Bill Cosby on trial today for sexual assault, to get support from screen daughter 'Rudy Huxtable'

Keisha Knight Pulliam(Left) Bill Cosby & little Rudy(Keshia)

Former "America's Screen Dad" Bill Cosby's sexual assault trial opens Monday, there will be a reminder of his former reputation -- the actress who played his youngest daughter on TV will be making her appearance in court.

Cosby's team says it has lined up Keshia Knight Pulliam, 38, who played Rudy Huxtable on "The Cosby Show," to be in the Pennsylvania courtroom where the comedian will be accused of drugging and molesting a woman at his home in 2004.

In the past, Phylicia Rashad, who played Cosby's wife on the show, has defended him, but it was not clear if she would appear at the two-week trial.

Cosby, 79, is on trial for allegedly assaulting just one woman, Andrea Constand, who worked for Temple University, his alma mater.

Constand claims that after two years of friendship and mentorship, the Cosby turned predator, giving her pills that incapacitated her and then molesting her while she lay "paralyzed."

Cosby has portrayed the encounter as consensual, saying he gave Constand two Benadryl pills to help her relax. He has pleaded not guilty to three counts of aggravated indecent assault, denied all other allegations and sued some of his accusers for defamation.

A handful of the dozens of women who have accused Cosby of sexual misconduct also plan to be in the green-domed courthouse in small-town Pennsylvania.

"I haven't seen him since 1969," said Victoria Valentino, 74, who says Cosby drugged and raped her in Los Angeles nearly five decades ago.

"I hope he makes eye contact because I'd love to look him in the eye and stare him down."

The "I Spy" actor, who says glaucoma has left him legally blind, does not intend to take the stand. Constand, who settled a lawsuit against Cosby in 2006, will testify. Other potential witnesses include:

• ·         Prior Alleged Victim No. 6: Also known by the pseudonym Kacey, she is the only one of the other accusers who can testify. A former assistant to Cosby's late agent, she alleges that in 1996, after Cosby insisted she take a pill, she woke up in bed with the half-naked entertainer.
• ·         An unnamed William Morris Agency employee who the defense contends can contradict Kacey's account of her interaction with Cosby.
• ·         A psychologist who will discuss the behavior of sex-abuse victims. Prosecutors may use her testimony to try to explain why Constand waited a year to report the alleged assault to police.
• ·         Pharmaceutical experts who will testify about the effects of Benadryl and Quaaludes, the latter of which Cosby has admitted he gave to women for sex in the 1970s.

Although the jury was chosen in the Pittsburgh area, the trial is taking place in Montgomery County in the Philadelphia suburb of Norristown.

Barricades ringed the columned courthouse on Sunday night in anticipation of big crowds, but many local residents said they had not paid much attention to the legal drama that had played out there over the last year.

"I don't know what's happening," said one 15-year-old walking by the stately building. "Who is Bill Cosby?"