Cashing in on the Michael Jackson Trial
April 3, 2005
Who's cashing in on Michael Jackson's legal troubles? Just about everyone, it seems.
Lawyers flying into Santa Maria to comment on tv for free, hoping for fame and a boost to their law practice. Lawyers with offices near the courthouse selling parking spaces and phone lines to the media. The court charging the media excessive access fees. Cops writing extra traffic tickets. Has-been actors. Even the witnesses against him.
Inside the courtroom, the spirit of self-promotion is thriving. From the witness stand on Tuesday, Stan Katz, the psychologist to whom the singer's accuser made his initial outcry, mentioned that his book, "The Co-Dependency Conspiracy," was available on Amazon.com. Comedy club owner Jamie Masada, who tended to the accuser throughout the child's cancer bout, told jurors how they could tune in to watch a documentary on his club. On Friday, prosecutors asked Feldman whether he was known as "one of the most successful plaintiff's lawyers around."
"Say it again -- for the press," Feldman replied.
The jurors are big notetakers. Are they hoping for a book deal when it's over? 90 days after the verdict, California jurors are free to sell their souls.
From yesterday's New York Times:
Anne Bremner has taken unpaid time off from her Seattle law practice to sit in the courtroom and offer television commentary on the Michael Jackson trial. The visibility the case has given her, she said, has meant millions of dollars of new business for her firm.
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