Grace, under more fire

Perhaps it's time for Nancy Grace to slowly, slowly back away from the Trenton Duckett case. After all, she's already basically killed one person over it.

The New York Observer’s Rebecca Dana reports that Grace has secured the services of a “Crisis is our Brand�-style publicist to mop up Grace’s reputation after her ambush-interview on Duckett’s mother resulted in her suicide hours later. (The family is suing Grace, but then, if you’ve been following this blog the past week or so, you’ve probably come to the understanding that TV personalities exist mainly to get sued.)

You’d think being at least partially responsible for someone’s death might chasten, even somewhat, even someone with Grace’s armored exterior - she's been parodied on at least a half-dozen TV series, not counting her own. Alas, you would be wrong: Grace has gone out of her way to further exploit the tragedy, even doing her show live from the Florida town where it unraveled.

Orlando Sentinel news columnist Lauren Ritchie, who has been following the case a lot more closely than Grace has and has spent a lot of ink correcting Grace’s mistakes and in general excoriating her, last month eviscerated a press release from Nancy’s publicist:

“‘The police want to give Nancy special access to their helicopters’ to search for the child, her public-relations agent stated in an e-mail, and then she plans to scuba dive ‘Lake Ocala’ for his body.

“Leesburg police ‘asked Nancy to come down’ to find the missing boy, whose 21-year-old mother took her life after Grace badgered her unmercifully while taping a show.

“Nancy has brought ‘some of the most important evidence to light’ and is continuing to ‘uncover new evidence weekly,’ the young agent wrote in a breathless tone. …

“Just so the truth is known, Leesburg police did not invite Grace to come here, and when questioned about it, the public-relations firm backed away from that claim. Leesburg Maj. Steve Rockefeller said Grace never contributed the smallest sliver of information to the investigation. There is no Lake Ocala.

“As far as Grace's access to Leesburg's fleet of helicopters, that may pose a problem: There are none.�

Oh, well. That didn’t go so well, so back to the drawing board: Per the Observer, Grace’s publicist announced “Ms. Grace was headed to Biloxi on Oct. 28 to ‘help actually build homes lost in Katrina … to sheet rock, paint, etc.’ Ms. Grace, she noted, was ‘really an amazing woman.’�

The Biloxi Sun Herald bought that last one, at least, reporting of Nancy’s big-hearted efforts, “Grace did not seek out publicity on her trip.� So maybe Nancy should stick to carpentry and abandon legal punditry.

By the way, while we’re piling on, the Observer’s Dana did a nice little hit piece on Grace a while back showing how she has misrepresented and exploited her own personal victimhood for her own personal gain.