Yeah, the “hoopla” I was referring to was her death. I just tuned it out. But it was hard to avoid it sometimes.

About news…I trust Jon Stewart better. hahaha

I guess so.  Oh.  Was that what the “hoopla” was about?  The article also says “In the months before her death, she was the focus of renewed press coverage surrounding the death of her son, Daniel Smith.”

Swanson’s character on CI had a son who died, too.  I don’t have the will to slog through the Wikipedia article for more similarities.  I guess there were very close similarities between the two.

Anna Nicole was obsessed with Marilyn. I believe I heard somewhere that she had said that about dying.

OK, thanks.  I don’t even remember Anna Nicole hoopla.  What was it about?

I’m such a shut-in when it comes to news: if it’s not on NPR’s or the BBC’s radar, it’s not on mine.  I trust them to filter my news for me.  Is that any better than the people who trust O’Reilly and Limbaugh to filter their news for them?  (Just now, checking on how Bill O’Reilly spells his name, I got a Google Books result for The O’Reilly Factor for Kids: A Survival Guide for America’s Families.  Angels, ministers of grace, etc…)

Don’t you love that cheesy little line at the end of every episode?

It’s actually less horrible on CI than on the other two shows.  Dick Wolf must think every episode needs a poignant “sting”.  Someone needs to tell him that, most of the time, subtler is better.

Anyway, once you see Noth saying certain lines, it’s hard to picture D’Onofrio playing that same part. I still like Goren better.

Don’t you love that cheesy little line at the end of every episode? Priceless. haha

That certainly explains some of it.

Plus, she’s supposed to be an Anna Nicole Smith-like character, not Marilyn.

I would say the writers are going for both, unless their point is that Anna Nicole Smith is trying to be Monroe.  There is a shot of her character standing over a subway grate in a white dress; the character’s use of Marilyn Monroe’s birth name as a pseudonym under which she had her prescriptions filled; and a mention that she had “always said” she was going to die before age 40, “just like Marilyn”.

I’m surprised I saw this episode, Goren’s not in it.

It would have been difficult for even D’Onofrio to redeem the writing, IMO.

I’m surprised I saw this episode, Goren’s not in it.

Also, the episode has at least one glaring flaw: the premise is that the victim dies because of a lethal combination of Methadone and SSRIs.  This was worrisome, as I know people on that cocktail, so I went to Medscape (a WebMD property) and checked Methadone separately against Prozac, Zoloft, and Paxil.  Nothing.  This is not the kind of misinformation you want given to your viewing audience.