It looks like Catherine Zeta-Jones' alleged stalker will get her own taste of fame--or is it infamy--soon via the small screen?
A Los Angeles judge ruled Monday that preliminary trial proceedings involving Dawnette Knight, the 33-year-old Zeta-Jones-hater, could be televised. Zeta-Jones' legal team had asked the judge to bar cameras from the courtroom--claiming media coverage could inspire copycat crimes.
While Los Angeles Judge David Mintz initially disagreed with legal reps for Zeta-Jones, all is not lost for the Chicago star. Mintz also ruled Monday that cameras would not be allowed to cover the prelims during witness testimony.
In addition to Zeta-Jones' attorney's request to put the kibosh on cameras in the courtroom, the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department has filed a separate motion asking Mintz to bar cameras from the trial itself--which is set to commence Nov. 10.
Mintz has yet to rule on the L.A. County Sheriff's request.
Zeta-Jones can at least take solace in the fact that the trial against the Michael Douglas-obsessed Knight is indeed moving forward this fall. After a lengthy and bizarre summer pre-trial evidentiary hearing, a judge finally ordered up a criminal trial last month.
This summer, the court learned in chilling detail from witnesses including Zeta-Jones, how Knight allegedly phoned in numerous death threats to the Welsh stunner while she was on the set of Ocean's Twelve in Amsterdam.
Knight and her attorney have repeatedly asserted that the entire case has been blown out of proportion by the D.A., Zeta-Jones' husband Douglas and Zeta-Jones. "She's very, very sorry that all this happened," Knight's attorney Richard Herman said of his client in July. "She's represented to me her remorse on many occasions?and her desire not to cause anyone any more distress."
Knight, who has been behind bars since her June 3 arrest, pleaded innocent to all charges against her Sept. 19.
The alleged stalker is currently being held on $1 million dollar bail, but her lawyer has requested a bail review. Mintz, who was to rule on Knight's bail Monday, postponed the review until Oct. 13.