I Just Returned

from hearing Nancy Grace speak at the Pioneer Center for the Performing Arts in downtown Reno. Earlier in the evening, she was on television live from Reno talking about today's tragedy. She said tonight she will be in Virginia tomorrow to cover the Virginia Tech story.

Grace appears to me to be much more personable and likable in person than she does on television. I suppose being in entertainment (and hell, even as an attorney) one takes on a persona and does a lot of acting. She's also on the short side (she said she is 5-feet-1) and describes herself as "chubby." I for one would not describe her as such; she is far from anorexic, but she is more normal looking than most women on the idiot box. Tonight she talked about her career as a prosecutor, with some funny anecdotes as well as some sad stories. She talked about how she became a lawyer, but she was very careful talking about her fiance's murder, not after what the New York Observer wrote about her. Through all of the cases she prosecuted, she felt the ten years she did it were the best of her life.

Grace said at the beginning of the talk that she didn't feel she was a New Yorker until 9-11. She described her experiences during and following that tragedy. She noted she was close friends with Barbara Olson, who was killed at the Pentagon, while she often disagreed with her (especially regarding the bogus Clinton impeachment). She said she didn't know Ted, who made a semi-career as a professional widower following Barbara's death (and remarrying last year a woman he met at the 2002 Kentucky Derby, and anybody who likes the Kentucky Derby isn't all bad in my book), but she knew Barbara pretty well.

After the talk, she answered some questions from the audience. Grace believes that if our friend O.J. were tried today, the result would have been different than in 1995. That's because the L.A.P.D. had such a bad reputation (and I would add the Rodney King case was very much present in that courtroom). She answered questions about Aruba, about the Darren Mack case (where she couldn't understand why he didn't receive the death penalty--I would hazard a guess that both families were against it, but I don't know that for a fact), and of course the wonderful Chaz Higgs, the alleged killer of his wife, the late state controller Kathy Augustine. She also believes that the son of Melinda Duckett is dead. She didn't elaborate further, since that story got her into hot water.

When I first arrived at the center, there were few people there. I was beginning to think nobody would show. But it wasn't long before a lot of people showed up at the last minute. I'd say at least as many people showed up for this talk as showed up for the Lesley Stahl talk of a year ago.