So far, the Phil Spector murder trial has been such a mess of conflicting information between prosecution and defence that something definitive was needed to snap it back into focus – something like a story about Lana Clarkson's shoes.
Yesterday Phil Spector's defence called Lana Clarkson's mother to the witness stand to testify about the apparently forged reference letters from high-powered Hollywood executives she found at Lana's home and turned over to prosecutors following her death. However, in the cross-examination Lana Clarkson's mother revealed that Lana bought seven new pairs of shoes on the afternoon before she died. Why? Partly to indicate that Lana Clarkson wasn't in a suicidal frame of mind prior to her death and partly because, hey, you know what women are like – let them talk uninterrupted for a couple of minutes and eventually they'll start banging on about shoes until everyone passes out from boredom.
We aren't entirely sure why the Phil Spector murder trial is still going. The defence rested a couple of weeks ago, Michael Bay has said his piece and the jurors got to experience the most important piece of evidence – a chance to go to Phil Spector's house and pretend to lifelessly slump in a replica of the chair that Lana Clarkson died in. And yet still the Phil Spector trial refuses to die; which is just as well because Lana Clarkson's mother had something very important to say yesterday.
Lana Clarkson's mother Donna Clarkson has been a regular fixture in the Phil Spector murder trial, often seen weeping as the more grisly aspects of her death were discussed in court, but yesterday Phil Spector's defence team called Donna Clarkson to the witness stand to discuss some letters that she handed to prosecutors after Lana's death. Uniquely for pieces of Lana Clarkson's writing, the letters weren't all addressed to the ghosts of actresses who'd been shot in the head, but instead were reference letters from the great and good of the entertainment industry praising Lana Clarkson to the hilt. Sadly, though, all the letters appear to have been forged, as a casting executive for NBC also testified yesterday.
Obviously, forging references from casting executives is the mark of a desperate woman but, as we've heard a jillion times before, Lana Clarkson was depressed before she died. However, would a woman who was planning to kill herself buy seven new pairs of shoes right before she committed suicide? Because that's what Donna Clarkson said that Lana Clarkson did, as the Los Angeles Times reports:
Donna Clarkson testified that she had been shopping for shoes with Lana at Ross Dress for Less on the afternoon before her daughter was found dead, shot in the mouth. Clarkson said Lana needed flat shoes for the many hours of standing on the job… Jackson asked how many pairs of shoes her daughter purchased. Clarkson said Lana had planned to get one pair, but ended up with seven. Clarkson smiled as she recalled the shopping trip, saying that Lana went straight to work from the shoe store.
A lot has been made of the way that Lana Clarkson died – pretty girls don't kill themselves by shooting themselves in the face, they say, unless their dribble was found all over Phil Spector's pee-pee – and now a suicide looks even less likely. After all, who knows of a girl who'd buy seven pairs of shoes and then shoot herself in the face before trying them all on with every single combination of outfits that they possibly can?
Although, to be fair, we shouldn't rush to conclusions without knowing more about the exact style of shoe Lana Clarkson purchased. You see, they were flat shoes – so perhaps Lana Clarkson killed herself because they made her look like a lesbian. Or maybe Phil Spector killed her out of bitter jealousy that they made her look even more like a lesbian than him. Oh, we've never been so confused.
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