Spector settles

A small punctuation point in a long, sad story: Phil Spector has settled a wrongful death suit brought against him by the mother of Lana Clarkson.

Phil Spector appeal rejected, again

For the second time this year, Phil Spector has had attempts to appeal his murder conviction rejected.

Rumours the California Supreme Court are building a Wall Of Nope could not be confirmed.

Should have gone to Spect-haters (sorry)

It can't be often that TMZ reacts to a story in the Financial Times, but it's all over David Mamet's interview with the pink 'un.

Mamet is working on a biopic about Phil Spector, and he told the paper he doesn't think Spector is a killer:

"I don't think [Spector] is guilty. I definitely think there is reasonable doubt ... they should never have sent him away ... If he'd just been a regular citizen, they never would have indicted him."

I'm not sure that Mamet really understands the way "regular citizens" with shot people in their hallways are treated by police - generally they get less room for doubt than Spector did.

Anyway, TMZ reports that friends of Lana Clarkson, the woman he shot in the face, are unhappy:

Clarkson's friends have banded together -- and have fired off a letter to the director, claiming his comments were "mind-boggling and wrong in so many ways."

According to the letter, obtained by TMZ, the group's main concern is that "the loathsome, lying, gun-abusing convicted murderer of our friend Lana Clarkson will be portrayed with some kind of sympathy."

Lana's friends want to remind Mamet -- whose upcoming film stars Al Pacino and Bette Midler -- that Spector was CONVICTED by a jury of his peers ... and plead, "Please refrain from rewriting history for 'creative license.'"

"Jury of his peers" isn't quite right - they had trouble barking up a dozen hair-addled crazy music geniuses, especially as Arthur Brown was already busy that week.

You can understand Clarkson's friends being upset, but there's a slightly alarming suggestion in their letter than once a jury has handed down its verdict, then you can no longer discuss the facts of the case. There's a lot of people who should never have been in prison who have been sent there by a jury of their peers. If Mamet believes he has a case, he should at least be allowed to explore it.

Phil Spector pins hopes on judical error

Phil Spector hopes that he can use judicial error as a way of getting out of prison:

[His legal team] are claiming that the testimonies of five women were improperly used during Spector's trial. The five acquaintances of the producer said during the trial that he had threatened them with a gun in the past. The lawyers are claiming that the incidents were not comparable to the circumstances of Clarkson's death.

Yes, because you can't compare waving a gun in a person's face in a threatening way and waving a gun in a person's face in a threatening way and then blowing their face off. Two totally different things.

If I were Spector, I wouldn't bother buying seats at next year's Superbowl.

Spector gets a letter

If we're to believe any of it, Charles Manson has been sending Phil Spector letters suggesting that - since they're both being held in the same prison, they should make some music together:

Spector's wife Rachelle Spector told a US newspaper: 'A guard brought Philip a note from Manson, who said he wanted him to come over to his [lockup]. He said he considers Philip the greatest producer who ever lived. 'It was creepy. Philip didn't respond.'

Creepy? God, I'll say. 'One of the best producers' maybe, but to claim he's the greatest whoever lived? That's some serious creeping.

I'm tempted to see if we can get Pete Waterman thrown into the same jail on some trumped up charge to test if Manson approaches him, too. For something other than "do you have Mike Stock's phone number?"

Breaking news: Spector guilty

BBC News are reporting that Phil Spector has been convicted of second degree murder.

Surviving Ramones do best to reduce interest in legacy

Marky Ramone, with the sort of eye for accuracy that would make the New Yorker proud, has flatly denied the old story that Phil Spector pulled a gun on the band while they were working together:

"There were no guns pointed at anybody," he said. "They [guns] were there but he had a license to carry.

"He never held us hostage. We could have left at any time. We had the keys."

Of course, the guns and hostages story may very well not be true. But why on earth would you be so keen to kill a tale that makes your band part of rock legend? It's as if Alistair Cooke had suddenly blurted out "actually, I wasn't even in town the night Kennedy got shot..."

It must be the first case in history of a story getting smaller in the retelling.

Here we go again, then

The judge in the Phil Spector trial might be ruing his firm line on not accepting a manslaughter verdict from the jury; with them unable to decide on murder, he's had to declare a mistrial and is now thinking what to do. He'll announce his decision on October 3rd.

As you survey the circus, it's worth remembering that Lana Clarkson is still dead.

Spector jury hung

The jury in the Phil Spector trial has told the judge they're in deadlock; however, defence requests for a mistrial verdict were rejected. Instead, three jurors were given more guidance on the difference between 'doubt' and 'reasonable doubt', with the jury being called back to court on Wednesday morning.

Flogging sales off a dead woman

We're sure that The Climb really did write a song about Lana Clarkson with the best of intentions, and not to try and get a bit of cheap publicity. We do wonder, though, if ContactMusic thought through the likely implications of publishing Climb singer Andrea Barber's long mediation on the guilt or otherwise of Phil Spector at a time when the case is still being considered by a jury.

Debbie Harry's charmed life

As if the story of surviving one maniac - Ted Bundy - wasn't enough, now it turns out Debbie Harry also has a tale about coming face-to-face with not convicted of any crime as of this moment gun love Phil Spector:

"He pulled a gun, that notorious thing he does. He stuck it in my boot. And he went 'Bang.'

I thought, 'Get me out of here! I want to go home!'

It's his schtick, you know but why a person would be walking around carrying a .45 automatic in their home... and now he's finally gone and done it."

Or maybe not, depending on what the jury thinks. Let's hope Debbie doesn't now find herself besieged by bloodthirsty NRA gunophiles explaining that if everyone walked around their homes carrying 45s, then Pearl Harbour would never have happened, or some equally guff-like guff.

Spector shrinks his case load

Giving him more time to concentrate on the whole murder case thing, Phil Spector has settled with a former assistant. The pair were locked a sue-loop, Spector claiming she'd pinched money from him; the assistant, Michelle Blaine, claiming he'd shown her his penis and once asked her to book a prostitute for him.

Spector is set to get half a million from his assistant, and now all the cases are off. He's expected to invest the money in his defence on charges of murdering Lana Clarkson, charges which he denies.

Mysterious man from UNCLE sought

There's been some muttering about how Lana Clarkson and Phil Spector had apparently never met before she was found dead in his house - as if it's somehow wrong to murder someone on the first date - but there isn't that much distance between them as it might seem.

The Oracle at the University of Virginia points out that they've got a co-star in common - David "Sapphire and Steel" McCallum, who did the Big TNT Show with Spector and the Haunting of Morella with Clarkson.

McCallum, of course, also once stuck out an album of apparently straight-faced playboy pop.

Spector at the feast

Well, to be fair to Phil, if we'd been forced to sit in a small soundproof room listening to Starsailor over and over, we'd probably fly into a murderous rage as well. We're guessing his unfortunate houseguest must have made the mistake of saying "Actually, I agree with Paul - Let It Be does sound better without the strings..."

Meanwhile, at King's Reach Tower, a sidebar is being prepared: "Didn't Marvin Gaye shoot someone?" "Nah, he was murdered" "What about Lennon?" "Has any pop person actually shot anyone before?"

Alanisly, Kim Howells was in the Commons yesterday talking about guns and music - he obviously focused more on the dangers of gangsta rap than the wall of sound. Apparently, people who suggest that his belief that the lyrics are bad is misplaced are just liberals, he says. There was poverty in the 1920s and 1930s and people didn't go round making records about guns, he said. Angela Eagle piped up that a lot of rap didn't mention guns at all, you know - we've always liked Angela, especially since she started listing rap acts like she was Clement Freud on Just A Minute - Grandmaster Flash, Ms Dynamite (now, of course, The Acceptable Face of Singing Black People), Missy Elliot.

Oddly, 1Xtra's News TX seems to have missed the story entirely.