Nancy Grace Is Not Ready for Her Close-Up. Too Bad!

Judge denies request by HLN's leading pundit to ban cameras during tomorrow's deposition in wrongful death lawsuit

Nancy Grace, camera-shy? Tough.

A federal judge has dismissed the pundit's request that her forthcoming deposition in a wrongful-death lawsuit not be recorded, paving the way for HLN's Southern sasspot to get her courtroom close-up.

Grace is currently defending herself and her show against allegations of so severely badgering a guest—the mother of a missing 2-year-old boy—that the woman committed suicide shortly after her appearance.

The Jon Gosselin treatment's not for everybody.

Grace, scheduled to be deposed tomorrow in Florida court, argued that allowing cameras to be present would cause "annoyance, embarrassment, oppression and undue harm should the videotape be released prior to trial for purposes unrelated to the litigation."

In other words, Nancy Grace isn't looking to become the next viral video star.

The estate of 21-year-old Melinda Duckett, the late mother of the still-missing Trenton Duckett, filed suit within two months of Melinda's Sept. 7, 2006 appearance, in which Grace started off pleasantly enough but soon devolved into desk-pounding screams at the distraught mother when her questions weren't being answered as thoroughly as Grace would have hoped.

"Where were you?" Grace demanded. "Why aren't you telling us where you were that day?"

The interview was pretaped and the next day, just hours prior to its broadcast, Duckett shot herself in the head. A week later, Grace appeared on Good Morning America and, well, she wasn't exactly all warmth and sympathy.

"If anything, I would suggest that guilt made her commit suicide," she said at the time.

Needless to say, Duckett's family disagreed, alleging that Grace caused the death and intenionally inflicted emotional distress on the family.