Amanda Peet IS DL Fave Betty Broderick and Christian Slater IS Dan Broderick

Wow. Slater is now solidly in the "Hot Daddy" category.

Which is just great!

[quote]Slater is now solidly in the "Hot Daddy" category.

Is that sarcasm?

more castings

This message is for fuckhead and the cunt...

The fuck, people? There is only ONE Betty Broderick, and it's not Betty Broderick!

So wait....it was renewed by Bravo, but it's airing on USA Network?

Or am I reading something wrong?

It was moved to USA as part of NBCUniversal's restructuring strategy.

Im excited for this!! Betty should have been out of jail YEARS ago

Linda & others cast

Amanda Peet is a terrible actress. Truly bad. No one will ever top what Meredith Baxter did with this "role."

I don't see Peet as a blowsy blonde. Will she wear a fat suit?

She's too skinny-faced to play Betty.

Betty can only be played by a young attractive woman (she was neither at the time of the murder) and her husband is allowed to be played by a rapidly aging former star.

They should have cast Linda Holmes from NPR -- she could make her film debut and be great at something for once.

Amanda Peet is one of the most annoying actresses working!

Amanda Peet will be perfect as Maria Shriver in a future film about Arnold cheating on her with the nanny.

This should have been on Feud Season 2

Coming June 2!

There will never be one as good.

R19 I agree totally. I have seen all the interviews with Betty Broderick and Meredith Baxter was perfect casting for her.

I only hope this new piece portrays the husband as the vile piece work he truly was. Up until the point Betty Broderick fired the gun she was absolutely the victim. The husband had deployed every dirty lawyer trick going to screw her over.

Meredith was brilliant. Way ahead of her time.

OP's pic is proof that everybody has a wonky eye. Look at Amanda's left eye.

The thing about Meredith was she able to make you be on Betty's side, as crazy as that sounds. She exuded that wounded housewife-who-supported-her-husband-for-years-only-to-be-discarded feeling in every scene so you always knew where Betty stood.

Amanda is not a good enough actress to project that.

[quote]The thing about Meredith was she able to make you be on Betty's side, as crazy as that sounds. She exuded that wounded housewife-who-supported-her-hu - sband-for-years-only-to-be-dis - carded feeling in every scene so you always knew where Betty stood.

Yeah, it's not enough to be loud and crazy. Anyone can shout and throw crap and call it acting.

What you want to see is the utter betrayal she felt, the rage at being used, and the loss.

Peet should have been cast as the bimbo Dan ran off with.

Just heard about this new series. I was reading up on the story online to refresh my memory -- I hadn't seen the movie(s) since the '90s -- and I didn't realize (or had forgotten) how similar Betty looked to Baxter in some pictures.

Michelle Johnson played Betty's husband's new partner. Weirdly Amanda looks more like her than Betty or Baxter.

I confuse Amanda Peet with Hilary Swank.

Meredith Baxter WAS Betty. Anyone else is #2.

I remember I was impressed with Baxter's performance, she did great. The story is so classic though. She was so thoroughly screwed over, who wouldn't be enraged? She lost her shit - that is true but the ex and new miss were really contemptible in their behavior towards her. Knowing that she was obviously unbalanced I think that makes them all the more hateful.

There was a time when you could not avoid Amanda Peet - she was cast in everything. I was glad when she finally did disappear. Maybe she'll come back as a better actress but I'm not optimistic.

[quote] The story is so classic though. She was so thoroughly screwed over, who wouldn't be enraged? She lost her shit - that is true but the ex and new miss were really contemptible in their behavior towards her. Knowing that she was obviously unbalanced I think that makes them all the more hateful.

Thing is that after an adjustment period, Betty settled into prison life. She refuses to express remorse to get parole, is relatively content and active in prison. I think murdering her husband and new wife released an enormous amount of inner tension. She got justice, as she saw it--AND was what she wanted.

Just today, I was discussing Santa Muerte with some people. They were SO POLITICALLY CORRECT about this cult. Cries of not offending worshippers, ect. Most do not understand why this underground, small cult is the fastest growing religion in the West. One reason: because they sell black votive candles that you can use to pray for revenge against those who harmed you. In marginalized societies, where the police are ineffective and the victims have criminal records, the desire to avenge a wrong can be overwhelming.

In a sense, Betty's husband shut her out from the justice system in San Diego and b/c she lashed out, she marginalized herself as mentally unstable. Denied justice, she sought vengeance.

I was disappointed Baxter didn't win the Emmy that year for her performance, although she was nominated.

I think her performance was perhaps a little ahead of its time.

Like others have said, people identified and even sympathized with Betty. These types of anti-hero roles were not really popular back in the early '90s (especially for women) but would be as the decade moved on.

Based on this pic, Topher Grace would have been a better choice than Christian Slater. Of course, Slater is one of those performers whom, like Ben Affleck or Madonna, 99.9% of all performers are better than.

Yeah, Topher would've been a better fit. I don't get the casting of Slater. The real Dan was fairly attractive. Then again, I never found Slater good-looking, even in his heyday.

The Betty Broderick trial was one of the first trials to get extensive TV coverage. I don’t remember feeling sorry at all for BB. She had time and opportunity to “cool off” and make something else out of her life. She had 4 kids, IIRC, and her 24/7 rage ruined their lives as well.

Around the same time as the Betty Broderick trial was televised, the Maglite (flashlight) palimony trial was televised as well. Woman received a huge money judgment. She was way more sympathetic than BB.

I have come across many people who think that OJ was the first televised murder trial, but even the Menendez Brothers preceded him by two years. That was a media sensation in the early '90s.

I thought Pamela Smart was the first televised trial.

Amanda Peet really is bizarre casting. She was serviceable in things as a bitch girlfriend, but leading lady she is not. And from the looks of the trailer, it looks like my suspicions have been confirmed. This is a juicy role. You would think that more acclaimed actresses would be interested. I could even see Connie Britton from season one playing the part.

I wouldn’t be surprised if this was Universal trying to get in good with Peet’s family so they can work with her husband (co-creator of Game of Thrones) in the future.

Amanda looks nothing like Betty. She should be played by a heavy set woman who has lost her looks. You need to present the accurate picture. Amanda looks like the woman he would cheat on her with.

That’s Meredith Baxter Periodic Lesbian, you fuckhead!

Am I the only one who thinks calling it Dirty John: the Betty Broderick Story is fucking stupid?

r42 Yeah. Shouldn't it be "Dirty Dan"?

June Diane Rapheal should have been cast as Betty

June Diane Rapheal should have been cast as Betty

See, R45. That would be interesting casting that at least takes a risk.

Who the fuck wants to watch The Amanda Peet Show in 2020? She was always the person you got for some bitchy supporting role when ten other people already turned down. If her husband wasn’t the co-creator of Game of Thrones, she would have, at best, a recurring role in some original USA police procedural.

I have a love/hate relationship with Amanda Peet—she seems phony to me in interviews which puts me off, but she is very beautiful and I do think she is good at playing ruthless cunts, so she'll probably handle this role well.

Meredith owns this role. So much so that when I got around the reading the book on the case, I was extremely disappointed that the real Betty didn't use as colorful and broad a repertoire as Meredith did for the movie.

Amanda Peet is bizarre casting to say the least.

I like Amanda Peet. But, she's so wrong for this role. I'll probably tune into this show because it looks like campy like how the Law&Order: Mendenez Brothers series was.

[quote]Am I the only one who thinks calling it Dirty John: the Betty Broderick Story is fucking stupid?

I agree. The producers of Dirty John should have used some title like True Crime: Dirty John for that season and then True Crime: Betty Broderick.

[quote]Amanda Peet is bizarre casting to say the least.

If you view the trailer and the publicity stills for the show vs. pics of the real Betty you see how bizarre the Amanda Peet casting is.

R51 Bizarre, indeed!

Someone upthread mentioned that Peet resembles more the actress who played Linda in A WOMAN SCORNED, and they're right!

The role of Betty should have been offered to me.

Poor Betty. dan and linda got what they deserved

I hope this show includes scenes of Linda fucking an ex boyfriend before her wedding to Dan.

Wasn't Amanda Peet in Something's Gotta Give. I like the movie but couldn't STAND her in that.

Why the need to remake an already successful movie or miniseries?

No one will ever replace Meredith as Betty.

[quote]Keller will play Linda Kolkena, a bright, beautiful, capable young receptionist who Dan hires to lighten his workload. Liberated and optimistic, Linda falls in love with her new boss but struggles to reconcile their years long affair with her traditional values.

Bitch, please.

R58 LOL! It seems as if this script has been taken over by woke whackos, so that now both Betty and Linda are victims of Dan. He is so being vilified in this! As he should be, but the women weren't exactly saints, ,either.

Why is it with liberals that women and minorities are ALWAYS perpetual victims? How is that NOT insulting?

Hollywood must fear the wrath of the Kolkenas, because this is the second film in a row where that filthy skank-whore is painted as some kind of sweet, innocent angel.

[quote], a bright, beautiful, capable young receptionist who Dan hires to lighten his workload.

...Even though she couldn't type.

R61 The key word in that description is 'liberated.':

[quote]Liberated and optimistic, Linda falls in love with her new boss but struggles to reconcile their years long affair with her traditional values.

To the SJWs, as long as a woman proclaims liberation, she's guilt-free.

Team Betty!

Team Betty, part 2 duh

Side note - my friend is friends with Dan Jr.

I think I've read that Ms. Kolkena was "let go" by the airline where she worked as a flight attendant for shenanigans with a passenger.

Her "traditional values" and all the rest of her were FIRED!

Is my memory faulty?

The true victims of this whole ordeal were the children. I hope they remember that.

I read "Until the Twelfth of Never", a book about all this. I'm a BB fan. Justice comes in differing forms. She was goaded into her form of justice.

Dan was a good-looking guy. Slater is not.

The original tv movie is posted on youtube.

Bump. Just finished Dirty John the other night, and VERY excited for this, one of my favorite true crimes. I'm sure I'll be disappointed because of course Peet will NEVER match MBB's performance, which was one for the ages. Looks like Christian Slater will play Dan as more of a heel, as opposed to Stephen Collins, who made him likable. Also, I see Peet refused to ugly herself up too much for the role.

Anyway, here's the trailer

Peet’s giant horseteeth are blinding and distracting.

linda kolkena was a whore. She and dan drove Betty insane. They got exactly what they deserved

Best money EVER spent on a box of bullets 💰

Betty Broderick is the original karen. Peet is too classy to play her.

Peet doesn't suggest Betty in the slightest. I guess this version will be a "reimagining"...

There was a version of this story with Meredith Baxter decades ago. She did a good Betty.

R39 Connie Britton would have been good. But, ya know, she can't do two "Dirty John" shows.

Christian Slater seems to have had major hairline restoration.

Since this is cable, they'll be able to show Betty in all her foul-mouthed glory. Those answering machine messages were pure gold.

"Listen asshole, you have a hell of a lot of nerve dumping the kids on me when it's YOUR weekend. Is the cunt there? In the hallway with her legs wide open for anyone who passes by? You both make me sick. Call me asshole, we have a lot to talk about."

If Kate McKinnon was ten years older and fatter she would be great as Betty Broderick.

[quot]I read "Until the Twelfth of Never", a book about all this

That was one of the best true crime books I've ever read.

R1 Did you watch Mr. Robot?

Amanda Peet is a good actress, but Meredith Baxer's performance is ICONIC!

Linda Kolkena was quite the slut. Before hooking up with Dan she was a "flight attendant" but only lasted about 6 months in the job due to having sex (she was off duty) with a passenger on a plane and using foul language. She tried to make it seem as though it was all a misunderstanding, but she was fired, anyway. She wasn't even 21 years old then (she was 21 when she started screwing Dan, her boss).

Betty Broderick would be a difficult role to play if it was going to be done right. The physical aspect would have been demanding. She started out slim, beautiful and stylishly dressed; after Dan left her she got fat, frumped around in sweatsuits and wore her hair in a ragged ponytail. She went through a major personality change, too. She was an intelligent, funny, admired well-liked woman and after Dan left she became an unbearable harridan, cursing (she'd never cursed before) and yammering about her prick of a husband and his whore. As played by Meredith Baxter she was a bitch from hell right from the beginning and poor Dan seems like a saint for putting up with her for as long as he did. Baxter is also slim, well-coiffed and beautifully dressed throughout the entire movie; Betty's physical deterioration is completely omitted. And of course Dan and LInda sordid affair (they'd been screwing for two years before Dan had the guts to admit to his wife what she'd suspected all along) has been revamped into a sweet love story.

I'm going to watch this show because I've always found the Betty Broderick case fascinating. But I don't know how well the actors are going to do in it. I'm not familiar with Amanda Peet. I don't know how talented she is but she doesn't resemble Betty Broderick at all. And Christian Slater, who's alway had a weird vibe about him, seems really miscast as Dan. Dan was an Irish, very clean cut, American looking guy, and quite handsome too, once he'd had a nose job. Christian Slater, even though he's made up to look like Dan, just looks kind of odd. Oh well, I'll watch it anyway.

Isn't Christian Slater a lot older than Dan Broderick was when he died? It's obvious he isn't as attractive as Dan was. Sort of like Kevin Spacey playing Bobby Darin.

Rat-face Dan was no looker.

I thought Dan Broderick was attractive; Slater not at all.

"Rat-face Dan was no looker."

Oh, come on. Photos of him show that whatever else he was, he was a handsome man. He actually got better looking as he got older, and a little plastic surgery on his nose really improved his looks. Betty, on the other hand, seemed to be aging at a greater rate than Dan. She'd really been through the wringer physically. She got pregnant nine times during her 16 years of marriage to Dan. She carried four children to term; they were all difficult pregnancies. The rest resulted in miscarriages and I think a premature baby that died. There was at least one abortion. He didn't want a wife who looked her age. He was finally rich and wanted to play and he wanted a young playmate. He found the perfect one in Linda Kolkena. It's funny how fate works. Here's Dan Broderick, unhappy with his marriage, and both literally and figuratively a 21 year old chippie drops into his lap who is the exact physical type (tall, blonde, skinny) that appeals to him. LInda Kolkena was the beginning of the end for Betty Broderick. No wonder Betty wouldn't call her anything but "the cunt."

I don't know what the big deal about actors not looking like their characters. The reason they are doing this is because the story. I remember when people flipped out about casting Jaoquin Phoenix as Johnny Cash and looked what happened.

R90 He's an exception to the rule. Plus, Joaquin did his own singing and was able to give an essence of Cash. Not to mention that Cash hand-picked him. But there is such a thing as miscasting. Peet and Slater are just all wrong for the parts. In every way. Peet looks too Real Housewife and Slater is not attractive at all.

I really would like to see the "letting herself go" part depicted accurately. Peet looks thin as a pin. We get it, Amanda, you don't want to gain weight for the role.

I hope they don’t whitewash how shitty Dan and Linda were to Betty.

I hope they don’t whitewash how shitty Dan and Linda were to Betty.

I've always seen Betty Broderick's story as a cautionary tale. You just have to get up and move on, no matter how painful it is, because if you don't you will go crazy.

Christian Slater isn’t handsome in the Ken doll sense that John Broderick was.

R94 It sounds as if they're going to make Linda sympathetic but totally vilify Dan:

[quote]Keller will play Linda Kolkena, a bright, beautiful, capable young receptionist who Dan hires to lighten his workload. Liberated and optimistic, Linda falls in love with her new boss but struggles to reconcile their years long affair with her traditional values.

"Liberated and optimistic, Linda falls in love with her new boss but struggles to reconcile their years long affair with her traditional values."

"Liberated?" LIke hell she was! Linda Kolkena was a typical gold digger, using sex to land a rich husband and a cushy job. He hired her as his "legal assistant" despite her never having gone to college and having no work experience as a paralegal and knowing nothing about medicine (Dan was a medical malpractice attorney). Nothing "liberated" about THIS twist of tail.

In legal circles where Dan worked Linda was known for using sex to get what she wanted. Her nickname was "Linda Vagina." Ha ha!

I never thought Slater was hot until recent years.

[quote] I hope they don’t whitewash how shitty Dan and Linda were to Betty.

Hi, frau cunt!

Hope it's not too woke. Nonetheless, looking forward to it.

[quote]"Liberated and optimistic, Linda falls in love with her new boss but struggles to reconcile their years long affair with her traditional values."

Are they kidding? She was a WHORE. An underhanded, amoral WHORE.

I bet they're going to portray Dan as sexually harassing Linda, who finally gives in to his advances.

Read "'Til the Twelfth Of Never," it's the definitive book on this case. Linda was an absolute skank. She had no shame about hooking up with a married father of four. Dan was an absolute pill to deal with, a total narcissistic asshole. Reading the book, I had no idea why Betty was upset that he left, I would've been thrilled to be rid of a husband like him.

Yes, I would advise anyone interested in the Broderick case to read "Until the Twelfth of Never" by Bella Stumbo. It's really the Bible of the story of Betty Broderick. Bella Stumbo was one hell of a writer; she has the numbers of ALL the characters in this mess down pat and she tells the reader literally everything about this case, which was a lot more complicated than "a woman scorned." She includes great detail on all the legal machinations that went on between Dan and Betty and it's enough to make your head spin. Dan really ran over her legally; she never stood a chance against him.

"a weird vibe" is a great way to describe Christian Slater, r85.

I would never have guessed they were supposed to be Betty and Dan Broderick, if it didn't tell me so.

So, last week I was going through Zap2it.com's tv listings. And I saw a show called Betty on Showtime. I got so excited. I start watching it. It's not about our Betty. It's about some teenager named Betty. I was so pissed

The casting seems weird all around and I hope to god they don't try to make Linda into some sort of victim, too. That bitch knew exactly what she was doing. Do I think she deserved to be murdered? No, but she wasn't some sort of saint. I hate this "women must nice and civil to one another or else it's anti-woman." Have you ever met women? Many of them do hurt each other for their own personal gain, because they're human. Men do the same thing to other men. Not all women stick together.

^^^between my three sisters, it's considered wholesome family fun.

Has Christian Slater had some unfortunate plastic surgery? Because his face looks like he's had some bad work done.

[quote]I hate this "women must nice and civil to one another or else it's anti-woman." Have you ever met women? Many of them do hurt each other for their own personal gain, because they're human. Men do the same thing to other men.

I don't think this is generally true about men. It is often said that if you put a group of men in a room together, they become fast friends; if you do the same with women, there's often a cat fight. As my grandfather used to say, "Men like their friends." I also recall Bea Arthur once say that the living arrangement on The Golden Girls could never work in real life for this reason.

[quote]I don't think this is generally true about men. It is often said that if you put a group of men in a room together, they become fast friends; if you do the same with women, there's often a cat fight.

Go to any workplace, anywhere, and you'll see this in action.

Since the casting sucks they better make up for it with absurdly dark, graphic Alec Baldwinesque dialogue between Betty, Dan and Linda.

They also better make the two women as virulently disgustingly mean bitches, (Ms. Peet should not have been cast as Betty, atleast not at that weight), although even if they did there's no way to top Baxters performance.

For the Betty role they should've gone with more of a character actress.

I guess Universal Television really wants a deal with Peet’s husband. That’s the only reason I could understand this casting. It’s bizarro miscasting, like Rachael Lee Cook as Diane Downs.

After Dan became successful, he gave himself the nickname "Count de Money". That alone should've gotten his head blown off.

R117 Didn't he wear a cape around his college campus?

Dan also like to do some skit that was called "the alligator" or "the turtle" or some shit like that, where he'd be lying on the ground and flailing his body and arms and legs around. It reminds of a scene I saw in the movie "Animal House" where some of the drunken, toga-clad partiers are on the floor, their bodies jerking and flopping around. Maybe that's what Danny-boy was imitating. At any rate, someone who knew Dan Broderick said her was "an overgrown frat boy." He did like to get drunk a lot and realled "loosened up" when he did. It was one of the things about him that really irked Betty. One of of many.

There's an hour long preview of the show on USA network now

Watching now. It's weird. A completely different interpretation of Betty. Super thin, pinched, skittish but not bitchy. I'm not feeling it.

Betty WAS very thin as a young woman. She was like a model, 5'10 inches tall and tall. But all her pregnancies put weight on her and after Dan left her she got fat from compulsive eating. Her weight gain was one of the most obvious signs of how her mental state was unraveling. Dan and Linda would snidely refer to her as "the fat one." Linda wrote on some correspondence or bill sent to Betty: "this is for the fat one. This is how she keeps her girlish figure." Or words to that effect. No wonder Betty put two bullets in her.

Linda also used to send Betty pamphlets or leaflets for weight loss programs or centers.

Something about Amanda's Betty seems too....young and contemporary. She has one of those childish, nasal, uptalky voices that so many women have nowadays. I feel like that's not our Betty!

It is most certainly not our Betty, r124.

I never saw the MBB version. Was it good?

R126 Yes, it was.

I actually could see Amanda playing the young chippy more than I see her playing Betty.

The writing and acting are pretty terrible so far. You get the sense these are younger people trying to reenact the 80s, an era they know nothing about. The MBB version was actually more naturalistic and believable. Meredith was more of the right age, or seemed more mature. It’s hard to describe.

The MBB movie was interesting, but very inaccurate. It was very biased towards Dan and LInda; they were made out to be two perfectly nice people, while Betty was depicted as a monster. One of the most glaring inaccuracies was how Dan proposed to Linda. In the movie he and Linda are in each other's arms, romantically waltzing on the dance floor at an event honoring him. She says "what could be better than this?" and he says "Being married to you" and then takes out an engagement ring and puts it on her finger. She says yes, and they declare their love for each other; Linda: "I love you." Dan: "You do? And I love you." How sweet and romantic! But it didn't happen. Dan proposed to Linda very publicly, in a raucous downtown bar, ostentatiously getting down on one knee and proposing in front of a crowd of his drunken buddies and legal acquaintances. It was so public that it got written up in the local gossip columns. I think he did that to rub Betty's face in it. It seemed like a deliberate slap in the face, an obvious attempt to enrage her and hurt her.

The actor playing a young Dan is doing a good Christian Slater impression.

Bad casting. Amanda Peet is Linda Kolkena not Betty Broderick. Case closed.

Topher Grace a better actor than Christian Slater? LOL

Anyone know where to watch this in Canada? Is it streaming somewhere?

R134 First two episodes are on YouTube. Try and see if you can watch them.

I just finished the definitive MBB version and Wow! It was hard to stomach pedo Stephan Collins because I’ve always found him so attractive.

MBB was brilliant in this and yes a real (fucked up) adult. Actors today who are mid 20s to 40 something seem so young now. Dressed up in mommy’s clothes. As a previous poster mentioned. Makes me leery of this tombstone toothed Amanda Peet deal.

I'd rather watch the real Betty. I wish Oprah Winfrey would do another interview with her. Betty Broderick is truly a fascinating personality.

Here you are DL! (Yes I'm watching it now after being underwhelmed by the first two episodes. MBB just shot Dan and Linda.

Long read interview with Betty in 1998. She seem(ed/s) to be content in prison. Her next parole hearing is 2032.

I wonder how the kids are today.

[quote]Actors today who are mid 20s to 40 something seem so young now. Dressed up in mommy’s clothes

This is what I thought went I watched the first two episodes. The real Betty Broderick was 42 when the murders happened. If you look at pictures of her from around that time and the trials and then look at pictures of 40 something actresses and even non actress women in their 40s, you really see how much better people are aging these days. Of course, you still come across people aren't aging well due to different factors.

I'm 35 and I have a friend the same age who is dating a 50 year woman. His girlfriend looks she is in her late 50s and she looks more like his mom than girlfriend. She wears tons of makeup, but still looks old and haggard. Back in January, he invited me to her 50th birthday party which was held with a friend of hers who also turned 50. I stopped by at the party for awhile and the girlfriend's friend looked a decade younger than her age. Another friend of mine works for an investment firm and he deals with a lot of people going in to discuss IRAs. He has said similar things of encountering 40 somethings who look younger than their ages and then coming across 40 something year olds who you could easily mistake as being a lot older.

Amanda Peet is physically all wrong. She looks like the trophy wife - not the discarded, used up house frau binge eating her misery. Could be good - but she is all wrong.

"I wonder how the kids are today."

Danny Jr. is a go-getter like his Daddy. He's based in California, and currently "leads all service lines for the Southwestern Region of Cushman & Wakefield, comprised of approximately 1,000 professionals, in 15 offices." Previously he was" the President & CEO of a legacy firm (BRE Commercial)." He's married to a blonde; some said she was a "Linda lookalike" but actually she resembles Tracy Pollan. They have a couple of kids. There was some weird picture of them in the graveyard where Dan and Linda are interred; they had the kids, who were still babies, perched on the gravestones! Anyway, Danny (along with his sister Kim) wants his mother to die in prison and lobbied against her getting parole.

Kim Broderick is now Kim Piggins (awful name, isn't it?). While a teen she was quite the material girl, and would go crying to Betty saying her cheap father wouldn't pay her phone bill, would only give her $150 to buy a prom dress, etc. Of course Betty would be enraged; she paid her daughter's astronomical phone bills and gave bought her a $750 prom gown with matching slippers. Kim testified for the prosecution at Betty's trial and was instrumental in getting her mother convicted. She became, of all things, a teacher and is now the Director of Big Wood School, a Christian school located in Idaho. She has two daughters. She, like Danny Jr., wants her mother to spend the rest of her life in prison, and spoke out against her mother getting parole.

After getting bounced around as a kid from home to home, it's amazing how well-adjusted Rhett Broderick is. He's also a teacher in Idaho. He's married with two daughters. He spoke in favor of his mother being released on parole. He has compassion for her.

Lee Broderick, as a teenager was wild, doing drugs, skipping school, acting out. Dan disinherited her in his will due to her uncontrolled behavior. I think she straightened out as she got older, but little is known about her. She, like Rhett, wants to see her mother out of prison. She too has compassion for her mother. Rhett and Lee appear to be the good ones.

Wow Kim sounds personality disordered. Aka a Christian cunt.

Kim and Danny Jr have visited Betty in prison. In the late 90s/early 00s, I watched some true crime show about Betty and they showed pictures of Danny and Rhett visiting her in prison.

I also recall reading an article that focused on Betty's life in prison and it was said she thrived and is well liked by her fellow inmates, guards, and other prison employees. An employee in the article who had worked in the California prison system for a long time said that Betty and the late Susan Atkins of the Manson girls were among some of the nicest inmates he encountered.

If Susan Atkins was ever "nice' it was an act. She was a psycho. I've seen interview where she purposely appears to be speaking in a little girl's voice, no doubt to gain sympathy. She was a monster.

The new series is horrible. Don't waste your time. Neither lead has an ounce of charisma or spark and are completely unbelievable as their character. Random timeline of the plot doesn't help, either.

"Tombstone toothed" R136? LOLOLOLOLOL!! Did you come up with that one on the spot?? That is fucking brilliant.

I watched this new USA version. It SUCKS. Watch the original with Meridith Baxter.

R146 Exactly, the chronology is all over the place. And they’re trying to be dark and edgy. I guess to distinguish this production from the MBB classic? Anyway it stinks and I don’t like it.

The Betty Broderick case could have worked well for American Crime Story. The OJ and Versace stories were handled quite well.

Amanda Peet and Christian Slater are so miscast. Peet looks more like a candidate to play Linda rather than Betty and Slater is totally unconvincing as Dan. And his looks are so off-putting; Dan Broderick was WAY better looking than Christian Slater.

Christian Slater is still pretty hot to me, but he's the wrong type for Dan.

WAY too much criticism here about this series. Leave it to DL to act as if we should have expected a Schindler’s List treatment.

Did Betty's pussy stink?

R153 I gave an ICONIC performance and set a high standard.

EXCUSE ME!

I thought Lee was taken out of the will because she choose to live with Betty. Sometime back a photo of all the kids visiting Betty in prison was posted on a blog, I think it was taken from one of the kids Facebook pages.

I remember when Rhett was on Oprah he has Dans original nose and said that he was treated badly by dans family because he wanted to have a relationship with his mother. I think one of dans brothers took money from the kids and had to put it back.

There was a book on Amazon that was credited with being cowritten by Kim, I think she wrote something in the reviews that the book was unauthorized but that she had worked with the author on a book and the project fell through and the book was cobbled together from a few conversations they had.

Dan IV (not Jr) is the only kid still in San Diego. The others live in Idaho of all places. Daughter 1 and Son 1 are in favor of no parole, Daughter 2 and Son 2 are in favor of release. They all seem relatively stable except the younger daughter. Never married, no kids, seems a bit...driftless. From what I could tell, all the grandchildren are girls. No Dan Broderick V. Betty must like that.

This was already a TV Movie. Why bother redoing i

Yeah r157 they all live in the same town in the sun valley area of Idaho. If they were going to make a series out of they should’ve just adapted the Bella stumbo book.

I think the big sticking point with Danny and Kim is that Betty has no remorse for what she did and has never apologized for what she did to the family. Rhett and Lee I think have accepted that Betty will probably never show much if any remorse for killing dan and Linda. I remember Rhett saying on Oprah that she’s pretty even keeled and normal but she gets enraged when talking about dan and Linda, kind of like how Helen was when her husband left her for Madeline Ashton in death becomes her.

When dans dad died Dan and Linda’s names were omitted from the obituary as preceding him in death.

R160. Not so. On findagrave Dan is mentioned as predeceasing, as well as his mother and only family. No Linda though.

Dan Broderick I & II lived to be very old men (Dan only just survived his grandfather). Would Dan have gone full Henry VIII if not for Our Betty? I wonder if Linda signed a prenup.

R106/R111 but why exactly is Slates so essentially weird? I’ve always wondered. It can’t be plastic surgery because he came across as strange when he was a teen in all those cult ‘80s movies, too. Is it the closet? Or too much coke from a young age?

Your right r161, I think Linda did sign a prenup but it’s been years since I read the stumbo book. BTW the flowers/messages features on both Dan and Linda’s memorial pages were turned off due to people abusing the feature. That generally only happens with notorious criminals or people who have done some really horrible things (think gacy, bundy or aunt Diane)

R163 I had wondered why the messages were turned off on the Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow pages.

Betty Broderick is probably the only murderer I've ever felt sympathy for.

[quote]Dan Broderick I & II lived to be very old men (Dan only just survived his grandfather). Would Dan have gone full Henry VIII if not for Our Betty? I wonder if Linda signed a prenup.

I do think if Betty hadn't killed them, Linda and Dan would have divorced later on. One of them would have ended up cheating during the marriage.. Linda did cheat on Dan sometime before their wedding with an ex boyfriend. IIRC, Linda was also complaining to friends about some of the things she disliked about being married to man who was a bit older than her and I think she complained about Dan's friends and their wives.

After the murders, Linda's family and friends saw how shitty Dan's family and friends were. The Brodericks refused to pay for the embalming and funeral costs for Linda and told the funeral director to send a bill to Linda's family. There was some battle over life insurance money between Linda's father and the Brodericks. In the Bella Stumbo book, she gave an account of how several months after the murders, the San Diego Irish American Association held an expensive ticket dinner in honor of Dan. Several of Linda's friends paid for tickets to the dinner thinking that Linda was going to be honored as well. Linda was never mentioned by the host and other speakers at the dinner and Linda's friends ended up crying at the event. While Linda was a total cunt, I did feel sorry for her friends and family for how they treated by the Brodericks.

If Dan Broderick were still alive he'd be on his third or even fourth wife, who would be younger than his daughters.

So true.

Linda's fling Steve is a conservative cartoonist these days. Ew.

The thing about Meredith was she able to make you be on Betty's side, as crazy as that sounds. She exuded that wounded housewife-who-supported-her-hu - sband-for-years-only-to-be-dis - carded feeling in every scene so you always knew where Betty stood.

Totally agree; and while MBB is an attractive woman, she's not really a beauty, further emphasizing that asshole Dan traded in the workhorse for the show pony. Plus, she just brought the crazy like no one's business. Amanda Peet is beautiful, skinny as a rail (which Betty was not at the time) and a meh actress

Betty only got $30,000 in the divorce settlement, after all she did for Dan. He used every trick in the book to screw her out of what was rightfully hers. No wonder she blew his fucking head off.

I love that Betty always referred to Linda as "the cunt."

In court, after some testimony, Betty wrote a note to her counsel that bizarrely said "empty coffins." Supposedly the coffins at Dan and LInda's funeral did not contain their bodies They were cremated. I don't know what happened to Dan's ashes; maybe they were buried in the coffin. But LInda's family was said to have kept her ashes from being buried with Dan. Anyway, that headstone might really be above "empty coffins", as Betty said.

The show has no pacing. It's like Betty rams her car into the house out of nowhere. And then says nothing as she's being arrested. Our Betty would be howling, as MBB did. Now I'm seeing snippets about the shooting. It's all over the damn place. If I didn't know anything about this story, I'd be quite confused.

It's as if the director said, "I want to do a darker, non-linear interpretation." And Amanda said, "Yes, I don't want to play Betty as a harridan, but as a woman at her breaking point!" It doesn't work. But am I watching it? Why yes, yes I am.

So far Amanda's Betty is a shrinking violet, no spunk whatsoever. No, no and more NO!

I can see Amanda "acting" - grinning hard at all times to show what a people-pleaser housewife she is. We get it.

I'm waiting for the musical, "Betty Get Your Gun".

Amanda Teeth is badly miscast in this.

This REALLY should've been done as a docuseries, like The People vs. OJ Simpson. With and actress who was appropriate to play Betty. It's such a shame.

I feel bad about it but I remember when I was a kid laughing at the recording of Betty taking to Danny about dan and Linda and Betty continuously swearing about them and Danny begging her to stop. She was talking to him like she would an adult fiend or therapist.

[quote]I feel bad about it but I remember when I was a kid laughing at the recording of Betty taking to Danny about dan and Linda and Betty continuously swearing about them and Danny begging her to stop. She was talking to him like she would an adult fiend or therapist.

I laughed too. I was 5 when the murders happened so I didn't learn about the case until I was 13 or 14 when Lifetime was rerunning the movies and my mom mentioned following one of Betty's trials. A few years later, I watched some A&E documentary about the case and I laughed when a large part of the recording. I have several relatives who rant like that to their kids and after awhile it just became funny in a way.

[quote]Amanda Teeth is badly miscast in this.

I agree. I wonder if any other actresses were considered for the part.

Grace Gummer was. Get it? Teeth and gums.

Christian Slater is NOT good looking anymore. I saw photos the other day of the REAL Dan Broderick- he was REALLY good looking, like someone said earlier in this thread- He looks like a RODENT.

I'd have cast Amy Schumer and John Stamos.

John Stamos is too ETHNIC to play Dan Broderick.

Even though he's a creep, Stephen Collins had the kind of aristocratic good looks that were perfect to play Dan.

Matthew Davis, who played Collins' son in an episode of SVU, would've made a good Dan.

[quote]In court, after some testimony, Betty wrote a note to her counsel that bizarrely said "empty coffins." Supposedly the coffins at Dan and LInda's funeral did not contain their bodies They were cremated. I don't know what happened to Dan's ashes; maybe they were buried in the coffin. But LInda's family was said to have kept her ashes from being buried with Dan. Anyway, that headstone might really be above "empty coffins", as Betty said

I remember that as well. I also remember another rumor that Linda was buried with Dan, but was exhumed and buried somewhere else after the Kolkenas had conflicts with the Brodericks.

I'd advise everyone on this thread to read 'Until the Twelfth of Never" by Bella Stumbo. Not only does it tell the reader EVERYTHING about Dan Broderick, Betty Broderick and Linda Kolkena and everybody else in between it's a damned entertaining read. Bella Stumbo was a hell of a writer. A chain smoker, she died too young at age 59. I wish she were still here and still reporting on Betty Broderick. It would have been great if she'd done an updated version of her book on the always interesting Betty Broderick.

This blog had some good coverage of Betty, Dan and Linda. She stopped writing it in 2015 but came back for one post a few days ago to summarize some of the things Dan and Linda did to Betty and the kids.

I can' ever find the show to watch it. Skater can act like a real asshole.

There should be a series chronicling Betty's life in prison.

Margo Martindale IS Betty Broderick!

R190 I remember that blog from years back and I remember for awhile people who worked in the San Diego legal community commented about their dealings with Dan and Linda. I remember one person said it was common for affairs to happen in law firms, but most people kept their mouths shut. Linda was one who bragged about her affair with Dan to numerous people in the office and courthouses.

Maybe it’s from seeing Heathers as a young gayling, but I’ll always find Christian Slater sexy. I think he’s aged great and is in hot daddy territory now.

Does anyone else notice the one squinty/batting eye on Amanda Peet? Well I do, and now it's all I can see. Damn it!

Wow, I guess everyone gave up on this shitshow. Only 2 replies since Monday's new episode.

R196 I can't find it on any of the big torrent sites. I guess nobody cares!

So dumb how it keeps jumping back and forth from one decade to another, with young Betty and Dan looking NOTHING like their older selves.

Yeah, the timeline is confusing.

Parts of this I find really engaging. I just can’t get over Amanda Peet and how miscast she was. This is a juicy part. You can’t tell me there isn’t a long list of better actresses wouldn’t have been happy for the job.

I think Patricia Arquette would’ve been an interesting choice, especially since there already is a younger woman portraying Betty when she was slim.

It's a damn shame Kathy Bates is too old to play fat crazy Betty. If she were 20-25 years younger, she would've been perfect.

I wonder if there was ANY discussion with Amanda about gaining weight for the part. If there was, I bet she shut it down quickly.

I agree Amy Schumer would have been interesting.

Melissa McCarthy would be credible as a 1987-present Betty as well.

Another thing that made MBB perfect to play Betty is she looked so much like her. I've seen pics of the real Betty as a young woman and MBB cold have been her twin. Amanda and Christian look nothing like the people they're playing.

This pic is small, but Betty is the spitting image of Meredith Baxter here...

And this one from their wedding. Also, someone upthread suggested Topher Grace as 'Dan' and I think that would have been more appropriate casting.

Yeah, the wedding photo is the one where Betty looks strikingly similar to Meredith Baxter.

R206 I think he looks more like Kyle MacLachlan.

Dan got his nose done, Rhett and Danny both got it. Amanda peet circa 2000 would’ve made a good Linda.

I wonder how Betty is doing? She had some serious health issues a while back. The old gal is 72 years old now. Why not let her out? The argument against letting her out on parole is that as soon as she would get out she would buy a gun and immediately start start blowing away anyone who had irked her in the past, which is really ludicrous. If she got out she'd probably spent time with her kids and grandkids and do volunteer work. The other argument is that she has no remorse and that is more of a problem. Betty always had trouble expressing her feelings; she'd keep her true feeling hidden under an upbeat facade. That was the way she always was. I think she has remorse but has no idea how to express it. When she went into prison she had severe psychological problems and she still does. But she's no danger to anyone. It seems incredible but I don't think Betty Broderick has ever gotten any serious psychological help ever since she's been in prison. Maybe she won't accept it or maybe it was never offered to her. At any rate, she's the same as she's always been.

I think she should get parole. As Rhett Broderick said, the only people who would be in danger if she got out are dead.

Her children should be grateful. Had Dan lived, he would've married and divorced several more times, fathered more kids, etc. That would've put a big dent in their inheritance.

The kids with the second wife usually get treated like princes/princesses, and eventually get the bulk of the estate. The kids from the first marriage get screwed. I've seen it happen many times.

Fascinating summary of the horrors of marriage and kids. It should be required viewing for anyone considering marriage. Also a good case study of the unhappiness caused by pursuing the American Dream. So glad I was born gay and learned to reject it all.

If anyone here is a Scribd subscriber, the ebook version of Until the Twelfth of Never by Bella Stumbo is on there.

R213 That's what you got from the show? I haven't seen the series, but if they're promoting anti-family stuff, that's just ridiculous. I'm gay who came from a broken home and grew up without a dad and have regretted that I never had a father/son relationship with him or anyone. But wanting/rejecting a mother/father-run household is not the issue here.

Boy do miss their fathers.

"The kids with the second wife usually get treated like princes/princesses, and eventually get the bulk of the estate. The kids from the first marriage get screwed. I've seen it happen many times.

Don't I know it!

R113 Yes, men can get quite competitive with each other -- God knows they can turn anything into a contest -- but if you put them in a friendly setting, they will almost always hit it off and become fast friends. Women... not so much. They generally tend to be automatically suspicious of other women. That is one major difference between the sexes.

As for gay men, in my experience, the more effeminate they are, the more like women they tend to be in that regard.

Betty deserves parole. Fuckhead and the cunt brought much of this on themselves.

Peet is decent but I think Wendi McLoven Covey would have been a better choice.

Edit :McLendon Covey

I'm watching the episode where Linda is now fully in the picture. I actually think this actress is probably closer to the real Linda than the one in the older TV movie.

I can't find this show to watch anywhere. It's so frustrating, I feel like the show probably needs all the viewers it can get!

I wonder how Betty feels about this new depiction of her life? It's certainly a lot more sympathetic to her than the Meredith Baxter movies. I'm sure she'd like that.

I just can't accept this Betty. This is not our loudmouth, extroverted Betty!

^^^ Agreed. But I will admit, Amanda played the Boston cream pie scene with Gusto.

R227 Yeah but was that even Boston Cream Pie? I don't remember it having white cream all over it. Mostly chocolate, no? And I thought the MBB version played it better, just showing the wreckage. I wasn't particularly moved watching Amanda's methodical smearing.

"Yeah but was that even Boston Cream Pie?"

It sure didn't look like one. It looked like a cake covered in vanilla icing.I guess the makers of this dramatization didn't think anyone would notice. But I did. I guess they used a cake covered in pretty white icing to make the scene appear more sinister. A pretty white cake being violated.

This show is irritating. They're now on episode 6, but episode 5 is not available to watch on demand. All the other episodes are. Also, it's hard to find the show on the guide- this "Dirty John" title is so stoooopid

They're now showing Betty starting to lose it, hitting the chow. But still thin as a pin.

I'm starting to enjoy this. It's definitely told from Betty's perspective whereas the Broderick family consulted on the '92 movie. Amanda Peet is growing on me, although I wish she'd gained weight for this since Betty was not this thin when they divorced. Does anyone else think Linda Kolkena is coming off more sympathetic in this version?

No, the 1992 Linda was much more adorable.

In both versions LInda Kolkena comes across as more sympathetic than she actually was. One of her nicknames for Betty was "the fat one." She supposedly sent Betty anonymous mailings that contained ads for weight loss programs and wrinkle creams. She wrote on some bill that she and Dan sent Betty: "this is for the fat one...now we know how she keeps her girlish figure." Linda was a CUNT. And that's what Betty called her: the cunt. In this movie she calls her Linda "The Whore" Kolkena, but Betty always called her "the cunt." That's another thing about this production. Betty got VERY foul mouthed after Dan left her. She would leave messages on the answering machine beginning with "this message is for Fuckhead and the Cunt." And of course she gained all that weight. I don't think they're showing the total devastation that was Betty Broderick in this tv show.

I know. Peet's Betty is this little ladylike creature.

I gave up after the first 2 episodes. Worth catching up?

Where do you find this show on the cable guide? I swear I have every fucking channel but cannot find this show.

It airs on the USA network so I usually watch episodes on USA on demand. R236, it's not excellent by any means, but I find myself enjoying it more and more with each subsequent episode. If you're bored and want to see a different take on the story, it's worth catching up. For what it's worth, I'm team MBB too.

R237 You have to look under “dirty John” - as if that makes one iota of fucking sense

Yeah, the title makes no sense at all. At first, I thought they kept the title because there was a connection between John Meehan and the Brodericks. Clearly, that's not the case.

Slater has always had gayface.

Linda Kolkena reminds me of my aunt. She's on husband #4. All four husbands were married to someone else when she started seeing them. Every time, she centers her life around the man. Then she mocks the wives and goes on about how superior she is to his current wife. They eventually leave their wives and marry her. Then they cheat and it all starts again.

Two of her sisters have stopped speaking to her because they're tired of her shit.

Linda Kolkena lived the golddigger's dream. She slept with the boss, and got a cushy, high paying job out of it (she was laughably unqualified for it, having little education and not much work experience in anything) and a rich husband for her efforts. Betty worked hard alongside Dan so they both could enjoy the fruits of their labors...and then LInda Kolkena takes it all away. without doing anything to earn it except to screw the boss. Who wouldn't be enraged by that?

Dan Broderick should have done better. He was selfish and underhanded at every turn. He could have divorced Betty and left her with dignity, but he took that too.

All three people in the sad, sordid saga of Dan and Betty Broderick (Betty, Dan, Linda) certainly reaped what they had sown. Dan and Linda were murdered by the totally nuts Betty after battering her legally and mentally for years and Betty will in all likelihood die in prison. They all had it coming and boy, did they ever get it.

I agree R245. All three of these people did terrible things to each other. They're all villains in this tragic story - maybe some more than others.

Watching the latest episode. Betty is still eating up a storm but not gaining an ounce.

The whole show is so DARK. Literally, every room and scene is gloomy. We get it, production designers, it's a dark story but why be so literal? They're in California FFS.

R257 The dark lighting aesthetic has been widespread in TV and movies for about a decade. It's depressing and unsightly and actually turns me off certain films. The worst are the ones shot entirely in bluish gray. I would rather watch the Betty Broderick story in technicolor over dreary darkness.

R234 We've become a little weird culturally. Any slightly negative depiction of young and attractive women is verboten. Like they're a benevolent breed of fairies or something.

It's true R248. I hate it, so depressing.I love the old Technicolor stuff.

The AV Club put this on their " best TV shows of the year so far" list.

does anyone know who played the prosecuting lawyer? I can't place where I know her from

Miss me Gays?

The best thing that can be said about this production is that it told Betty's story a lot more thoroughly and realistically than the Lifetime movies did. But I thought Christian Slater was miscast and it would have been more real if it had accurately depicted Betty's physical deterioration, which was extreme. Both this and the LIfetime movies glossed over that.

I don't recognize the actress R252, but Betty's lawyer was played by the guy who played Dolores's father in Westworld; he had that very intense scene with Sir Anthony Hopkins.. It took me a minute but it was his intense blue eyes and gray hair that I picked up on.

r252 Melinda Page Hamilton is the actress playing Prosecutor Kerry Wells. She's seen most recently as Mary Frances in "Mrs. America" .

r256

thank you! I knew her from Devious Maids

Was she the Russian one in Devious Maids?

r258

she was and she was Don Draper's wife on Mad Men!

Finally finished the series. As a great aficionado of this case, I didn't like it. Mostly because of the "dark" production design, and Amanda Peet's refusal to look like shit and be loud/blowsy. Amanda also comes across as too youthful and "contemporary" to play Betty, if you know what I mean. Her voice sounds like a teenager's.

Yeah, this production was flawed in various ways. But it was still a lot more accurate than the Lifetime movies. I wonder what Betty has to say about this production? Why hasn't she been interviewed about it? I'm sure she would have interesting things to say. I wonder how she's doing, if she's well. I heard she had some serious health problems a while back. She's 72 years old and has spent 31 years in jail.

It may have been less accurate, but the MBB version told a good, direct story. The Peet version was disjointed and confusing.

When Oprah Winfrey visited Betty in prison she said something about the prison being "a country club." What an idiot! Betty laughed and said that having once a member of a very nice country club she can state that where she was now was definitely NOT like being in a country club. She proceeded to show Winfrey her living quarters (she slept in a bunk bed in a room with five other women) and where she stored all her worldly possessions (in a small locker). Some "country club!"

That country club comment from Oprah...wtf. What a weird thing to say.

Oprah owns a mountain in Hawaii, by the way.

I finally saw this. From someone totally unfamiliar with the story, characters and previous movie I enjoyed it and think Amanda Peet did a good job (though i u derstand the criticism on the physical side). I saw some scenes from the earlier movie and it seems like a caricature, Baxter performance is upped to the max and she seems and acts so crazy that you definitely feel less simpathy. But it sure looks like fun towatch. This latest tv version certainly dragged at some points.

I think this was mentioned before, but why has Betty Broderick not weighed in on this latest depiction of her life? I would love to hear what she has to say about it. An interview with her is surely in order.