Oscar Pistorius took acting lessons to cry in court, South African sources claim

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Throughout the murder trial of Reeva Steenkamp, the man who killed her, Oscar Pistorius, has been a mess. He’s cried throughout his testimony and the testimony of other witnesses. He’s dry-heaved and vomited in court. He seems out of it and physically and emotionally weak. The question for many viewers (not just in South Africa, but all over the world) is whether Oscar has been “faking” those reactions, whether he’s truly devastated or perhaps just putting on a show so people can see that he truly loved Reeva and all of this was just some horrible accident. But now a South African journalist/columnist claims that Oscar had acting lessons before the trial:

Blubbering “Blade Runner” Oscar Pistorius took acting lessons before testifying at his murder trial, according to a new report. The once-beloved Olympian — who regularly broke down in wailing sobs on the stand and even vomited during other testimony — was privately coached so he would appear more sympathetic, former South African Sunday Times columnist Jani Allan wrote on her blog.

“I have it from a reliable source that you are taking acting lessons for your days in court,” she wrote in an open letter to Pistorius on Jani­Allan.com, saying his acting adviser was one of her “close friends.”

But “your coach has an impossible task,” Allan wrote, referring to the double-amputee runner as a “faux hero.”

“Oscar, I look at you mewling and puking in the witness stand. You truly represent everything the West loathes about white South Africans who live extravagant lives in expensive laagers,” she wrote, using a South African term for large, heavily secured homes.

Pistorius, called “Blade Runner” for the prosthetics he runs on, is on trial in South Africa for fatal shooting his girlfriend, Reeva Steenkamp, at his Pretoria home on Feb. 14, 2013. He claims he mistook the model for an intruder when he blew her away as she cowered in the bathroom. Prosecutors say he shot her in anger after a heated argument.

Allan called Pistorius’ story “preposterously ridiculous,” but said that even if it were true, it’d prove him a killer. “The implication of this is that it would have been more acceptable to shoot an intruder the way you did — execution from behind a closed door,” she wrote.

Allan compared Pistorius, 27, to Eugène Terre’Blanche, the leader of the hate-driven South African white-separatist Afrikaner Resistance Movement. He was murdered in 2010 in a wage dispute with a farmhand. “Terre’Blanche was cut from the same cloth as you, Oscar,” Allan wrote. “He was given to boasting, vain in all things, narcissistic in the extreme and flying into terrible rages when things didn’t go his way. I suspect this description fits you.”

She added that Pistorius was always a sore loser. “There were the eruptions of temper and your fury when you thought you weren’t fairly treated,” she wrote. “I realized long ago that you might have been a fast runner, but you never have been sportsmanlike in your behavior. Not on the track or off it.”

Pistorius’ trial has been adjourned until May 5 for a string of upcoming national holidays. He faces 25 years to life behind bars if convicted.

[From The NY Post]

When a London paper asked Jani Allen to confirm her claims, she said: “I have this information from an extremely reliable source. I have it on very good authority that Oscar is being coached on his court performance by a close actor friend, who is also famous in South Africa.” Damn.

My take: it’s very common in these big murder cases in America for the defense to “coach” the defendant on how to behave in court, and how to testify and be sympathetic. It happens a lot when the defendant has money and they want the full-service defense. I think many of the big criminal attorneys even have in-house “coaches” too. So, it wouldn’t surprise me if Oscar was being coached. It would surprise me if his heaves and tears had any pro-Oscar effect on the judge. It also shocks me to think that Oscar has a great legal team and an acting coach and no one has told him that it looks bad that he has a 19-year-old girlfriend.

Photos courtesy of Getty, WENN.

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49 Responses to “Oscar Pistorius took acting lessons to cry in court, South African sources claim”

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  1. Hiddles forever says:

    OMG… Really?

    This person is the worst on the planet….

    • Esmom says:

      I know, my first reaction at the headline was omg, too.

      OJ was coached, too, remember his whole struggle to get the glove onto his hand? Almost nothing OJ said or did seemed genuine and OP strikes me as very similar.

    • NeNe says:

      Agreed. I hope they find this S.O.B. guilty, and lock him up for life! I feel the death penalty is too good for him!

    • Dani2 says:

      Ugh, as if I didn’t hate him enough already. This guy is really something else.

    • Not surprised at all.
      Hope he gets put away for a long-ass time.

  2. Kiddo says:

    My take on this case, aside from the intention or lack of intention, is that Pistorius is someone who will no doubt harm another human being. Whether it be by recklessness or malice, if he is freed, he will fire guns again. He is a better looking Phil Spector, without the wigs.

  3. Kiki says:

    Praise to Reeva’s mother and family for enduring this guy’s pathetic show.

    • Amelia says:

      And her sister, also.
      As much as I dislike the Daily Fail, they had an interview with her older sister who offered her sympathies to Pistorius’ siblings who both approached June Steenkamp and offered their condolences (unlike Oscar, who couldn’t look her in the eye).
      She was living in the UK and dropped everything to return to her parents and family in SA to support them as soon as she heard. Papa Steenkamp is also recovering from a stroke, poor guy.
      A thoroughly graceful family.

      • Kiki says:

        Amelia did you also see the pictures where fans were greeting him?!!! No respect for this beautiful woman’s family! That day was not good for me.

    • Christin says:

      Agree. This trial has to be taking its toll on them. I have enormous sympathy for her family, as their loved one is not able to tell her side of what happened that night. I suspected he would try to make this a ‘poor me’ tale of woe.

  4. aims says:

    He’s so evil. He should be locked up forever, I hope the South Africa justice system is better than ours. The dude has ice in his veins, abreal psycho

  5. MonicaQ says:

    Agree on the 19 year old girlfriend thing. Oh you loved Reeva soooooooooo much…that you went out and got a hot piece months after you killed her. K.

    With OJ there was a lot of other factors to figure in (racial tensions after Rodney King, the Watts Riots, poor evidence collecting, an admittedly racist DA) so the fact that they found him “Not Guilty” was not surprising to me even as a kid. Oscar Pistorius’ case is cut and paste. He was there. He shot her to kill her and not an intruder. Full stop.

    • Esmom says:

      I agree that the OJ case was very different than OP’s case. But I do think both were coached heavily.

  6. Kelly says:

    Since when does it take an official “acting coach” in order for someone to lie and pretend? Please…

  7. L says:

    You would think his ‘coach’ would also tell him that texting on his phone during testimony doesn’t look good. (he’s done this several times)

    Having a lawyer or a PR person giving a big name tips doesn’t surprise me. (see the OJ folks above)-but OJ didn’t do the crying, heaving, vomiting BS that this idiot has. It’s WAY over the top.

  8. Peanut says:

    I can’t even stand looking at his photos. His eyes are pyscho. He’s a frightening individual.

  9. Nicolette says:

    Guilty as f***ing sin. As I’ve said before, I’m sure she began screaming after the first shot hit her. And considering he was right outside the bathroom door I’d say there’s a pretty good chance he heard her. But he kept on shooting her pretty much amputating her arm and blowing her head off. Lock his ass up and throw away the key.

    • mary simon says:

      Well said. He is unstable and abusive, and not a convincing actor. Disgusting – all the bleary , snotty crying and the throwing up in the bucket. What man finds his mate not in bed and immediately begins firing a gun at the bathroom door, where she most likely is? And continues to fire away, even after the familiar woman’s voice screams the first time? I think they were fighting, he threatened her with the gun, she locked herself in the bathroom in fear and he fired away until she was dead. Hope this murderous creep gets what he deserves.

      • Itteh Bitteh says:

        I’m still curious as to why anyone in their right mind would think an intruder would take time out from his home invasion to lock himself in the bathroom.

  10. Tania says:

    He just couldn’t wait to have another girlfriend already. Well.

  11. Inlike says:

    Knew this would be turned into a race issue. I wagered $20 on this. Need to call my girlfriend and tell her she lost. Awesome.

  12. Honeybea says:

    My boyfriend went to the same high school as Oscar and apparently he used to hit people with his prosthetics. Oscar has always been a ticking time bomb..he was bound to kill someone at some point!

    • itsetsyou says:

      @Honeybea – did he actually see this? That’s really terrible if it’s true.

    • Eve says:

      Welll, I found this article a while ago but since nobody paid pattention, here it goes again (and this was before all the whole “heroic” think in did in London in 2012). Read it, please — it shows he’s never been the saint he tried to portrayed, that was a well-crafted image create my his publicists:

      http://www.news24.com/MyNews24/Oscar-Pistorius-Hero-or-Hooligan-20111103

      By the end of that last thread about this scumbag here on CB:

      http://www.news24.com/MyNews24/Oscar-Pistorius-Hero-or-Hooligan-20111103, a poster named Claudia (comment # 54) defended him — using the ol’ innocent until proven guitly tactic. To which I replied: but *HI* is guilty — his own admission. He also admitted to being reckless.

      Was to de determined is if the was a case of domestic violence/jealous rage OR just a trigger happy dumbass looking for shoot and kill someone (whoever was in that bathroom).

      I don’t believe a single word that comes out of this nascissistic, manipulative, freaking cold’s mouth. The way he looks into the camera (when he’s not throwing up or crying crocoldile tears) creeps the ever living sh*t out of me.

  13. MFSA says:

    For all legal Q in South Africa go to @oscarpistoriustrial199 #askemma

  14. Lucrezia says:

    Depends whether the judge believes he shot at Reeva or at an intruder.

    Murder (of Reeva) = life = 25 year minimum.

    Culpable homicide (shooting an intruder, but illegally, so you’re not covered by lawful self-defence) = judge’s discretion. Ranges from a fine to 15 years. I’d be tempted to say it’d should be at the higher end of that scale, but I remember a SA case where a man shot (and killed) his daughter after mistaking her for a car thief. He thought she was asleep, heard her car drive off, assumed it was a thief and fired at the car as it was driving off down the road. In that case, the guy actually had even less of a valid self-defence claim but they declined to prosecute (because he’d suffered enough). So really could go either way.

  15. John says:

    Killing someone who breaks into your home to do you harm (which includes stealing your possessions) is not murder. Just because a life is taken doesn’t always make it murder.

    • K says:

      Depends on the country. In the UK, self-defence is the only defence: you have to be in immediate apprehension of danger, ie they have to be visibly a threat to you. You can’t use force to exact vengeance, let alone to retain your possessions. That’s no defence under English law, because people matter more than objects, and burglary isn’t a capital crime. You kill a burglar who is either running away, or no apparent threat, and it’s murder here.

    • Bridget says:

      See above about Culpable Homicide. Which is definitely still homicide.

  16. K says:

    Her mother is managing not to sob, weep, wail or vomit, and she’s having to hear what happened to her baby – that she died terrified, and in great pain. He’s just hearing testimony about a girlfriend of two months.

  17. weegie warrior says:

    He is a despicable human being trying to save his own skin – and his new “girlfriend” must b looking for publicity – horrendous.

  18. Beatrice says:

    I think his blubbering and sniveling are genuine–he’s crying for himself, not Reeva. Lock him up and throw away the key!

    • Godwina says:

      I scrolled down to say exactly this. A violent controlling narcissist would legitimately be feeling all those feels on this ultimate loss of control and glory, wouldn’t he? The same sense of entitlement that led this f—er to “allegedly” murder his girlfriend would also lead a man like that to massive tantrums when faced with humiliation, incarceration, and loss of status.

  19. ann valor says:

    I don’t believe it for a second. South Africa is NOTORIOUSLY corrupt and this entire trial has been a fucking circus sideshow. The prosecutor is an absolute joke and, no matter how guilty they want him to be, there is NO evidence to prove that he murdered her. Period. This trial disgusts and alarms me. (He does sound like a total toolbag, and is clearly in need of serious therapy, but…sorry – I actually believe in an adequate criminal justice system, and SA doesn’t have one).

  20. itsetsyou says:

    Oh, please! Anyone can say “I have it from a credible source.” Yeah, that definitely makes it sound like it’s true then!

    There is so much gossip and projection over this case. I’ve watched the entire thing from the start and it’s still impossible to say whether he has murdered her or killed her by accident. As the judge Masipa said: “This is not an entertainment so please, restrain yourselves.”

  21. Jana says:

    His “story” fell apart the minute he told security “Everything is fine” just five minutes before they showed up at his house and saw him carrying a dead Reeva downstairs. Why would anyone in their right mind do that? Because he needed time to come up with a story.

  22. M says:

    Just b/c he is flaunting the 19 year old girlfriend doesn’t mean his defense team didn’t advise against it. As a defense attorney, I have many clients who ignore my advice on such things

  23. Brittany says:

    I used to work with a guy on the US Paralympic Team who knew Oscar fairly well and said he was in no way surprised when he heard about Oscar killing Reeva. He spoke of Oscar’s bad temper as well and did not think it was an accident at all. Speculation, of course, but from a direct source…

    • itsetsyou says:

      @Brittany – Reeva did message him she was sometimes ‘I let go with you even when I’m scared out of my mind…” – sounds like she might have referred to his bad temper. I don’t see why else someone would say that to their boyfriend. It doesn’t mean the guys is a murderer necessarily but definitely brings out some of his true colors. It’s so hard to tell when you see someone on TV being one way if they are different in private.

  24. capepopsie says:

    Disgusting! Totaly disgusting. . . . .
    I´m lost for Words!!

  25. msw says:

    Yeah, sadly, I don’t have a hard time believing this, considering the histrionics he’s shown in court. He is ridiculous. Ever since that vomiting show, with his lawyer refusing a break because “he can’t stop,” I’ve suspected he took ipecac syrup. It’s a spectacle. The more he talks, the more convinced I am of his guilt. Stuff just doesn’t add up.

  26. weremember says:

    Take this information from whence it comes. I remember Jani Allen being totally infatuated wit Eugene Terre’blanche and being “impailed on his ## blue eyes”