Thursday, October 28, 2010

Lifetime’s Knox TV Movie: Is A Shallow Callous Narcissistic Girl Being Played By…

Posted by Peter Quennell


Is a shallow, callous, narcissistic girl being played in the movie by another shallow, callous, narcissistic girl?

It is certainly looking like that right now.

Hayden Panettiere, now involved in the filming of the Lifetime TV movie in Milan and Rome (they are avoiding Perugia - it seems too many people there take strong exception to this film) has STILL not reached out to Meredith’s family or her friends.

Or showed the slightest concern for the real hurt that this misleading glamorizing of Amanda Knox, the convicted killer of the REAL victim, Meredith, is causing here.

This is Andrea Magrath in the Daily Mail.

In an interview with BBC Newsbeat, Panettiere said she had not met Knox, who is appealing her conviction.

‘I wish. I know the Italian government is being pretty protective of her, her lawyers are being protective of her, which is pretty understandable. ‘It’s something I would like to do (meet her) but I’d be more surprised if it happened than if it didn’t.’

Panettiere said she was ‘floored’ and ‘flattered’ when she was asked by director Robert Dornhelm to play Knox in the film. She added: ‘They called me up and asked me to do it.

I’m so privileged to play the role. It’s a really great story and a very controversial one. ‘The way the script is written is very well done, in a way that I don’t think anyone is going to have a problem with.

‘I’m looking forward to it. I’m really excited about it. It’s going to be a really tough project to do but it will be good.’  Panettiere revealed the film will only show events up until Knox’s conviction.

It is NOT just “a really great story”. It is actually for-real, and a highly talented woman-on-the-go, Meredith Kercher, who was outstripping Amanda Knox in all possible dimensions, died very horribly here.

And what exactly is so controversial? Apart from the thousands of mistruths about the hard evidence spread around by a million-dollar campaign? Hayden should try reading the Massei Report.

Also it was Amanda Knox’s own lawyers who banned Hayden from Capanne. Sollecito’s lawyers continue to threaten to sue to stop the movie dead until after the second appeal - which might drag on for years.

Alistair Foster in the London Evening Standard also has a brief report. The post is notable for the sharpness of the comments of Kermit who is a frequent poster here. Most of the comments under both these reports are very critical of the film.

Will the Lifetime TV movie try to reflect the actual cold hard facts, as detailed at great length in the Massei report? A good question for some journalists to be asking of the actors, writer and director. 

Along with why, precisely, doesn’t Hayden Panettiere reach out to the Kercher family? And to Meredith’s friends? 




Posted by Peter Quennell on 10/28/10 at 06:11 PM in Various hypothesesMovies on case

Comments

she looks more like edda than amanda (or is it just me?)

Posted by mojo on 10/28/10 at 07:46 PM | #

Hi mojo. Reports we got from the recent closed hearing on the slander charges were that AK is looking increasingly like Edda with her added weight and so on.

Posted by Peter Quennell on 10/28/10 at 07:53 PM | #

Hayden Panettiere didn’t mention Meredith once in this interview with the BBC:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/newsbeat/11536888

Her comment that the case is a “great story” is repugnant.

Posted by The Machine on 10/28/10 at 08:58 PM | #

Panettiere has displayed an attitude so flippant and uncaring of the real victim and her family and friends that it does not really surprise us that one of our psychologists is now looking at Panettiere for the possible symptoms of a charming psychopath.

We may post on this if the signs seem strong enough. This was our post last December that suggested that Amanda Knox may display those symptoms too.  The incisive PMF commenter h9A7wa9i1K posted this reminder on PMF this morning.

Francesco Maresca, representing the Kercher family, asked Knox why, as English friends of the victim have testified, she exclaimed in the offices of the Perugia flying squad only hours after the murder that Kercher must have died a slow death. Knox replied: “I heard that she had her throat slit and from what I saw in CSI these things are not quick or pleasant so I said, gosh . . . bleargh . . . this brutality, this death . . . bleargh . . . it really did shock me,” Knox replied.

The jury looked surprised at her language.

“It was a disgusting death. I imagined it was a slow death, a death that was shocking, yucky, disgusting,” Knox said, crossing her hands repeatedly in front of her chest. Knox said she considered Kercher a friend. Had she suffered for the death of her friend, Maresca asked? “Yes, I was very shocked.”

Did she remember Kercher in her daily life? “Yes I remember her; but, in the end I knew her for a month, and first of all I’m trying to get on with my life.”

The books on charming psychopaths and sociopaths suggest that they are much more common than is generally supposed, but also that most of them make it through their lives without doing any harm to anyone.

Unlike Hayden Panettiere here. Some of the conspiracy theorists also seem to display an extreme callousness toward the victim. Some real food for thought here. Like, dont turn your back on them…

 

Posted by Peter Quennell on 10/28/10 at 09:54 PM | #

I have news for Panettiere. She’s no Meryl Streep or Nicole Kidman. And this * movie* will be shown on Lifetime Channel. Not exactly a huge breakthrough in her movie career. Although, to hear her talk, you’d think she was trembling on the brink of stardom.She seems a perfect choice for this little project. Panettiere shows no empathy for the Kerchers, seems very shallow, and it’s all about her. In one report, it mentions her having her hair as a dirty blond. got that right.

Posted by capealadin on 10/28/10 at 10:30 PM | #

Personally, I don’t fault Panetierre (or any actor, really) for taking on this role. Would you fault the actor who played Hitler in a movie? Does that make him a bad or insensitive person for taking on such an evil role?

Just because an actor plays a role, and thus practices her craft, does not mean she is taking sides.

In addition, even though this is a heartbreaking case, the fact of the matter is that it is a news story and thus has become part of the public discourse. Other crime cases have been portrayed as well (e.g. Boys Don’t Cry, which was a true, and also heartbreaking, story). EVERY recounting—whether a news story, editorial, or movie, contains its own biases—personal, cultural, etc., and this movie will be no different. However, this does not mean that movies based on real life events should no longer be made (at least to me). EVEN if I don’t agree with them.

Also, while I agree that there is irrefutable evidence that Knox was justly convicted of murder, that does not change the fact that, rightly or wrongly, many people in the US believe she was falsely convicted. Thus, Panetierre’s statement that the case is controversial is correct. I suspect she has her own opinions about the case, and is smartly attempting to maintain a neutral stance to avoid becoming embroiled in her own controversy.

Smart girl.

Posted by devorah on 10/28/10 at 10:44 PM | #

Hi Devorah,

Hayden Panettierre’s comment that the case is a “great story” is grossly insensitive.

The media coverage of this case must be the worst example of reporting in the history of journalism. The reporting on mainstream news channels such as ABC News, CBS News and CNN has been horribly biased, one-sided and absolutely riddled with factual errors. It has been totally unacceptable and there are no excuses.

Posted by The Machine on 10/28/10 at 11:12 PM | #

We’ve had various people in the media today saying they’ve never seen anything like this. That this movie is a part of the PR campaign pure and simple, a way to try to subvert justice, and everybody knows it. So I dont think Devorah’s parallels really work.

The case is not controversial at all in Italy, and those who followed it there readily accepted the verdict after seeing much of the trial on TV. Essentially the same in the UK. In the US it is only “controversial” because a $1 million campaign addled the facts. 

And for Hayden Panettierre to reach out to a family of a victim that has ALREADY said it is in pain over this film is simply the correct decent thing to do. Even if her heart cannot tell her to do that, her agent and PR should be making her do so.

If the victim’s family had been here in the States, we all know that legal commentators like Nancy Grace and Geraldo Rivera would have picked up on Meredith’s cause with a real vengeance. There would have been weekly panels for 2-3 years.

They would have absolutely decimated anyone who tried to make the killer into the real victim, and tried to disappear Meredith out of sight as Hayden Panettiere is now doing - standing orders from the Knox PR campaign, by the way, is to do this.

If the victim had been American, there is no way this film would be being made.

Posted by Peter Quennell on 10/29/10 at 03:00 AM | #

“Is a shallow, callous, narcissistic girl being played in the movie by another shallow, callous, narcissistic girl?”

Yes.

Posted by wayra on 10/29/10 at 06:02 AM | #

By Storm Roberts (Innai)

I know I have said it before, but I will say it again: It is wrong to profit from the murder of another human being.  Those involved in this film are being paid to make it. That is wrong.

This film is causing Merdith’s family pain and anguish and as such I feel it is even more important to stand up against it.

Posted by Nolongeramember on 10/29/10 at 10:34 AM | #

Hayden Panettiere, perhaps another stupid, self absorbed, drugged up tart was contacted FOR the role because no other DECENT actress WOULD.

Posted by Professor Snape on 10/29/10 at 08:04 PM | #

Finally a movie where the actress looks less attractive than the original character. Hope Hayden ruins her career with this mess!

Posted by Mikaza on 10/30/10 at 01:42 PM | #

Let’s face it that this is Hayden Panettiere’s sad swan song.  A Lifetime movie is the kiss of death in Hollywood.  A hospice for her career.  You can’t pull yourself out of that one little resume line on IMDB and resurrect a carreer to A List. Girl couldn’t even get a contract for a reality show at this point, no matter how many times she augments her breasts or shaves millimeters off that nose.  She has no personality and little talent and is probably realizing it.  Her agent surely knows it.  In the meantime during production she will whore herself out to the Daily Mail and take a cut for every interview.  She’s young and the offers obviously aren’t pouring in and there are bills to pay.  Desperation flowing into unthinkable acts.  Kind of like Lindsay Lohan creating a leggings fashion line, or that amazing murderess she portrays.

Posted by Jumpy on 11/02/10 at 02:49 AM | #

One more thing.  In the photos posted above the Amanda Knox portraying “actress” is wearing hoop earrings.  Is this some type of prop in the contract for the movie?  I think y’all know where I’m going with this?

Posted by Jumpy on 11/02/10 at 02:57 AM | #

Well it is understandable that a shallow individual like Haden Panetierre would take the role. First off, she is not an A list actress. She is a media whore who feels she deserves to be recognized more, and this is a perfect vehicle for her to get attention, despite the fact that even for American television standards, Lifetime is not the exposure that an actress or movie for that matter, would get as a made for TV movie on one of the major broadcast networks. One great example of their exploitation was all three major networks doing a take on the “Amy Fisher” story. Interesting that not a one is going to make an “Amanda Knox” story despite the fact that Lifetime is already making one. Perhaps they realize in light of the truth, they know it would be poor taste. Haden Panetierre is the Lifetime network’s little “patsy”. She gets to be the face of the movie and will personify all that is wrong with it, thus taking some heat off the producers and writers. And like I said, she is just enough of a media whore, where she is willing to accept the fact that the price of what little boost in her popularity she will obtain, she will also be the focus of scorn and hatred. Shallow, ignorant and driven to be a famous star. Just like Amanda Knox, who got the attention she wanted, and will be paying the price for it for the next 25 years.

Posted by Kazwell on 11/02/10 at 08:26 AM | #

The Lifetime movie now is no longer The Amanda Knox Story. IMDB says it has been retitled Via Della Rosa.

If you want to discuss the film the IMDB forum (only two posts right now) is here.

The IMDB Pro area (subscription required to see it) has Hayden Panettiere down at around 250th place on its Starmeter. She has tried hard to create buzz out of her Heroes role -  but still only at 250?

Jumpy and Kazwell above suggested this may be her swansong and it looks like they are right. The notorious Lifetime channel is not a sptringboad to high numbers. 

This is the sorry production crew and cast for what looks like an ill-fated albatross of a movie - there is no mention of the writer, who may have ended up being Garfield Kennedy.. 

Directed by
  Robert Dornhelm

Producers
  Craig Anderson ... executive producer

Cast
  Hayden Panettiere ... Amanda Knox
  Marcia Gay Harden ... Edda Mellas
  Vincent Riotta ... Prosecutor Mignini
  Matthew T. Reynolds ... Nick Jones
  Valentina Carnelutti ... Dr. Patrizia Stefanoni
  Roberto Nobile ... Dr. Luca Lalli
  Heather Cave ... Deanna Knox
  Simonetta Solder ... Detective Navarra
  Paolo Romio ... Raffaele Sollecito
  Djibril Kébé ... Rudy Guede

Production Designers
  Dimitri Capuani

Art Directors
  Roberto Caruso

Set Decorators
  Raffaella Giovannetti

Costume Designers
  Maurizio Basile

Art Department
  Roberto Magagnini ... leadman
  Sebastiano Murer ... property master

Costume and Wardrobe Department
  Maurizio Basile ... costumer

Miscellaneous Crew
  Nando Cartocci ... assistant to the director

Production Companies
    Project X Productions

Posted by Peter Quennell on 12/12/10 at 08:45 PM | #

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