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Despite his defense team's clever attempt to soften accused murderer Phil Spector's image by disguising him as a well-known lesbian talk show host who's considered harmless by millions of Americans, it seems that some prospective jurors have already been poisoned against Spector by media coverage of the trial, a bias revealed in yesterday's jury selection proceedings. Reports the LAT:

"Honestly, I think he did it," said a juror who said she was an aspiring actress. The juror also made a point repeated by others in the jury pool: Celebrities, she said, often "just act inappropriately."

Another woman had written in the questionnaire completed by the nearly 200 potential jurors: "In my opinion, Phillip Spector is at fault for her death."

Asked by Spector attorney Roger Rosen what she meant, the woman said, "If she hadn't gone there she would be alive."

Of course, it will fall to attorneys on both sides to separate prospective jurors offering truthful evaluations of their prejudices from the ones who will say anything to avoid assignment to what could be a lengthy trial, a task that may be more difficult than it sounds. Given the circumstances, a person who wrote "I believe that Phil Spector is guilty because Paris Hilton is a skank" on his questionnaire probably can't be labeled a jury-dodger without extensive cross-examination, as he could be offering a heartfelt, if somewhat inelegantly articulated, explanation of how the celebrity-obsessed media has irrationally turned him against all famous people, rendering him unable to consider the facts of the trial without a jaundiced eye.