KEY POINTS:
When Phil Spector walked out of the private lift on the ninth floor of the Los Angeles County Superior Court building in downtown LA on a recent Monday morning, the legendary record producer shared the walk down the corridor to the waiting lawyers and media scrum with a woman less than half his age. Heavily made up, she held tightly to his arm, her expression sombre.
Unlike her decidedly bizarre husband, whom she reportedly married in September - or the succession of women whom prosecutors say Spector threatened at gunpoint - 26-year-old Rachelle Marie Short is a blank page. An aspiring actress and singer from Pennsylvania, her previous showbiz experience appears to be restricted to modelling, most notably an appearance - clothed - in Playboy.
So far, she has kept quiet about her reasons for marrying the 67-year-old defendant. She is keeping to herself whatever thoughts she may have on whether, as prosecutors claim, her husband shot and killed Lana Clarkson - an actress who had never reignited her brief mid-1980s moment in the sun, and was working as a nightclub hostess - at his mansion in the early hours of February 3, 2003.
Maybe her focus is elsewhere. Judging by the smile Rachelle flashed paparazzi as she stepped from a white SUV outside the court building, she hopes to get some buzz that will help her carve a niche in Hollywood, even as her husband faces ruin.
Clarkson, who was shot in the mouth in the foyer of Spector's mansion, was quickly cast as the latest in a long line of sacrifices to the Hollywood glamour machine. Yet, as Rachelle's presence in LA attests, the siren call is strong, despite brutal competition. Sitting silently beside an older woman in the public gallery of the air-conditioned courtroom, far from the scorching desert heat outside, her wide mouth drawn into an anxious line, Rachelle looked like the loyal wife - the partner who gamely handed out Team Spector badges one day at the paparazzi line. Could her supporting role in America's latest celebrity trial be her big break, a mordant Hollywood moment, given the chain of events that had propelled her husband into courtroom 106?
Admittedly, Rachelle's role demands she stand in Spector's shadow. His pre-trial appearances were notable for his spectacular wigs, particularly his mad-scientist look; hair so frizzled it looked as if he had jammed a finger into an electric socket. But the diminutive figure seated at the defence table sported a modest Beatle mop-top, albeit a blond version, along with an Edwardian-style jacket and open-necked garish shirt.
The man who once played a drug dealer in Easy Rider looked like Dorian Gray auditioning for Miami Vice.
If convicted, Spector faces 15 years to life in prison. He has pleaded not guilty and is free on US$1 million ($1.37 million) bail. His trial is expected to last at least another month and is the latest in a long line of LA celebrity murder cases. But whereas OJ Simpson and Robert Blake both walked, in part because the presence of a mysterious third party at the crime scene was insinuated, this is unlikely to fly in Spector's case. His head counsel is Bruce Cutler, a fellow-New Yorker who defended the late mobster John "The Dapper Don" Gotti. Famous for his brutal cross-examinations, Cutler is said to "Brucify" hapless victims. The theatrical lawyer, a dedicated body builder, quickly hit his stride in this trial, bellowing, "Murder on their mind!" at jurors to sow suspicion Spector was prejudged by police investigators.
Cutler will have his work cut out for him getting jurors to warm to his client, who has all the courtroom presence of a black hole. Staring at the defendant's pallid features, his sullen posture, the facial twitch, and what one observer called his "hollow Nuremberg stare", it is only too easy to believe tales of a dark and weird history.
The defence lawyers have strived to depict their client as a star-maker, whose Wall of Sound created sonic symphonies for the Ronettes, the Crystals, the Righteous Brothers, and Ike and Tina Turner, and who also worked with the Beatles and the Rolling Stones, and whose sound has had an enduring impact more recently on artists such as Bruce Springsteen.
But others recall an ego-maniacal control freak who, as his fame receded into pop culture's rear-view mirror, became a semi-recluse living behind walls in a rambling faux 1920s castle on a hill east of Downtown.
According to his ex-wife, Ronnie of the Ronettes, Spector was a jealous guy who threatened to display her corpse in a glass and gold coffin, kept in the basement, should she stray. Another story has him roaming his estate in a Batman suit. "I'm my own worst enemy", he told a British journalist, four weeks before Clarkson's death. "I've been a very tortured soul. I have not been at peace with myself."
Prosecutors argue that Clarkson's death was presaged by Spector's alleged history of repeatedly pulling guns, when drunk, and threatening women who scorned his advances. So far four women Dorothy Melvin, Stephanie Jennings, Dianne Ogden and Melissa Grosvenor have testified Spector tried to coerce them at gunpoint, often as they tried to leave.
"He wanted to rape me", Ogden told the court, pointing an imaginary gun at herself, after she said Spector had ordered her into his bedroom in 1989. Spector's gun fetish - he supposedly threatened John Lennon, Leonard Cohen and Dee Dee Ramone all at gunpoint - has been part of rock n roll lore for decades. And although it is rare for a defendant's past misdeeds to be cited, Judge Larry Paul Fidler has allowed prosecutors to establish a pattern.
Did Spector pull a gun then cross the line with Clarkson? After dating two women earlier that evening, he met Clarkson at the House of Blues. A statuesque blonde whose movie career peaked as the lead in Roger Corman's cult classic Barbarian Queen, she worked as a hostess at the Sunset Strip club.
Driven across town by Spector's chauffeur, Adriano DeSouza, the pair watched a Jimmy Cagney DVD, Kiss Tomorrow Goodbye, en route, arriving at the castle about 3am. Two hours later Spector emerged from the house, holding a revolver, blood on his hand, and allegedly told DeSouza, "I think I killed somebody". DeSouza entered the lobby, saw Clarkson's body slumped in an antique chair, and phoned 911. "I didn't mean to shoot her, Spector told police, it was an accident".
His trial is the first to be televised via cameras discreetly placed in the ceiling to discourage too much performing by lawyers such as during the OJ Simpson trial in 1995.
Whether Spector still has the celebrity wattage that OJ boasted is a moot point. After a blaze of publicity on opening day, Spector's trial was quickly eclipsed by other celebrity mishaps, notably heiress Paris Hiltons sentencing to 45 days jail for violating her probation on a drink-driving offence.
"I would have gone for house arrest", quipped late-night TV host Jay Leno, "as long as it wasn't Phil Spector's house."
Despite a starring role in a classic noir murder, one recurring impression in the trial is that Spector is a relic. This brutal fact has been a running sore for Spector. Hunched inside his suit, his tightly clasped fingers trembling, the man whom writer Tom Wolfe once dubbed the Tycoon of Teen, looked peeved when a policeman, who responded to Melvin's complaint in 1993, told prosecutors he had never heard of the maestro. Nor had the emergency operator who took the 911 call after Clarkson was shot.
Ostensibly, it might seem an open-shut case. Yet if Spector has an ace, it is that the only other figure at the scene, Clarkson, is dead. His recollection of events quickly shifted. He later told police Clarkson, whom Spector had known for just hours when she was shot, had no right to come to my [expletive] castle, blow her [expletive] head open. He said she took his gun, waved it in the air singing Da Doo Run Run and You've Lost That Lovin Feeling, signature Spector hits, then put it to her temple and shot herself.
Describing Clarkson's death as accidental suicide, the defence dismissed claims Spector threatened women as being tears and tall tales, sought to erode his chauffer's credibility by saying DeSouza had a language problem, cited computer notes that suggested Clarkson was depressed, and insisted that police stunned their suspect into terrorised innocence with a taser. Clarksons DNA was also found on remaining bullets (putting paid to any Russian Roulette theory), a forensic clue the defence will plug to say she pulled the trigger.
British tabloids report Lennon's widow Yoko Ono and Rolling Stones guitarist Keith Richards will speak as character references for Spector. But it is another name on the list of witnesses subpoenaed by the defence which suggests that if the going gets tough Team Spector may get dirty. In 2000 Jody Babydol Gibson was convicted of running an LA call-girl service. Among the names in her trick book was Alana or Lana Cl, described in Gibson's memoir Secrets of a Hollywood Super Madam as a tall blonde call girl who was found murdered in the home of a wealthy record producer.
Cutler has told jurors Clarkson shot herself while playing with guns in a provocative, salacious manner. This hints at a sex game. Was she that kind of girl? Ultimately, Team Spector may have to walk a fine line, ostensibly respecting Clarkson's memory while taking every opportunity to whitewash their client.
