Blake Prelim Set (But Not Shown)

A Los Angeles judge has moved to ban cameras from the preliminary hearing for the Baretta star, who's accused of gunning down wife Bonny Lee Bakley.

Blake, behind bars since his April 18 arrest, sported snowy white locks in his Monday court appearance, which was attended by actress/supporter Sally Kirkland. While that proceeding was recorded for TV, Superior Court Judge Lloyd Nash granted a defense request that the prelim, to feature witness testimony, be a media-circus-free zone.

Nash set November 13 as the start date for the prelim, quashing prosecutors' bid for a hearing that would have kicked off in just 10 days.

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The prelim will determine if there's enough evidence to try Blake and his bodyguard, Earle Caldwell, in the Bakley slaying.

Blake is charged with four counts stemming from the May 2001 shooting outside a Studio City, California, restaurant long frequented by the Emmy winner. Caldwell stands accused of conspiracy to commit murder. Both men have pleaded innocent to all counts against them.

The November prelim date is a victory for Blake's side; a time-killer for impatient prosecutors.

"We're ready to go and we've been ready to go and we want to get this testimony on record," says Sandi Gibbons, spokeswoman for the Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office.

Blake's attorney Harland Braun, not surprisingly, says he's happy with the judge's decision, which will give his team more time to go over reams of paperwork handed over by the prosecution, as well as audio tapes he claims will exonerate his client and prove police failed to thoroughly investigate other leads--including the possibility that someone from Bakley's past may have been the triggerman.

"We're scraping the surface," Braun says. "We have a tape where [Bakley's] discussing having [rock legend] Jerry Lee Lewis' wife killed so she can become his wife. There's tapes where she's complaining to Blake that she's being stalked by someone across the country."

Braun is also talking up Bakley's involvement with Christian Brando, son of Marlon, who had his own brush with notoriety in 1990, when he pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter in the shooting death of his half-sister's boyfriend.

Christian Brando was one of two men, Blake being the other, who Bakley said could be the father of her daughter, Rosie, born in June 2000. Subsequent DNA tests confirmed Blake as the papa, and the 68-year-old actor married Bakley that November.

According to Braun, one audio tape features Brando telling Bakley that her behavior could lead someone to "put a bullet in [her] head."

While Braun works the room, his client is working the cell. The veteran Hollywood denizen, whose career dates back to the 1930s and Little Rascal shorts (where he was billed as Mickey Gubitosi), has received a host of celeb visits during his stint at the Los Angeles Men's Central Jail. On the guest list: Anthony Hopkins, Quincy Jones, Barbara Walters and Diane Sawyer. (Of course, here's guessing ABC newsies Walters and Sawyer didn't just come to shoot the breeze.)

Blake, who turns 69 on September 18, is being held without bail, with courts twice rejecting his request for a get-out-of-jail-free card. California's Supreme Court is set to take up the matter and issue a ruling by October 1.