Nancy Grace Has None

I used to hate when Nancy Grace filled in for Larry King. While I understand that she lost her fiance to random violence, while she was in college, she doesn't appear to have moved beyond it. Though I am sure the tragedy is what fueled her passion as a prosecutor and as a pundit, she grates my nerves - to death. I have yet to tune into her new show and, with the Michael Jackson trial beginning today, doubt that I'll be watching her any time soon. On-air persona aside, it sounds as though her off-stage antics are just as vitriolic.

Anyone who witnessed legal analyst Nancy Grace's combative performance at the recent Television Critics Association press tour in Los Angeles won’t be surprised by the behind-the-scenes reports coming from CNN Headline News’ new show, Nancy Grace. The diva act continues.

However, CNN may be inclined to take the bad with the good, because Grace is lifting the beleaguered channel in the ratings.

Just one week into the prime time show (which got off with a rocky start with a glitch-filled premiere), Grace has already had her make-up person reassigned, and laced into a production staffer so mercilessly that he quit the show. In a departure for the traditionally low-glitz CNN, Grace has commanded a room of her own for makeup. But it's not as if she wants privacy; the host calls her staff in for meetings while she's being spruced up.

As the show enters its second week, CNN staffers expect more tension. This is cable honey, skip the diva business, says one. It was an echo of reactions to Grace at the TCA gathering in January, when her grande-dame manner during Q&As with journalists raised eyebrows.

In FoxNews-like fashion she, along with Ann Coulter and Michelle Malkin, have the "screaming meme's" down to a science. She also seems to have caught a whiff of her own armpits and is inhaling much too deeply.