Actor Bill Cosby is extremely paranoid someone is going to spike his food or drink

During pre-trial hearings and jury selection in Pittsburgh, ahead of the June 5 start of his sexual assault trial in Philadelphia, the 79-year-old comedian refused to stay in local hotels because of perceived threats. Instead he woke up at 2:30 every morning to fly his private jet to the courthouse from his suburban Philly home.

“He and his wife are afraid that if he stayed at a hotel, someone will find a way to poison him, put something in his food,” a source who works closely with the Cosby camp said.

“He’s blind … so that makes him even more vulnerable to [being] poisoned or to having someone sneak into his room,” said a second source close to the family.

Cosby — who’s been accused of sexual assault by some 60 women, many of whom claimed he slipped them mickeys — even refused to drink from the courthouse fountains. Instead he toted water bottles, along with meals, from his home 480 kilometres away.

“He’s thinking and his team is thinking, if he’s put in a hotel room, someone will find out which room he’s staying in and they’ll put a bug or a device in the room,” the source said.

As to who would eavesdrop, the comedian believes “plenty of people … would have a motive,” the family source said.

Cosby’s wife, Camille, “really worries about him and she calls throughout the day to check on him,” the source added.

While he leans on his family’s loyalty, Cosby feels abandoned by his friends in Hollywood, the civil-rights community and the media, sources said.

He feels Eddie Murphy, Martin Lawrence, Chris Rock and Sinbad — comedians he helped early in their careers — have not rallied around him.

“Guys like Murphy, Lawrence and Chris Rock, Dave Chappelle, guys that he paved the way for … they won’t offer any support,” the family source believes.

“He can’t even pay people to come and support him,” the source continued. “He’s been told that agents have informed their clients that their careers would be over if they got involved.

“We’re not asking anyone to testify. We are asking those whom he’s helped, maybe they can call or come sit in the courtroom and see for themselves what’s happening … before turning

your back.”

Messages left for the comedians or their reps were not returned.

Cosby is charged with drugging and assaulting former Temple University athlete Andrea Constand, then 31, in his home in 2004. He faces up to 10 years in prison if convicted. He denies the charges.

The star has been accused by up to 60 women of drugging and sexually assaulting them.

He is now an outcast, even among high-profile, crisis-management teams.

“Everyone says any affiliation is too toxic,” the family source said of two crisis firms that jumped ship despite seven-figure agreements. “Money exchanged hands, then the excuses came.”

The only celebrity name to appear on Cosby’s approximately 20-person witness list is Diahann Carroll, the 81-year-old Bronx actress and Golden Globes winner who appeared on The

New Bill Cosby Show in the 1970s. Her reps did not return messages.

This article originally appeared on The New York Post and has been republished here with permission.