Knox Movie: Hardening Suggestions Panettiere & Dornhelm & Battles Have Been Sold A Total Dog

Comments

By Storm Roberts (Innai)

And again I feel a flare of sympathy for Knox’s sister - if she is being kept out of the loop and thus is posting based on incomplete information that is not good, not good at all.

Interesting that CBS think that Knox and her lawyers are not opposing the film.  The CBS News 48 Hours programme is the one that did the farcical running the wrong way on a tarmac street as opposed to sprinting up a clanging metal staircase sound experiment, if I remember correctly, please correct me if I am wrong - which certainly suggests they have contacts within (at least) the wider Knox support group in the US (if not Knox’s immediate family).

If it is just Sollecito’s lawyers who are against this film I hope that they do manage to put a stop to it, it doesn’t help their client and it shouldn’t be.

As for the film-makers, I think they should have the good grace to withdraw this project and issue an appology to the Kercher family.  They have caused added distress to the Kercher family, a family who have already had to endure so much.

as a book by one of amanda’s former fellow inmates comes out, more speculation and discussion of the movies.

In Prison with Amanda Knox:inmate tells of their life behind bars

Hi Innai. Deanna, who we rarely mention here, would have been too young to remember the divorce trauma. At times she seems like a true believer in Knox, at times she seems to really revel in the spotlight. It was her hotpants in Perugia and shots in front of Meredith’s house that made people think she too is callous and just doesn’t get it about Meredith’s death.

Her life though sure is disrupted and family resources that might have gone to her (she dropped out of college to work) have instead gone to Amanda. Plus she is stuck with the unlikeable sharp-tongued Chris Mellas.

The crazy report by Paul Ciolino that you mentioned was satirised by Kermit nearly two years ago. That report was the first of two, both terrible, done by the CBS 48 Hours unit.

They put out a regular 1-2 hour report mostly on crimes mostly from a VICTIM’S perspective each week. Critics rate them third after CBS’s powerhouse 60 Minutes and NBC’s Dateline and ahead of ABC’s 20/20.

They put together a second equally terrible report in April last year with more heavy overtones of xenophobia against Italy (an entire book could be written on the anti-Italianism stirred by the PR which is 10X worse than the mild jokes against the US made by a few Italians).

It was their producer of Perugia reports, Joe Halderman, who was recently released from prison after pleading guilty to an extortion attempt. He had already been fired by CBS.

The last really biased network report was an ABC 20/20 report in June last year, in which they virtually handed full editorial control to the contemptible opportunist Doug Preston - half the hour was taken up with his castrato claims about Mignini.

As mentioned by Janus in the post, the defense phase of the trial and their summations were weak and floundering. After the guilty verdict in December, and one more objective report from NBC Dateline, all five networks stopped doing long-form pro-Knox reports. 

There have been none at all this year. Only a very muddled BBC report has aired - muddled because their director Garfield Kennedy got fired, for extreme bias, and they had to re-edit. (Collateral damage for “supporting” Knox - all of it unasked for by her - is now enormous.)

All the network people we know (they are all here in Manhattan) think that Knox has cooked her own goose and that David Marriott is 200% out of his depth, running the wrong campaign in the wrong country for a purpose no-one can figure out.

This new report Janus links to is a website report from Devon Thomas of CBS News, which has always been quick to carry the many PR releases from Seattle. She credits CBS 48 Hours. It is believed CBS provide limos to the family in Rome and Perugia and other helpful favors.

We believe CBS 48 Hours though (for once) when they say no payments change hands. All the networks have strong codes of ethics and such payments are always forbidden.

If the Knox family or their PR machine are involved, is money changing hands? Are the family able to profit from this crime when a compensation bill has been slapped on Amanda in Italy?

Hi Faustus. Our lawyers are looking at this. Their first reactions are approximately as follows: the Knoxes and Mellases have to be F’ING INSANE if they set this train-wreck of a movie rolling.

They might think they will come out a few bucks ahead by showing off their sanitized little princess.  But if so, they are really not thinking very straight (so what’s new?) on all that could likely happen.

We know that we are far from the only ones to be looking into Amanda Knox’s growing up troubled in Seattle. We know of a dozen indicative stories already, and good reporters and good detectives could likely turn up many more.

Then the 80,000 pound gorilla of a question everyone will ask will be the one we have often asked here on TJMK: WHY did they allow Amanda to head off for Europe, seemingly mentally unwell, with almost zero goals, on drugs, underfunded, and totally unstructured?

Directly resulting in the depraved death of poor Meredith Kercher, and lifelong grief for her family - both so totally avoidable? THEIR OWN LAWYERS will be quick to tell them that this could start to look like the focus of a $10-$20-$50 million liability suit.

If they think they are feeling financial pain right now, wait till the movie and all the attendant investigations it will stir breathes life into THAT monster of a lawsuit.

Amanda Knox and both her parents, Curt Knox and Edda Mellas, once again appear oblivious to the real life drama which is about to unfold for them in the courts of Italy.

The comedy of errors which they are currently starring in could indeed seem laughable.

A bizarre cast of co-actors, that features an admonished judge, a drunken celebrity lawyer, a Super Avocato, a convicted toddler killer, a mobster’s brother, a wannabe James Bond ex-FBI agent, and an aspiring twenty-something Hollywood starlet, could easily fill center stage at the Barnum and Bailey Circus.

However, after the impending judgments will be handed down by those Italian courts, perhaps finally it will be time for the show curtains to be drawn, and for the Knox family and their entourage to say good-bye.

Edda Mellas is interviewed Monday on the CBS Early Show and shrugs off the movie and the two slander suits. Amanda Knox’s trial begins this Friday, and Edda Mellas’s and Curt Knox’s on 10 October.

Hard to believe, but their last best hope seems to be the discredited and lately very quiet Steve Moore.

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Mellas said her family is remaining upbeat as Knox’s appeal moves forward, especially with support coming in the form of former FBI agent Steve Moore, who became convinced of Knox’s innocence while watching a 48 Hours program on the case. He’s certain that Knox was telling the truth about being hit by police.

“Guess what? I believe her,” he said. “I believe she is soft-pedaling it because she’s afraid right now. I believe it is worse than she’s saying it is.”

********

48 Hours was what convinced him?! That made us laugh. Does he know just how bad those reports really were? (See my long comment at 9:15 am above.) And anyway wasn’t it all that original evidence that he says he saw - without (according to Barbie Nadeau) anyone in Italy actually knowing?

Steve Moore has no proof at all of his “I believe” claims. A dozen cops already testified Amanda was always treated well. And she always had a lawyer present, except in the first brief “witness” interview.

None of them ever complained.

A comment about Steve Moore by Liamquin (not one of us) that just appeared under the CBS post seems to have it pretty well right:

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by Liamquin September 27, 2010 9:42 AM EDT

As Newsweek has just uncovered, Steve Moore did not even ask the Italians to see any original evidence. He knows nothing about Italian jurisprudence and gets all his information from daytime TV and blogs. Not only does he not speak a word of Italian, he has not even been to Italy. He is a former low level FBI operative used to guarding people and flying aircraft….

If this is the calibre of person that Knox’s desperate family are now relying on to overturn a unanimous guilty verdict based on overwhelming evidence then they haven’t got a chance. Instead, Moore’s excitable bid to become a well paid TV crime commentator will be of massive harm to them…

By Storm Roberts (Innai)

It seems to me that anyone who comments on this case must have read the Massei Report (which, thanks to the volunteers from here and PMF, is available in English).  It seems obvious that Mr. Moore hadn’t read it prior to the interviews he gave - hopefully he has now. 

Making a film is one way of commenting on the case and thus the writer/director should read the Massei Report.  Hopefully reading the details of the truly horrific ordeal Meredith suffered and the excellent analysis of evidence will make them realise this is a well constructed legal case that has been debated thoroughly in a court of law, a court which concluded the accused were guilty and convicted them; hopefully they will also see that this is not suitable material for a film, and a film would cause even more distress to Meredith’s family and as such should be a no-no.

I have said this on PMF tonight and I have just left for good (I can’t get my head around people constantly posting pictures of their pet rabbits and posting about their personal life when we are here to stand up for Meredith)  but I think it is obvious Edda Mellas is lying again.

How can anyone, given the staunch defence of their daughter, now say that they don’t oppose a movie - even though they say they have no knowledge of it?

Surely, considering their aggressive campaign right up to this day - they must try and make sure that their convicted killer daughter is portrayed in a beautiful light like always?

So Edda Mellas says she has no knowledge of the movie, and on top of that statement she says doesn’t oppose the movie being made?

No - I don’t believe her, she is lying.

Are we seeing more hate directed at the Kercher family due to them breaking their dignified silence and saying they dont want (rightly) this movie to be made?

If so the Knox/Mellas clan have just handed the naysayers Amanda Knox’s guilt on a plate.

Pure hatred from the convicted killers family, and an insight into how Amanda Knox ended up in jail for murdering someone shortly after she arrived in Italy.

Black Dog, glad not only one who thought that posting personal content and joky images inappropriate on PMF. Not to diminish quality of much of what is on there, but I do think such things undermine tone and purpose of site.  Also found interface (very dark) not very user-friendly.  For these reasons tended not to use it but rely on this, I think, much more user-friendly and well-organised site.

With all due respect to Black Dog, Lola, and Cora, might I hasten to assure you that I understand and respect your personal feelings.

As one who has enjoyed many of Black Dog’s contributions, from even before he was ‘Black Dog’, I feel a distinct loss since his feelings now prompted him to “vote with his feet”.

May I also suggest however, that you stop back to PMF long enough to read the Moderator’s well worded sincere explanation in reply to the items that you personally object to.

Insuring proper consideration for the wide variety of Posters’ preferences is an incredibly difficult task.
One which I feel those two moderator’s have meritoriously mastered.

Finally, the relationship between PMF and TJMK for as long as I can remember has been one of mutual admiration,

Both more importantly share the mutual primary objective of preserving the reverence due to Meredith Kercher, and continued sorrow over her senseless murder.

This objective is increasingly more critical since Meredith’s memory as well as the dignity due her family continue to be so sadly sullied by some of the other much less admirable (and *much less popular*) mediums.

The misguided but far reaching efforts of the scandalously scurrilous but well orchestrated (and financed) Knox contracted Public Relations effort also makes the existence of TJMK and PMF even more paramount.

Thank you for a great article Janus. And thank you Peter for your humane assessment of Deanna, for whom I feel sorry also. She didn’t exactly have a great start in life with that family. It’s interesting to hear suggestions that AK’s odd behaviour might be more exposed. I have often wondered about this. Every time I see her, or hear her speak she seems odder and odder, but her friends and family consider this normal ‘for Amanda’. To me she seems anything but normal as most people understand the word.

Also agree that Meredith would be a much better focus for the movie. She is the only innocent party. Who on earth will play her, or doesn’t that seem as important? Clearly not as there are no rumours about it. What a shame. The Knox is centre stage once more.

Thanks TT. Yeah, several readers were rather stunned that Deanna might have been left out of the loop as Janus conjectures, and perhaps used here.

Maybe the whole PR campaign was in part for her and the two step-sisters. But there might have been other ways to help them to cope that might not have drained the family resources - which has meant they paid big anyway. 

Not all who knew Amanda in Seattle said “well that’s just Amanda being Amanda” and we believe they maybe would have done something if they could have thought of a way. The first thing is the parents have to be interested and aware, and not in denial about the significance of the quirks themselves.

Although Curt Knox always comes across as the pussycat of the trio compared to Edda and Chris (network people say he is always so polite) it is worth recalling that it was Curt who fled the marriage so furiously angry that the fights over his overdue child support payments for Amanda and Deanna went to court various times over the years.

I would put that non-payment of child support as one of the most damaging experiences a daughter of a single mother, as Amanda and Edda were for a long time (Curt quickly got re-married, settled in a much better neighborhood, and resumed having kids), can ever experience.

WHY did no judge send him off for anger management? Isn’t that part of what family court is meant to be all about? If the judge had, Meredith might still be alive.

If this had been a Seattle-only case either the DA or the defense or both would have brought much of this family background out at trial, as is normal here, and the prosecution and defence stances and the verdict and sentence might have been quite different.

Edda and especially Curt seem to be in deep denial now about a lot more than simply whether Amanda committed Meredith’s murder. They seem to be rewriting their own very ugly history at the same time.

Poor Kerchers and especially poor, poor Meredith to have been the terribly unlucky ones to have encountered the whiplash of all of this.

Whichever way I look at it I cannot see the Knox/Mellas machine NOT knowing about and supporting this film. Bearing in mind their rabid attacks on anyone from the judiciary to bloggers who do not support the script, it is highly uncharacteristic to give no more than a calm ‘we didn’t know but we’re not objecting’ response.

If they didn’t know that it was in the offing, had no hand in gestating the idea and no control or agreement over the stance that the movie will take they would be buzzing around like the proverbial bluebottles right now in spin overdrive. The presumably expensive pr machine has constantly sought to portray an image of AK being an innocent abroad, caught up in the machinations of corrupt officials unused to dealing with naive innocents like Amanda ‘Candide’ Knox and habitually going around in tricolor sashes to show how anti-american they are.

If there was a danger of all their ‘good’ work being blown up by a movie reaching a sizable audience that portrays her in any other way they would be all over it demanding it be canceled to stop it interfering with the appeal.

But they’re not. They even appear to have shut her own lawyers up who were quite clear about their stance. (I wonder how AK herself will come to view her family’s hijacking of her legal team’s strategy and advice in the future when she has time to reflect?) 

Which to me all suggests that they are confident that the movie will have the ‘correct’ slant. It is after all, entitled ‘‘The Amanda Knox Story’’

The other parts are just bit parts though the other family members are of course the most important. They are probably all salivating at the thought. DJ probably wants to play himself and Dempsey is most likely bashing out emails ten to the dozen to get her role included as the prize winning journalist who never gave up digging and exposed the truth.

It would be far more in keeping with past performance if this movie was actively solicited by Marriott’s Minions, the idea hawked around every possible maker with promises of help and access to sweeten the deal. Implausible deniability wheeled out if the criticism mounts.

As one horrified poster put it after one typically disturbing and inaccurate press report ‘’ Every parent’s nightmare’’ She meant AK’s of course not that other girl’s. Her conclusion; don’t let your children travel alone to backward countries where all sorts of characters are running loose. If it doesn’t fly the stars and stripes it’s medieval justice in a medieval town. 

This myopic, narcissistic fiction put into film gives us Amelie meets Midnight Express. Lifetime might be interested in that. But I cannot see them interested in a story of the mentally unstable home town girl going wild abroad with drugs and sex with anything that moves and who takes part in the sexual assault and murder of her roommate and then tries to blame somebody else. I don’t think the Lifetime audience would want to view their home town girls that way.

But Mr Marriott does have a way with words and great presentation skills. He’ll paint a verbal picture of a Van Gogh and then give you a scribbled matchstick man for your money. I wonder how he is getting his bills covered. Three years is a long time to be running a campaign for a private family with no visible means of support. Judging by the cynicism of his campaign, he is hardly one to be doing it for free simply because he believes in crusades.

Don´t worry about the movie being all about Knox again.As an old literature student I can guarantee you that ten years from now Meredith will absolutely be recognized as the real victim.

She is the one who died after all.And to quote Edgar Allan Poe : There is nothing more Romantic than the death of a beautiful young woman .

In the meantime Knox will have grown flabby and middle-aged and vulgar in prison and NO ONE will care about her anymore, while Meredith will be forever 21.

By Storm Roberts (Innai)

Rubyred,

You say you are still undecided about what you believe - could I point you in the direction of the Massei Report, there is a link at the left of your screen towards the top.  This is a translation of a court document, an official record of the trial and the evidence that was produced by both sides and details of the conclusions the court drew.  If you speak Italian it is pretty easy to find the original document on official Italian websites.  By definition a lot of what is on the internet is someone’s opinion but an official court document is fact. 

About a week ago I posted a very simple list of witnesses drawn from that report, and shortly further posts will be looking into it in greater detail.  Currently there is no court activity: both Knox’s slander case and the appeal by Knox and Sollecito are due to start shortly. 

My personal opinion with regards to things like the film is that it is right to challenge anyone who looks to profit from Meredith’s death.  Meredith’s family do not want this film made, Sollecito’s defence lawyers have said that they will try to stop it being released if it is made prior to the appeals being completed because it may have an impact on that process.  Thus the film is impacting on the judicial process and therefore it is important to understand the who and the why and the how.  If you think that is silly then we will have to disagree.

Hi, aethelred23,

I agree, Meredith’s future fame will grow. Casting for her part, Anne Hathaway? Rachel Bilson? Nobody seems to glow like Meredith.

Kind words, Aethelred and Hopeful. I wonder what Meredith’s sister Stephanie might say. Rachel Bilson is on the right lines. Meredith might also be captured by an Italian. She was very smart, funny, and bubbly though, and that would really need to come across.

The new news on the movie is that the Amanda Knox Story producers learned a lot in the past week (what a surprise) and have moved more to the center and now renamed the movie more neutrally Tangled

And although Hayden Panettiere might seem a good draw she is not considered intellectually bright or very deep and is in the news in part for getting drunk. For most women (to which Lifetime beams) she would not be a compassionate draw.

Beating her hands down in the news at the moment is the actress Emma Stone in the new movie Easy A. She wouldn’t touch the Knox part though and I doubt that the line is very long.

Where next:

Or to next entry Knox Calunnia Hearing: Amanda Knox Enters Court Via The Underground Entrance

Or to previous entry The Knox Movie: Sollecito Reported Angry - Real Risk That His Defense Could Break Away From Knox’s