It always starts in the pop courts, have you noticed that? And it's been a busy year in the Courts Of Pop this year. By far the biggest story to keep our court reporters busy, of course, was the long awaited, somewhat gruesome, occasionally bizarre and ultimately unresolved Phil Spector murder trial. The legendary music producer is, of course, accused of shooting dead actress Lana Clarkson at his Beverly Hills home back in February 2003. After many delays, the trial finally began in March, with Judge Larry Paul Fidler in charge, and the TV cameras allowed in. It became apparent early on how each side would fight their case.
The prosecution would try to portray Spector has having a split personality - one minute charming music man, next minute gun wielding loon. They presented various women who said that Spector had pulled guns on them when left alone with him late at night. Spector, the prosecution had argued, had pulled a gun on Clarkson and, deliberately or otherwise, had pulled the trigger killing the actress immediately. That theory, prosecutors argued, was backed up by the testimony of Spector's former driver, who had been outside the producer's house at the time of the shooting, and who claimed the accused's first words after Clarkson's death were "I think I killed somebody".
Spector's defence team questioned the Brazilian driver's grasp of English, before launching their own character assassination of Clarkson, portraying her as being deeply depressed with her life, and on the verge of being suicidal in the weeks before her death. Clarkson, the defence argued, had shot herself.
Both sides claimed the forensics in the case proved their argument, and presented various experts to say so, cue lengthy discussions of how Clarkson's blood had splattered around the room where she died, and what that told us, or not, about where Spector was at the time - ie was he close enough to have pulled the trigger? After a lengthy distraction over allegations that one of Spector's former defence team had removed a bit of evidence from the crime scene without permission, the case slowly reached its conclusion. A conclusion of sorts, that is. After much deliberation the jury failed to reach a unanimous decision, though the majority reportedly thought the producer was guilty. But without a proper ruling Fidler had to call a mistrial. Meaning we'll all have to go through the whole thing again in order to resolve this thing. Though with Spector having changed lawyers since this year's trial, it could be sometime before the next one.
Compared to the drama of the Spector trial, everything else in the pop courts seemed a bit hum drum. But other music stars took their seat in the criminal court room. Rapper Foxy Brown continued to have anger management issues, and ended up in jail after one violent run in with another woman was deemed to be a violation of probation conditions set after another violent fracas. Another hip hopper in trouble with the authorities was TI who was arrested on all kinds of illegal firearms charges in October. He managed to secure bail but is under strict house arrest and will return to court to face the charges, which he denies, next year. G-uniter Tony Yayo got into trouble, and got quite a bit of bad press, over allegations he assaulted the fourteen year old son of the boss of a rival hip hop label, Czar Entertainment's Jimmy 'Henchmen' Rosemond. And finally from the hip hop division of the pop courts, Remy Ma is facing charges that she shot a woman in a dispute over money.
Elsewhere in the criminal courts Boy George faces charges relating to those slightly bizarre allegations that he falsely imprisoned a male escort at his London home. And former Radio 1 DJ Andy Kershaw appeared in the news several times over a restraining order that stops him from contacting his former partner, or more to the point, his inability to comply with it.
In the civil courts Akon faces a lawsuit relating to that slightly bizarre incident where he threw one of his fans into an audience (the fellow gig goer the fan landed on is suing), Dame Kiri Te Kanawa had to go to court in Australia to explain why she pulled out of a co-headline tour with John Farnham (she was worried his fans might throw underwear at her), Robbie Williams had to retract remarks made about former Take That manager Nigel Martin-Smith in a version of the song 'The 90s' that was never actually released, and Prince threatened to sue, erm, his fans, for violating his copyright on message boards where fans went to adore him.
On business matters, there were various further disputes relating to the Hendrix and Marley estates, and emo types Hawthorne Heights continued their ongoing litigation with label Victory Records, a record contact with whom they are trying to get overturned (though in late November the band's attention became more focused on the tragic death of the band's guitarist Casey Calvert from an accidental drug overdose).