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Art Harris, guest on Nancy Grace Show Monday night, Jan. 25

From Bald Truth Staff, (c) www.artharris.com, all rights reserved

HLN’s Nancy Grace Show has invited Art Harris of The Bald Truth (www.artharris.com or Baldtruthtv.com) back on as a guest Wed. night, Jan. 27, and Friday night, Jan. 29 to update viewers on the latest in the Haleigh Cummings mystery.

Of course, we’re under no illusions…Tiger Woods…more mistresses and sex rehab…a new missing child, or another big, breaking crime story could bounce Haleigh, an unsolved mystery that would likely draw more interest if the missing child had parents to cheer for, instead of a thuggish 26 year old papa who loved her, but also had a penchant for guns, drugs and much younger teenage girls.

He was stripped of custody last week after winding up behind bars on drug trafficking charges, with ex-wife and Haleigh’s ex-stepmom Misty Croslin, the accused mastermind. Haleigh’s mother, Crystal Sheffield enjoyed only visitation until she passed a pop drug test and a judge awarded her responsibility for Haleigh’s 4 year old brother, JR.

To sustain media interest in a missing little girl, it helps if she has educated, articulate parents to express anguish, with motives no one can question and no record of using or misusing illegal drugs. But you can’t create a perfect drama without actually casting the true crime movie; news execs and show producers have to play the real life cast they’re dealt.

That’s the way news works in an era of 24/7 cable, where no matter the network, murder means business, and shows that scream for justice demand a story worth screaming about, like a beautiful, missing little girl with a hands-on-hip attitude and a smile that grabs you by the heart — and won’t let go. Read the rest of this entry »

Haiti Jesus Survives, (c) artharris.com

By Art Harris, The Bald Truth, www.artharris.com, all rights reserved

There’s nothing she can do for close friend Nathalie Michel, 33, a bank teller burned to death in the killer earthquake when her crumbled office building caught fire in downtown Port au Prince six days ago.

But veteran translator Viviane Boulos (French, Creole, English), an old friend of mine who is homebound with a broken leg in a suburb called Petion-Ville just outside the capital, is fielding e mails from friends and neighbors on the prowl for survivors, and begging me, begging me, to direct rescuers to the young mother of a newborn locals are telling her was still trapped and fighting to stay alive Tuesday beneath the collapsed Carribean Market on Delmas Road —an astounding seven days after the earthquake destroyed her city.

The missing mother is Paola Handal, says Viviane, who was buying food for her baby when the killer quake hit. “I’m getting e mails from witnesses who are telling me she’s alive,” says Viviane. “I was so upset when I heard rescuers were calling off the searches yesterday because they said no one could live this long, but people ARE still alive, and still need help.

In a new detail, Viviane tells The Bald Truth Paola’s relatives she knows were receiving text messages from a man claiming to be trapped beneath the pancaked grocery near Paola and that she was still alive. Then his texts suddenly stopped, though it’s unclear when. “The guy was also under the debris when he was texting her relatives,” Viviane added in an e mail I just received. “By now, he must have run out of juice.” Read the rest of this entry »

Gloria Allred, Seeking Italian Justice, More magazine

By Art Harris, The Bald Truth, (c) www.artharris.com, all rights reserved

It’s 7 AM on the last Friday in September, 2006 when the gray Lancia rolls down Via Sistina and pulls up to the five-star Inter Continental hotel. Rome is waking up to the aroma of rich espresso laced with exhaust fumes, and to the furies of an American feminist lawyer on a mission.

Gloria Allred has come to Italy to make sure an accused killer doesn’t walk, and to single-handedly show her two grandchildren a real Roman adventure. “I don’t do nannies,” she says with a sniff. “Never did.”

While the teenagers sleep off jet lag, Allred’s off to see the prosecutor, a translator named Rosella in tow–and me, tagging along for a trans-Atlantic joyride with Lady Justice, aka Gloria, an old friend I was then assigned to profile for MORE magazine. Only now she has a Tiger in her tank, representing an alleged mistress of the golf superstar, Rachel Uchitel. And with Friday’s stunning Amanda Knox guilty verdict, Allred can’t be surprised, not after our run-in with double standard Italian justice. Read the rest of this entry »