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Marcia Clark’s Topless Photos Were Sold By Her Ex Mother-In-Law — ‘The People v. O.J. Simpson’ [Spoilers]

By Paula Mooney
Published on: 03:03 PST, Mar 9, 2016

Marcia Clark is back in the public eye big time due to The People v. O.J. Simpson, an FX weekly series that purports to show the life behind the scenes of the trial of the century. As lead prosecutor, Marcia found herself in the spotlight well beyond the courtroom. In the above photo, Clark pointed evidence during Marcia’s closing arguments in the O.J. Simpson double-murder trial. Clark tried to prosecute O.J. for the murders of Nicole Brown and Ron Goldman, with Marcia initially believing that the Simpson double-murder trial was a slam dunk case against O.J., since so much evidence seemingly pointed toward Simpson as the murderer.

However, the above photos — taken in Los Angeles on Friday, September 29, 1995 — weren’t the photos that sent Marcia into tears during the Tuesday, March 8, episode of the show, titled “Marcia, Marcia, Marcia.” No, it was the topless photo of Clark that was leaked to the press, as reported by Vanity Fair, that sent Clark into a near crying fit in the courtroom.

“Season 1, Episode 6: ‘Marcia, Marcia, Marcia’ — Marcia Clark juggles her home and work obligations while dealing with public scrutiny of her appearance.”

Marcia had warm words for Judge Lance Ito, who had compassion on Clark after the topless photos came out, and noticed that Marcia was very upset in court that day. As such, Judge Ito dismissed court for the day, as shown in the People v. O.J. Simpson episode.

“I overestimated my own strength. No sooner had I taken my seat at the counsel table… I felt the tears welling up in my eyes… Lance must have caught my distress, because, in a singular act of compassion, he quickly managed to recess court for the day.”

Marcia found herself scrutinized beyond belief as a female attorney back in those days — with actress Sarah Paulson winning praise for her dead-on portrayal of Clark in the series. After Clark learned of her topless photos being sold to a publication, it was more shocking to learn who in fact sold the topless photos of Marcia. Although in The People v. O.J. Simpson, Marcia surmised her ex-husband must’ve sold the topless photos, Gabriel Horowitz did not sell them. Instead, it was Clark’s ex-mother-in-law, Clara Horowitz, who sold the 1979 photos of Marcia with her breasts bared on a beach in St. Tropez with Gabriel while they were still married.

Initially, the topless photos of Clark showed up in print editions with a black bar covering her breasts — the same way Kim Kardashian tweeted a photo of herself this week with black bars covering her breasts and bottom half. Whilst Kim had control over the images she desired to release to the public, it was a much different scenario for Marcia.

According to Clark’s 1997 memoir, titled Without A Doubt, the topless photos were taken in a moment of feeling happy and carefree. Never did she think that someday Simpson’s lawyers would track down a woman and urge her to sell the photos to a publication. It’s not clear how Marcia’s ex mother-in-law played into the mix with the Italian train-conductor friend that Clark wrote about.

“In my mind’s eye, I could see Gaby and me and our Italian train-conductor friend. We were playful and giddy. I’d shed my top. It was so innocent… I later learned that a private eye, hoping to curry favor with the Dream Team, had tracked her down in Israel and put her in touch with the Enquirer.”

Clark’s jury didn’t see the topless photos during court due to the jury being sequestered. According to Vogue, however, Marcia spoke of how she had no privacy during that time.

“There was no privacy. I was famous in a way that was kind of terrifying. I had no protection. When reporters showed up at my house, there wasn’t even a sidewalk. They were literally parked on my front lawn.”

To view Marcia’s journey in the light of other, somewhat similar cases in the news — such as Erin Andrews ‘ journey that had jurors thinking of how they’d feel if it were their wives being violated, as reported by People Magazine? — is to see how much sexual harassment viewpoints have changed.

[Photo by AP Photo/Reed Saxon, pool]

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