The must- bookmark blog for your daily dose of celeb- centric news, irreverent analysis and the best celeb-tracking community on the Web.
RSS Feed
The Art of the Celebrity Courtroom Sketch
Beauty, it has been said, is in the eye of the beholder and when that beholder is someone who lives and breathes celebrity news 24/7, beauty comes in unexpected forms. One starts to appreciate, for instance, the twisted world reflected by 14 over at Gallery of the Absurd and begins to annoy one's spouse by framing particularly striking tabloid covers and hanging them in areas of the house that are not my closet.
Portrait of Paris Hilton as a young lawbreaker. (AP)
So I was instantly charmed when last week's Paris Hilton courtroom sketches began to move on the wires. Stripped down to the bare essentials, courtroom artist Mona Shafer Edwards captured a frail, waiflike urchin surprised to find herself de-blinged, de-entouraged and decidedly un-hot. In the photo at left, we see Hilton in a new light: reduced to wearing polar fleece and trying to hide her face with her freakishly large hand.
Another sketch reveals an introspective moment for Michael Jackson during his 2005 child molestation trial -- his humbled demeanor and fresh-faced visage achieve a stark beauty not to be found in actual pictures of the erstwhile king of pop.
Michael Jackson, circa 2005. (AP)
Scanning a collection of celebrity courtroom sketches posted at Gone Hollywood, we are treated to a rogues gallery of celebrity justice: Anna Nicole Smith fights for her late husband's fortune, Courtney Love strikes a sassy pose for the judge, Woody Allen looks characteristically uncomfortable, Martha Stewart seems to gaze out of the courtroom at us and Naomi Campbell, inexplicably, looks like Rick James.
All I'm saying is if you're stuck for a birthday present for someone who might like this sort of thing, well, I've still got room on my coffee table for this.
By Liz |
June 14, 2007; 10:43 AM ET
| Category:
Celebrities
,
Celebritology 101
,
Hollyweird
,
Pop Culture
Previous: Morning Mix: K-Fed Ex Says She's Not Pregnant |
Next: Morning Mix: Oprah Tops Forbes Power Player List
» Share Tips and Submissions
Posted by: methinks | June 14, 2007 10:57 AM
Ok, I really felt that I had hit the pinacle of my short legal career when a courtroom sketch of me appeared in a national newspaper.
Sadly, the only reason any of my friends knew it was me was because I was the only woman involved in the case.
Some of these are pretty good, but others I would never have recognized w/out captions.
Posted by: lawyerjoke | June 14, 2007 11:18 AM
Ok, I really felt that I had hit the pinacle of my short legal career when a courtroom sketch of me appeared in a national newspaper.
Sadly, the only reason any of my friends knew it was me was because I was the only woman involved in the case.
Some of these are pretty good, but others I would never have recognized w/out captions.
Posted by: lawyerjoke | June 14, 2007 11:18 AM
I think they should hire the guy who draws "Mutts".
Posted by: POS | June 14, 2007 11:59 AM
um, it's not like the people are posing for their portraits. they're called "sketches" for a reason. it's also why the perspective is always off and everyone's crammed into one picture.
frankly, the point of courtroom sketches is dumb. what's the point? it's not like it really illuminates the proceedings.
Posted by: | June 14, 2007 1:32 PM
Sketches are from that "before CourtTV" time. It really is an art form.
Posted by: Bored @ work | June 14, 2007 1:41 PM
Ok, Tommy Lee looks like Peter Gallagher.
Posted by: LV | June 14, 2007 3:10 PM
If that courtroom artist's pic of Paris is right, the girl's got a BIG FUTURE in the glamorous world of modeling for architectural sketches.
Posted by: byoolin | June 14, 2007 3:38 PM
Courtroom drawings are like the artist at the beach always trying to sell you a sketch of you or your child. They never look like the child.
Posted by: Fairfax, VA | June 14, 2007 4:43 PM
The Naomi Campbell picture has a kind of Enki Bilal feel to it (he illustrated "The Hunting Party" and other graphic novels).
Posted by: enogabal | June 14, 2007 4:45 PM
Liz -
Do you think you could post a link somewhere on your blog with a list of celebrity related gift ideas, as they come up? I know you've mentioned some other books in the past...I have a friend who's bday is in December, and I'd love to get her something like this, and it would be hugely helpful to assemble all the suggestions in one place.
Posted by: anon | June 15, 2007 1:12 PM
The comments to this entry are closed.
those 'artists' should definitely try out for that 'draw binky' school in the back of the comic books.
other than michael jackson if they hadn't had captions underneath them, i wouldn't have known who they were drawing!