Larry Seidlin News Blog @newzblogz.com

A judge who had a secondary role in the recent Anna Nicole Smith proceedings was cited for smoking marijuana in a park, police said Monday in Hollywood, Fla. Lawrence Korda was smoking marijuana while sitting under a tree Sunday, police said. Three officers saw Korda and field-tested the cigarette, said Capt. Tony Rode, a police spokesman. The judge was not arrested. He was given a misdemeanor citation to appear in court. "Judge Korda was not given special treatment because of his status as a ci...

Sex on a plane:

Ralph Fiennes, 44, was urged to take an AIDS test after the flight attendant who says the pair had sex on a Qantas jet admitted she had previously worked as a high-class prostitute, the London Daily Mail reported. Lisa Robertson, 38, said she earned as much as the equivalent of $640 U.S. dollars a night in a Sydney brothel while working for the airline. She told a Sydney newspaper she first sold herself to pay rent "because I was too proud to ask anyone for money." Robertson was fired by Qantas ...

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LOS ANGELES (AP) - Estimated ticket sales for Friday through

Sunday at U-S and Canadian theaters, according to Media By Numbers

LLC. Final figures will be released Monday.

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(3/20/07 - HOLLYWOOD, FL) - A judge who had a secondary role in the recent Anna Nicole Smith proceedings was charged with smoking marijuana in a city park, police said Monday.

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NASSAU, Bahamas (AP) - A white hearse carrying Anna Nicole Smith's body rolled Friday toward a Bahamas church where the former Playboy Playmate and reality TV star was to be laid to rest in a beaded gown and tiara after a tightly guarded memorial service.

Hundreds of islanders and tourists crowded behind steel barricades, guarded by police as guests began arriving in stretch limousines. Some of the participants gushed at the sight of the white-columned Mount Horeb Baptist Church, whose pews were festooned with pink roses.

'It's beautiful, just beautiful,' said Sheryl Rolle, 46, a choir member who wore a black dress and matching hat for the occasion.

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The authorities may have let it slide, but a paparazzo who says he was on the receiving end of a Woody Harrelson smackdown last year is looking for a little payback, Eonline says. Woody Harrelson.

TMZ photographer Josh Levine sued Harrelson for $2.5 million Monday, maintaining that the Natural Born Killers star assaulted him last June as he shot footage of him leaving the Hollywood club Element. 

Footage posted on TMZ shows Levine following Harrelson and trying to provoke him with shouts. The photog alleges that the actor put his hands around his neck and threatened him, shoved the camera and broke equipment, Eonline says.

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Chris Rock directs, Genesis and Cyndi Lauper plan tours, Michael Jackson greets troops and more.

The fight over control of the former Playboy Playmate and reality TV star's body began in Korda's courtroom. It ended up being heard by Circuit Judge Larry Seidlin, who carved his own slice of celebrity from the televised hearings with his relentless one-liners and blubbering announcement of his decision.

Seidlin allowed a court-appointed advocate for Smith's infant daughter to decide where Smith should be buried, and the lawyer decided it would be in the Bahamas.

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Broward Judge Lawrence Korda earned fame, if you could call it that, for being the less wacky of the two judges who presided over Anna Nicole Smith's probate and paternity cases in Broward court last month.

But Korda, 59, is back in the spotlight after police busted him on charges of smoking a joint in a Hollywood park Sunday.

The citation makes Korda the latest in a series of judges whose exploits have brought unwanted attention upon the local judiciary.

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HOLLYWOOD - A judge who had a secondary role in recent Anna Nicole Smith proceedings was cited for smoking marijuana in a city park, police said Monday.

Lawrence Korda was smoking marijuana while sitting under a tree at Stanley Goldman Park on Sunday, police said. Three officers who were doing training there caught Korda and field-tested the joint, said Capt. Tony Rode, a police spokesman.

The judge was not arrested. He was given a misdemeanor citation to appear in court.

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HOLLYWOOD ? A judge who had a secondary role in recent Anna Nicole Smith proceedings was cited for smoking marijuana in a city park, police said Monday.

Lawrence Korda was smoking marijuana while sitting under a tree at Stanley Goldman Park on Sunday, police said. Three officers who were doing training there caught Korda and field-tested the joint, according to the South Florida Sun-Sentinel.

The judge was not arrested. He was given a misdemeanor citation to appear in court.

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HOLLYWOOD, Fla. -- A Broward County judge who was part of the Anna Nicole Smith proceedings was discovered smoking pot in a Hollywood park Sunday and will have to appear in court for his actions, according to police.

Judge Lawrence Korda was in Stanley Goldman Park, near Hollywood Boulevard Sunday around 2 p.m., police said. When police patrolling the park smelled marijuana, they followed the scent and found Korda seated on a bench, police said.

Korda, 59, was not arrested but was issued a notice to appear in court and faces a charge for marijuana possession, according to police.

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A judge who played a role in the recent Anna Nicole Smith proceedings was cited for smoking marijuana in a city park, police said Monday.

Lawrence Korda was smoking marijuana while sitting under a tree Sunday, police said. Three officers training there caught Korda and field-tested the joint, according to the South Florida Sun-Sentinel newspaper.

The judge was not arrested. He was given a misdemeanor citation to appear in court. Anna Nicole Smith Photo Album

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A judge who had a secondary role in the recent Anna Nicole Smith proceedings was charged with smoking marijuana in a city park, police said Monday.

Lawrence Korda was smoking marijuana while sitting under a tree Sunday, police said. Three officers who were training there saw Korda and field-tested the cigarette, said Capt. Tony Rode, a police spokesman.

The judge was not arrested. He was given a misdemeanor citation to appear in court.

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WASHINGTON -- A computer and an Internet connection may soon be all that are needed for anyone to hear closing arguments in a corruption trial or listen to the testimony of a mob turncoat.

The federal judiciary approved a pilot program last week to make audio recordings of court proceedings available online. Although a court's participation is voluntary, U.S. District Judge Thomas F. Hogan, executive committee chairman of the policy-making Judicial Conference, said he expects the system ultimately will be widely used.

"I do hope the Judicial Conference efforts will be looked at as an attempt to see if we can make court proceedings more inclusive and transparent to people," Hogan said.

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In the hundreds of times I have been in courtrooms over the past 50 years, I have never seen a judge act like the one who held the Anna Nicole Smith hearing in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., three weeks ago.

That's just not the way judges conduct court. For the most part, judges and lawyers are very formal, courteous and dignified in the courtroom.

Unfortunately, many who saw the Smith hearing on television probably think that's what regularly goes on in courtrooms.

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WASHINGTON - A computer and an Internet connection may soon be all that are needed for anyone to hear closing arguments in a corruption trial or listen to the testimony of a mob turncoat.

The federal judiciary approved a pilot program this week to make free audio recordings of court proceedings available online. Although a court's participation in the program is voluntary, U.S. District Judge Thomas Hogan, the executive committee chairman of the policy-making Judicial Conference, said he expects the system ultimately will be widely used.

"I do hope the Judicial Conference efforts will be looked at as an attempt to see if we can make court proceedings more inclusive and transparent to people," Hogan said.

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He'll no doubt be surprised to hear it, but Fidel Castro can take credit for helping create American daytime television's newest star. Tough-talking TV judge Maria Lopez says she never would have gone to law school if she hadn't grown up watching Castro's televised kangaroo courts send hundreds of men to the firing squad without a semblance of due process.

''I lived with fear in those days,'' says the Cuban-born Lopez, who was 5 when Castro took power and launched his post-revolutionary purges, packing courtrooms -- and sometimes stadiums -- with supporters who chanted paredon! (To the wall!) at the doomed defendants. ``And it inspired me . . .

``Seeing the fear my parents felt inspired me to work in a legitimate judicial system, to have a voice in the government. Watching those trials made me realize how badly a legal system can go when it falls into the wrong hands.''

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I admit it. I watched portions of the Anna Nicole Smith custody hearing last week. Not, mind you, because I intended to, but because Im in the habit of keeping a muted TV set turned on in case some real news might intrude on the daily gossip roundups and grave reports of snow in February. After reading somewhere about the odd conduct of the judge in the case, when Fox News went to live court coverage, I decided to see for myself.

Usually, contact with network or cable television fare leaves me merely disgusted, but the sounds and sights of the goings-on in this case produced in me a profound state of sadness. Not just for Smith herself or her family, or the sorry cast of shysters, finaglers and hangers-on that modern wealth and fame seem to produce; but for our country. In a way, her piteous saga is a microcosm of much that is wrong in our once blessed and morally prosperous society.

Smiths is a modern-day American success story. She saw what she wanted and went out and got it. A sugar daddy, a new body and her own reality-TV show; in short, everything the new all-American girl could want. The price? Not too expensive when you consider that sex is todays currency. Its not a new story either; in fact, its one of the worlds oldest.

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WASHINGTON -- A computer and an Internet connection may soon be all that are needed for anyone to hear closing arguments in a corruption trial or listen to the testimony of a mob turncoat.

The federal judiciary approved a pilot program this week to make free audio recordings of court proceedings available online. Although a court's participation in the program is voluntary, U.S. District Judge Thomas F. Hogan, the executive committee chairman of the policy-making Judicial Conference, said he expects the system ultimately will be widely used.

"I do hope the Judicial Conference efforts will be looked at as an attempt to see if we can make court proceedings more inclusive and transparent to people," Hogan said in an interview.

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The experimental project to permit cameras into Indiana courtrooms has been proceeding at a snail?s pace. According to The Associated Press, only five cases have been recorded since the program began in July. The project is scheduled to conclude at the end of the year, with evaluations to follow.

Since participation demands written consent from all parties involved in a dispute, including attorneys on both sides, only a handful of cases have qualified for experimentation.

The Indiana Broadcasters Association has asked the Indiana Supreme Court to amend the program, affording judges sole discretion in determining if media can film.

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March 17, 2007Watching Broward County Circuit Judge Larry Seidlin officiate the hit live reality show "The Complicated Death," starring Anna Nicole Smith's ghost, I realized just how judgmental we've become.

When Seidlin's creepy weeping popped up on My Yahoo!, I jumped to judge him, until I noticed that my fellow Americans had already taken care of that.

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WASHINGTON ? A computer and an Internet connection may soon be all that are needed for anyone to hear closing arguments in a corruption trial or listen to the testimony of a mob turncoat.

The federal judiciary approved a pilot program this week to make free audio recordings of court proceedings available online. Although a court's participation in the program is voluntary, U.S. District Judge Thomas F. Hogan, the executive committee chairman of the policy-making Judicial Conference, said he expects the system ultimately will be widely used.

"I do hope the Judicial Conference efforts will be looked at as an attempt to see if we can make court proceedings more inclusive and transparent to people," Hogan said in an interview.

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WASHINGTON (AP) -- A computer and an Internet connection may soon be all that are needed for anyone to hear closing arguments in a corruption trial or listen to the testimony of a mob turncoat. The federal judiciary approved a pilot program this week to make free audio recordings of court proceedings available online. Although a court's participation in the program is voluntary, U.S. District Judge Thomas F. Hogan, the executive committee chairman of the policy-making Judicial Conference, sa...

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Upon reviewing Judge Larry Seidlin's antics in the Anna Nicole Smith case, the 4th District Court of Appeal should not have invoked the "tipsy coachman" rule, but the "meshuge cabdriver" doctrine.

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Listening to the Broward County, Fla. coroner warn that the still-unburied remains of the late Anna Nicole Smith were getting a bit ripe reminded me of one of Ambrose Bierce's more notorious remarks.

Speaking of a deceased actress in whose lifetime, he noted, was famous for her composure, Bierce, 19th century journalism's precursor of our beloved Ann Coulter, said that unfortunately, the lady was now "quite decomposed."

I can't help but wonder what Bierce would have said about the current media mania concerning the aftermath of Miss Smith's death, the disposal of her body, and the identity of the father of her last child.

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Between hourly updates on the decomposing body of Anna Nicole Smith and the balding of Britney Spears, we can confidently declare that the Jerry Springerization of America is complete.

The travails of these two tragic characters would be of little interest in a normal world, but ?celebrity? is the new normal. Like it or not, we?re all in this together.

Britney and Anna Nicole, after all, are our inventions. We made them celebrities, awarded them icon status, gave them life. Now, like Dr. Frankenstein upon realizing he?s created a monster, we?ve become instruments of their undoing.

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