Relative Justice

I was last an extra in 1978, for Hair. That day I sat on the National Mall for most of an afternoon being in the background of a scene. Seated in front of me was a guy dressed like a cowboy--chaps and hat and all (holding two six guns)--so most certainly he and I ended up on the cutting room floor. However the day was certainly not a complete failure because Bonnie Raitt played several sets and comedian Robert Klein entertained and acted as master of ceremonies for the day.

Yesterday though was a different sort of experience as I was an extra in the gallery of a new--yet to premiere--television show called Relative Justice. Featuring Rhonda Wills as the judge the show features relatives suing each other--parent against child, cousin against cousin, godmother against godchild--kind of appropriate for Kentucky where the Hatfields and McCoys took out after each other outside the bounds of law and order.

In this iteration folks used a converted studio 'courtroom' in Lexington's old Woodhill neighborhood's Cinemark Theatre to take out after each other with words and a judge instead of rifles and ambushes. It was certainly more civil and of shorter duration than the East Kentucky feuds of old, but no less passionate.