When the saga started, Robert Blake had dark hair.

More than three years after his wife's shooting death and more than two years after his arrest, the gone-snowy-white actor will stand trial Monday in a Van Nuys, California, courtroom for the murder of Bonny Lee Bakley.

Since it's taken a while to get to opening arguments, let's take a refresher course on a celebrity case that makes up in twists, turns and pasta for what it arguably lacks in glamour.

THE DEFENDANT: Robert Blake, age 71, aka Bobby Blake, aka Mickey Gubitosi (two early screen names--Gubitosi is Blake's given surname), aka "The Badger."

THE VICTIM: Bonny Lee Bakley, age 44 at the time of her death, aka Mrs. Robert Blake, aka the mother of Blake's youngest daughter, Rose, born in 2000.

HIS STORY: He's an Emmy winner, who as a child starred in "Our Gang" shorts and Red Ryder westerns (playing Little Beaver), and as an adult specialized in cold-blooded killers (In Cold Blood, Judgment Day: The John List Story) and tough-guy good guys (TV's Baretta, Hell Town).

HER STORY: She's a starstuck New Jersey girl whose talent lies in corresponding with, sometimes marrying and sometimes scamming older men. (She also dabbles in forgery.) Among her Hollywood-adjacent catches are Blake and Christian Brando, son of Marlon.

THEIR CUTE MEET: At a jazz club, Chadney's, in Burbank, California, in 1998.

THE HOLIDAY INN INCIDENT: In 1999, Blake and Bakley reportedly had a rendezvous at one of the hotel chain's Los Angeles-area outlets, producing their daughter--and their marriage.

THE LAST SUPPER: May 4, 2001, at Vitello's, the actor's favorite Italian restaurant, in Studio City, California. Bakley has the meat ravioli, a salad with blue cheese dressing and an iced tea. Blake has the Fusilli ? la Robert Blake (pasta with red sauce and spinach).

THE CRIME: Following their meal, at about 9:30 p.m., Bakley is shot in the head as she sits in Blake's 1991 Dodge Stealth, which is parked near Vitello's. She's pronounced dead at nearby St. Joseph's Medical Center.

BLAKE'S VERSION OF EVENTS: Blake leaves a very much alive Bakley alone in the car while he walks back to Vitello's, where he's accidentally left behind his .38-caliber handgun (toted because of numerous death threats against his shady wife). Upon returning to the car, he finds Bakley bleeding from the head.

THE STATE'S VERSION OF EVENTS: Blake, looking to end an unwanted marriage in definitive fashion, shoots Bakley in the head. Twice.

PLOT HOLE IN BLAKE'S STORY: Workers at Vitello's see Blake return to the restaurant following his dinner with Bakley. They hear him upchuck in the bathroom. They don't see him search for a gun.

PLOT HOLE IN THE STATE'S STORY: No conclusive forensic evidence linking Blake to the alleged murder weapon, a World War II-era 9mm Walther P-38.

THE ARREST: Blake is cuffed at his Hidden Hills, California, home on April 18, 2002. Earle Caldwell, Blake's bodyguard, is taken into custody the same day.

THE CHARGES: Blake is accused of murdering Bakley, conspiring to murder Bakley and asking old cronies (two of them former Baretta stuntmen) to murder Bakley. Caldwell is accused of assembling a Drano-equipped murder kit for his boss. Both men plead innocent.

AND THEN THERE WAS ONE DEFENDANT... On Oct. 31, 2003, the conspiracy charge against Caldwell is dismissed for lack of evidence. The conspiracy charge against Blake is also dropped.

THE STAKES: If convicted, Blake faces life in prison.

OTHER HOLLYWOOD STARS TO BE TRIED FOR MURDER (NOT MANSLAUGHTER, NOT CRIMINALLY NEGLIGENT HOMICIDE): One--O.J. Simpson, acquitted of double murder in 1995.

THE TRIAL (TAKE ONE): Jury selection begins in January 2004. The process is scrapped one month later when Blake divorces his third attorney, Thomas Mesereau Jr.

THE BLAKE LAWYER SCORECARD: M. Gerald Schwartzbach (March 2004-present), Mesereau (November 2002-February 2004; leaves for unspecified reasons), Jennifer Keller (November 2002-January 2003; quits when Blake wants to do a TV interview with Barbara Walters), Harland Braun (May 2001-October 2002; quits when Blake wants to do a TV interview with Diane Sawyer).

THE PROSECUTION'S TAKE ON THE BLAKE LAWYER SCORECARD: "This is partially a ploy to keep Mr. Blake out of custody." --Los Angeles Deputy District Attorney Shellie Samuels, following Mesereau's departure.

THE DEFENSE'S TAKE ON THE PROSECUTION'S TAKE: "We are all anxious for the trial to proceed as quickly as possible." --Schwartzbach, at a pretrial hearing in October.

WHY THE TRIAL GOT DELAYED--AGAIN: On Dec. 1, after a 12-person jury is seated, Schwartzbach tells the court that the computer containing "the heart and soul of the defense case" has been stolen from his apartment. Later, Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Darlene Schempp pushes back the trial opener from Dec. 6 to Dec. 20.

THE COMPUTER CAPER CRACKED: Koi Hughes Burton, 18, and Michael Washington, 19, are arrested Dec. 13, in connection with the heist, after police recover the purloined laptop--"heart and soul of the defense case," apparently intact--from a Van Nuys, California, pawn shop. Police say the two men, who plead innocent to the crime, have no connection to Blake.

WHY THE TRIAL COULD START--AND STOP--AGAIN: The holidays. It's believed the trial will recess around Dec. 23 and pick up after the New Year.

WHO WON'T BE ON TRIAL: Christian Brando. In October, Judge Schempp rules the defense cannot try to convince jurors that Bakley was killed because Marlon Brando's troubled son said something that led to the woman's murder at the hands--and gun--of a homeless, toothless man.

WHO'LL BE ON THE HOT SEAT: Ronald "Duffy" Hambleton. A key prosecution witness, the ex-Baretta fall guy may be quizzed by the defense as to whether he set up the Bakley killing for someone who wasn't Blake. Also look for the defense to portray Hambelton and Gary McLarty, another ex-Baretta stuntman and prosecution witness, as addled drug users whose memories can't be trusted.

ANOTHER OTHER FINE L.A. DINING ESTABLISHMENT LIKELY TO BE MENTIONED DURING TRIAL: DuPar's, the Studio City coffee shop where Blake allegedly told Hambleton he wanted to "snuff" out Bakley.

WHERE CASEY KASEM'S MOTHER-IN-LAW FIGURES INTO ALL THIS: In March 2003, Blake is granted $1.5 million bail on the proviso he remains under house arrest until the conclusion of his trial. Upon being sprung (and outfited with an electronic ankle bracelet monitoring his every move), Blake retires to a beachfront Malibu, California, condo. The unit most recently has been home to the mother of Casey Kasem's wife, actress Jean Kasem (The Tortellis).

WHY BLAKE GOT DIBS ON MOTHER-IN-LAW KASEM'S PAD: "We're doing what we're doing because it's the right thing to do," Jean Kasem tells CBS News last year.

OTHER, UM, STARS TO STAND BY BLAKE: Oatmeal enthusiast Wilfred Brimley, Guys & Dolls veteran Jean Simmons, In Cold Blood cohort Scott Wilson, comic Mort Sahl.

WHERE BARBARA WALTERS FIGURES INTO ALL THIS: Judge Schempp ruled Dec. 15 that the prosecution may play portions of Blake's February 2003 jailhouse interview at trial. Samuels will argue Blake lied to Walters about the state of his union to Bakley, giving the broadcaster the upbeat spin while privately to Sahl calling the woman's family "monsters." (Snippets of the Sahl conversation, recorded in jail in 2002 also may be played for jurors.)

BEST PLACE TO, UM, STARGAZE AT THE COURTHOUSE: Right outside the building where Blake often hangs during breaks, smoking cigarettes and, on at least one occasion, strumming "Over the Rainbow" on a borrowed guitar.

IS THE BADGER READY? "The badger is ready." --Blake, to reporters, after the Dec. 6 hearing that postponed his trial.