Home
It's formal night aboard the Carnival Cruise liner MS Holiday, just off the coast of Ensenada, Mexico, and passengers are mingling on the America Deck, awaiting the captain's cocktail party. Things are more subdued in the ship's wood-paneled library, however, where 96 addicts are coming clean.
''My name is Gayle,'' says a waitress, ''and I've been on it since last July.''
''It's nice to look out to a room full of sick people,'' adds Anne, a silver-haired woman with a throaty voice, ''instead of just looking in the mirror.''
Everyone laughs. They all know what it's like to be hooked on the Juice -- the Simpson murder trial. They get edgy on days without testimony, they neglect their families when court is in session, and on the weekend of Sept. 8 they forked over about $550 for the trial junkie's ultimate fix: the O.J. Trial of the Century cruise.
The trip was the brainchild of Jane Doctor, 44, an L.A.-based commercial stylist and avid O.J. watcher who sold Carnival on the idea. ''I felt there was a need to examine the legal and racial implications,'' says Doctor, who maintains she ''never lost sight of the horrible tragedy'' and wrote to the victims' relatives. (They didn't respond.)
Thankfully, the three-day Los Angeles-to-Ensenada excursion wasn't as cheesy as it sounds, the rubbery lobster notwithstanding. A respectable panel of experts, including Stan Goldman, a Loyola Law School professor who covers the trial for CBS Radio and often appears on CNN, helped raise the debate to a much higher level than it sometimes reaches in Judge Ito's courtroom. Participants were so focused on asking questions that it didn't seem to matter that the ''Ethical Issues and the Trial of the Century'' seminar was being held in the Tahiti lounge. And when the ship docked for the day in Ensenada, hardly anyone in the trial contingent bothered to get off. They were too busy comparing the lawyering techniques of Johnnie Cochran (thumbs up) and Marcia Clark (thumbs down).
Most were just grateful to meet people who had something to say to them other than ''Get a life.'' ''My kids think I'm certifiable,'' says Vivian Charlton, 68, of Glendale, Calif. She goes so far as to alternate between two blue velvet chairs in her living room, giving each equal sitting time: ''I don't want to have one all plumped and the other all saggy.''
But a shadow hung over the journey. What happens to these trial buffs when the proceedings end? Some say they will try to fill the gap with Steven Bochco's new courtroom drama, Murder One. Others will switch to Menendez II, the second coming of Lyle and Erik, which will be capsulized on Court TV starting in mid-October. ''I'm dreading the end,'' says Bob Morse, 62, of Daly City, Calif., who devotes 70 hours a week to O.J. ''It's going to be a real downer.''
Yet if the cruise ship's mock trial is any indication, Morse won't have to worry for some time to come. After a passionate debate the cruise's jury announced it was hopelessly hung, 10 to 2 for conviction. In the real world, of course, that could mean a retrial -- and maybe even another cruise. To which one man rejoiced: ''On to the Caribbean!''
