THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1997, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, January 18, 1997 TAG: 9701180098
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E1 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Column
SOURCE: Larry Bonko
DATELINE: NEW ORLEANS LENGTH: 83 lines
SHE HAS NOT BEEN in a courtroom since a Los Angeles jury acquitted O.J. Simpson. Marcia Clark gave up lawyering in the district attorney's office on that day to write a book about the celebrated murder case.
With the manuscript all but finished, Clark has taken up a new business - hosting ``LadyLaw,'' a syndicated program about women in law enforcement, from cops on the street to prosecutors like herself.
The serious, almost grim Marcia Clark you saw on CNN and Court TV relentlessly building a murder case against Simpson is no more. In her place has come the smiling, bubbling Marcia Clark working hard here in the land of jazz and jambalaya to sell ``LadyLaw'' to the people who run TV stations in Los Angeles and New York, and every market in between, including Hampton Roads.
She was here in the crush of 748 exhibitors and 20,000 visitors at the National Association of Television Program Executives, schmoozing and smiling, shaking hands, having her picture taken with Pete from Peoria. Clark was selling her show in competition with Naomi Judd, who has a new talk show, and Connie Chung and Maury Povich, who soon will be on TV together, and almost a hundred others.
The woman who worked 14 years in the hallowed halls of justice was now just another hustler here at NATPE, asking people in a pretty-please kind of a way, to buy ``LadyLaw.'' Buy ``LadyLaw.'' Buy ``Comedy Court.'' Buy ``Dangerous Dinosaurs.'' Buy ``Pictionary.''
Buy. Buy. Buy. That was the message here this week.
The offers came by the ton, said Clark in reflecting on the days immediately after the Simpson trial made her an international celebrity. She accepted one immediately while picking the William Morris Agency to represent her - the book contract from Viking.
Then she thought a long time about other projects before deciding to do ``LadyLaw'' for Skyline Television. ``I wouldn't do just any television show. This is what I want to do. I want to recognize and support the women in law enforcement.''
To emphasize the point, Clark arrived to meet the press in the company of four uniformed women of the New Orleans police force. Clark, looking a bit like Kate Jackson of ``Charlie's Angels,'' has taped exactly one episode of ``LadyLaw.''
The bangs she wore when leading the prosecution team in the Simpson trial are gone. Instead, her dark hair has been swept back from her face in a soft 'do. She is TV pretty - smooth complexion, almost-perfect white teeth, dark eyes that connect with the viewer.
Looking good is only half the trick. Being at ease on camera is the other half of successfully selling yourself to a world of channel surfers.
``I knew nothing of television. I hardly ever watched television,'' said Clark of her days before ``LadyLaw.'' ``I had to be told everything, from where to put my feet to how to read a script.''
Before her first show, Clark memorized the script. There was no need.
``What a surprise. It was all there on the TelePrompTer,'' she said.
Clark is far from polished as the host of ``LadyLaw.'' She has a ways to go.
Clark said that she naively expected to continue prosecuting cases after the Simpson jury came in.
``I expected to go back to being `Marcia Who?' in a few months. But it did not happen that way. The Simpson case ruined me as a prosecutor.''
How so?
Future juries, said Clark, might vote for verdicts on the basis of how they feel about her performance as the Simpson case prosecutor. Such is the price of fame, she said.
(Clark has also hit the lecture circuit. She'll give her presentation on April 17, at Portsmouth's Willett Hall. Tickets are $20-$35. Call 393-5144 for info.)
As Clark appeared on the floor of New Orleans' enormous riverside convention center, another face familiar to those who watched the Simpson trial on TV was also mingling with the masses. Simpson's defense attorney, Johnnie Cochran, has taken up with Court TV.
He was selling just as hard as Clark at NAPTE.
What a curious world, this world of the celebrity. Not so long ago, few knew Clark and Cochran outside of California. Then came the Simpson trial. It made them famous and will likely make Clark TV wealthy.
It was weird to see them both here so happy and upbeat as Nicole Simpson's killer or killers walks the earth free. Many are profiting by her death and the death of Ronald Goldman. ILLUSTRATION: Color photo
Marcia Clark