Last Looks · Chippendales · Unsolved Mysteries
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the true crime that's worth your time
Is Last Looks what it’ll take to make me sign up for Quibi? This is that true fashion crime show we talked about before the pandemic, back when we were young and our hearts were filled with song. Its narrator is Dakota Fanning, its producer is fashion/lifestyle website Refinery 29, which itself has seen some significant changes in recent months.
Back when we first heard about the show, I don’t think we truly understood the mess that Quibi was already in (if you don’t think of the doomed, every-ep-is-10-min platform every time you see Ulysses S. Grant, you should probably read this now). But knowing what we know now makes this interview with Fanning on the show (published this week, to be clear) seem all the sadder, like this flaccid defense of Quibi’s bite-sized mission:
If you are a true crime fan, I think that you'll get a quick hit of these stories in that Quibi way, which makes it very easy to follow and easy to understand and super fast in this time where everyone is starting to get back into… I mean, we're not back into normal life, but we can go for a walk again. It won't take up too much of your time.
Oh, honey.
So I’m torn. I will watch any and all fashion-related true crime (that’s why I keep writing about that Gucci movie that no one cares about, sorry), but I think I might be too cool for Quibi. So I guess I will just wait until someone buys Last Looks and cobbles its 18 5-minute episodes into a grownup-sized show. You can tell me if I’m being needlessly stubborn, it’s OK. — EB
This week, Sarah and I are your puppets. It’s up to you, dear readers, to force Sarah and me to watch a true crime show we have yet to watch. If you haven’t voted yet, you still have time:
Once we’re done, we’ll take pen to paper and share our most candid thoughts on the property, in two special Best Evidence issues that will go to paid subscribers only. So if you don’t want to miss anything, now it’s time to
“LA's Most Famous and Mysterious Murder House” has been sold. No, this isn’t the Polanski/Tate house, or Phil Spector Alhambra mansion, or the Beverly Hills house where Bugsy Siegel was famously killed. The residence that gets top ranking is, per Curbed, a Spanish Revival mansion at 2475 Glendower Place where cardiologist Harold Perelson killed his wife, tried to kill his daughter (she escaped), then overdosed on pills.
This 2015 Medium piece is a great read on why this arguably work-a-day domestic homicide still resonates some 61 years later — “internet rumors” about the place include ghosts, and that “there's still a Christmas tree and wrapped presents left in the house from that night in 1959.”
Its mystery continues today: Last week, Variety reported that the home had been sold after languishing on the market for 16 months. It’s a story you can see in Variety’s search function (and was picked up by multiple other publications…but if you click on the story’s link, you get a 404. So, even news coverage of the building is cursed!
Just kidding, we don’t believe in that nonsense here, do we? Anyway, its last owner picked it up for $2.3 back in 2016, and by May of 2019, it was back on the market for $3.5…but reportedly didn’t move until its price was slashed to $2.5. It doesn’t look like the sale is complete, however, as the listing is still up, and shows a building' that’s been taken down to the studs inside (but according to these photos, was intact prior to the 2016 sale). So, perhaps a flip gone wrong? That, too, is a mystery. — EB
There’s already a trailer for the next season of Unsolved Mysteries. I’ll be the first to admit that I was skeptical about the Netflix reboot of this venerable property, but it really worked out well, right?
Well enough, at least, that its second season is almost upon us: According to Netflix, the show’s second season will drop on October 19, with “six new mysteries.” The streaming platform doesn’t name names, but says that this season promises “Suspicious deaths, missing children, encounters with spirits and other true-life tales.” What do you recognize from the trailer — and will you be back for Season 2? — EB
A big screen adaptation of the Chippendales murders is picking up steam. This 1994 LA Times piece will give you a peek into the rise and fall of Somen Banerjee, who with Paul Snider (who you might recall from Star 80 as the man who killed Dorothy Stratten) founded the male revue in the late 1970s, and was convicted of murder and racketeering 20 years later. His story does not end well.
Now Deadline reports that Dev Patel has been cast as Banerjee in a film to be directed by Craig Gillespie (I, Tonya). Can this movie, which has yet to enter production, achieve the heights of 2000-era TV-movie The Chippendales Murder, which only seems to be available via Australian DVD and seems very, very gay? Seriously, look at this:
So, anyway, now I’m on a quest to find this movie, so if anyone has any leads, hit me up. — EB
One more adaptation: This one’s of one of my favorite true crime longform reads ever. If you haven’t read Angels & Demons, Thomas French’s 1997 story on three women found dead in Tampa Bay, you are in for a treat: Longform has the whole thing here, but set aside some time and attention, as they’ve tagged it a 3 hr and 30 minute read.
It’s a story that sticks with you, but so far, it’s stymied all efforts at adaptation: there have been rumors and casting talk for years, but nothing concrete. Last week, Deadline reported that Scott Cooper (Black Mass) has agreed to develop a limited series based on the report. It’s his first small screen effort, and Cooper will reportedly write and direct each episode, a strategy that’s worked well when it comes to fictional crime narratives like True Detective’s and Big Little Lies’ first seasons. — EB
Friday on Best Evidence: Still working that out, stay tuned!
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