Durst the Next OJS? I Don’t Think So

The media salivate at the thought of another O.J. Simpson murder trial.

Ad at least one in their ranks thinks he smells it. The People vs. Robert Durst.

Say, who?

Here are elements that might make that so:

Both suspects — male.

Both suspects — rich.

Here are dissimilar elements:

Simpson was a household name in several forums —

1. Sports (football star in both college and the pros, television commentator).
2. Movies/TV (Roots, The Klansman, The Towering Inferno, The Cassandra Crossing, Capricorn One, Back to the Beach, The Naked Gun trilogy, Goldie and the Boxer, Melissa Michaelsen and Cocaine and Blue Eyes.)
3. Advertising (pitchman for Hertz rental car company, Pioneer Chicken and HoneyBaked Ham, and appeared in commercials for several other products/companies.)
4. Lived among and rubbed elbows with the “beautiful” people.

Durst is —

1. um …

Variety TV columnist Brian Lowry, in his “With Robert Durst, the Media Gets Its 21st-Century O.J.” column last week, touts Durst as the next O.J. in the world of high-profile trials.

That Lowry would equate Simpson and Durst because the “cases each became entrenched in the public consciousness via jaw-dropping televised moments — the slow-speed White Bronco chase and Durst’s open-mic monologue that, whether or not it’s used in a courtroom, certainly sounded like an admission of guilt” is ludicrous and shows Lowry to be a major media-bubble dweller.

True, the Durst open-mic moment made headlines for a minute, but that in no way compares to the “Bronco chase.”

That “chase” was followed for nearly two hours on live TV by all three major networks and an estimated 95  million viewers. The “chase,” which topped about 35 mph, escorted by a phalanx of police and highway patrol cars, shut down dozens of freeway on- and off-ramps and cheered by multitudes of cheering onlookers lining freeway overpasses, frontage roads and rooftops along the route, was, indeed, a galvanizing event that is entrenched in public consciousness and historic lore.

How can anyone seriously equate the two?