonet was no longer the “good girl” he had made famous. She had become a liability.

That same year, Bonet married rocker Lenny Kravitz and became pregnant with their daughter, Zoë. Rather than support her, Cosby seemed to double down on his disapproval. Bonet was essentially blacklisted from her own success story.

Fired, Forgotten—and Then Proven Right

By 1991, Cosby permanently wrote Bonet out of The Cosby Show. No dramatic farewell episode. No character closure. Just gone.

And yet, Bonet never lashed out publicly. She stayed silent—until years later, when Cosby’s public image collapsed under dozens of sexual assault allegations. In a 2018 interview, Bonet admitted she had sensed something dark all along. “There was just energy,” she said. “And that type of sinister, shadow energy cannot be concealed.”

Her instincts were vindicated when Cosby was convicted in 2018 (a conviction later overturned in 2021). But for decades, Bonet had been the one punished.

The Long Game of Creative Freedom

Despite the fallout, Bonet never tried to claw her way back to mainstream fame. She chose small, soulful projects instead—art films, indie series, spiritual roles. She prioritized motherhood and privacy. She raised Zoë Kravitz, now a star in her own right, while remaining largely off the grid.

Bonet’s marriage to actor Jason Momoa became another cultural milestone: an example of love, blended family, and Black womanhood outside of Hollywood norms. Their 2024 divorce was amicable, mature—further proof that Bonet does things on her own terms.

Why Her Story Still Matters

Lisa Bonet’s journey is often reduced to a footnote in Cosby’s downfall. But that’s a mistake. Long before hashtags or headlines, Bonet was fighting a quiet battle for agency—one that cost her professionally but kept her authentic.

In 2025, as Hollywood continues grappling with its legacies of abuse and control, Bonet’s story feels newly urgent. It’s a case study in how women, especially Black women, are penalized for choosing truth over image, motherhood over marketability, and art over approval.

As discussed on Soulful Screen TV, Bonet’s story isn’t just a celebrity footnote—it’s a blueprint for creative resistance. It shows us what it looks like to live your truth when the whole industry wants to silence you.

Bonet didn’t just lose a role—she lost a whole industry’s backing. But in the end, she kept her soul. And in today’s Hollywood, that might be the biggest win of all.

Imagine a company so powerful it quietly owns nearly every share of every stock traded in America—$87 trillion worth. Now imagine it was founded by a CIA agent, is run by Wall Street’s biggest players, and is barely mentioned in the news. Welcome to the world of the Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation (DTCC)—the financial black box that may secretly control your retirement, your investments, and the entire U.S. stock market.

The Secret Company at the Heart of Wall Street

Most people have never heard of the DTCC, yet it sits at the very center of the global financial system. This company, controlled by the world’s largest banks, holds custody of almost every share of stock in the United States—over $87 trillion worth. Even more staggering, in 2024 alone, it processed $3.8 quadrillion in trades. That’s not a typo: quadrillion, with a “q.”

To put that in perspective: if you stacked $100 bills to represent $1 trillion, you’d get a skyscraper 43 stories tall, packed wall-to-wall with cash. The DTCC moves the equivalent of two of those skyscrapers—every single day.

The CIA Connection: Spies, Students, and Stocks

The DTCC’s origins are as shadowy as its operations. It all starts with William Denzer, a man whose career reads like a spy novel. Born at the start of the Great Depression, Denzer became deeply involved with the National Student Association (NSA)—not the one you’re thinking of, but a CIA-funded organization designed to influence student movements during the Cold War.

After years of covert work, Denzer was recruited directly into the CIA, serving five years before moving on to roles at USAID (another agency with a long history of intelligence work) and eventually, the banking sector. With powerful friends like Nelson Rockefeller, Denzer became New York State’s top banking regulator just as Wall Street was drowning in paper stock certificates and chaos.

From Paper Chaos to Digital Domination

In the late 1960s, Wall Street’s back offices were buried in paperwork. Trades were made with slips of paper, and the system was so overwhelmed that shares often failed to be delivered at all. The solution? Digitize everything. But instead of giving investors direct ownership, all stocks would be held by a single central corporation—what became the DTCC. Investors would only have “beneficial ownership,” a claim on the stocks, while the DTCC held the real thing.

Denzer, with his intelligence background and banking connections, became the DTCC’s first chairman and CEO. Under his watch, the DTCC grew into a private corporation (not a government agency) regulated by the SEC and Federal Reserve—but ultimately run by the banks themselves.

The Big Club: Who Really Runs the DTCC?

Look at the DTCC’s board of directors and you’ll see a who’s-who of the financial world: JP Morgan, Citadel Securities, Goldman Sachs, Citi, TD, HSBC, BNY Mellon, and even major oil companies. Regulators like the SEC and FINRA have seats at the table, too. It’s a cozy club of insiders, lobbyists, and power brokers. And you’re not in it.

Why Should You Care?

If you own stocks—through a brokerage, a retirement account, or even a 401(k)—the DTCC technically owns them, not you. Your “ownership” is just an entry in their digital ledger. This system, designed for efficiency, also means that if something goes wrong at the DTCC, trillions of dollars in assets could be at risk.

The DTCC’s reach goes beyond stocks. It sits on $72 trillion in mortgage-backed securities—the same kind of financial products that triggered the 2008 global financial crisis. And when trading frenzies like the 2021 GameStop squeeze happen, the DTCC is the invisible hand making sure the system doesn’t collapse (or, depending on your view, protecting the big players from losses).

The Conspiracy Angle: Spooks, Scandals, and Secrets

The DTCC’s CIA-linked founder, its secretive structure, and its central role in the financial system have made it a favorite topic for conspiracy theorists. With historic ties to intelligence operations, blackmail scandals, and government cutouts, it’s easy to see why. Whether you believe the DTCC is just a well-oiled machine or something more sinister, one thing is clear: it’s one of the most powerful organizations you’ve never heard of.

Final Thoughts

Should one company—run by bankers and ex-spooks—have this much control over the world’s wealth? Why is so little public attention paid to the DTCC, when it holds the keys to the entire stock market? And if the next financial crisis hits, will we even know what’s happening behind the curtain?

The next time you check your portfolio, remember: the real owner of your stocks might not be you. It’s the $87 trillion secret hiding in plain sight.

What do you think? Should we trust the DTCC with this much power? Drop your thoughts below—because this is one club that affects us all, whether we know it or not.

Hailey Bieber has achieved a major milestone in the beauty industry, finalizing a $1 billion deal to sell her skincare brand, Rhode, to e.l.f. Beauty. The acquisition, announced on May 28, 2025, marks one of the largest celebrity beauty buyouts in recent memory and cements Bieber’s place among the most successful beauty entrepreneurs of her generation.

The Deal: Structure and Impact

The agreement will see e.l.f. Beauty pay up to $1 billion for Rhode, including $600 million in cash upfront and $200 million in e.l.f. Beauty shares. An additional $200 million could be paid out over the next three years if Rhode meets specific performance targets. While Bieber co-founded Rhode with Lauren and Michael D. Ratner and shares ownership with other investors, her personal earnings from the deal are estimated in the nine-figure range, potentially raising her net worth to around $300 million.

Rhode’s Meteoric Rise

Launched in 2022, Rhode quickly became a powerhouse in the skincare sector, known for its minimalist branding and focus on essential, everyday products. In just three years, the brand achieved the No. 1 spot in Earned Media Value for skincare in 2024, boasting 367% year-over-year growth. Bieber credits her willingness to embrace mistakes and learn from early challenges as key to Rhode’s rapid success.

Bieber’s Role Moving Forward

Despite the sale, Bieber is not stepping away from the brand. She will continue as Rhode’s Chief Creative Officer and Head of Innovation, overseeing product development and marketing while also serving as a strategic advisor to e.l.f. Beauty. Bieber expressed excitement about the partnership, stating, “From day one, my vision for Rhode has been to make essential skin care and hybrid makeup you can use every day… Our partnership with e.l.f. Beauty marks an incredible opportunity to elevate and accelerate our ability to reach more of our community with even more innovative products and widen our distribution globally”.

Industry Impact and Celebrity Beauty Boom

Bieber’s deal places her among a select group of celebrities—like Rihanna, Selena Gomez, and Kylie Jenner—who have built beauty brands valued in the hundreds of millions or more. Fewer than 30 individuals in the U.S. and Europe have amassed fortunes of $380 million or more in the beauty sector, making this acquisition a standout moment in the industry.

Celebrating the Milestone

Bieber marked the occasion with a celebratory dinner in Los Angeles, donning a black mini dress and exuding the understated glamour now associated with billionaire beauty moguls. Her husband, Justin Bieber, quietly celebrated her achievement, underscoring the support behind her entrepreneurial journey.

“When I launched @rhode in 2022, I always had big dreams for the company, and the most important thing to me is to keep bringing rhode to more spaces, places, and faces globally. So today I am so incredibly excited and proud to announce that we are partnering with e.l.f. Beauty as we step into this next chapter in the world of rhode.”
— Hailey Bieber

What’s Next?

With the backing of e.l.f. Beauty, Rhode is poised for global expansion. Bieber’s continued leadership ensures that her vision and creative direction will remain central as the brand enters its next phase, promising more innovation and a broader international presence.

Hailey Bieber’s billion-dollar Rhode deal is not just a personal triumph—it’s a testament to the power of celebrity entrepreneurship and the enduring appeal of innovative, accessible beauty brands.