The parade of Hollywood characters and crackpots willing to testify as to Lana Clarkson's suicidal state of mind at the time of her shooting death continues with Punkin Laughlin, aka Punkin Pie, a club promoter who considered the Barbarian Queen star her "best friend." Laughlin testified that Clarkson had told her "I don't want to live anymore, I don't want to live in this town, I want to end it," less than a week before her death. Today, the cross-examination accused Laughlin of having changed her tune considerably. From the LAT report:

[Laughlin] finished her third day on the stand in the Spector murder trial. She was the latest in a string of defense witnesses who testified that Clarkson was depressed about financial woes, her lack of career prospects and a recent failed romantic relationship.

"In your memory, do you recall telling anyone, 'We need to fry that bastard for killing Clarkson?' " Deputy Dist. Atty. Alan Jackson asked Laughlin.

"I don't remember ever saying that," she replied to several versions of the same question. [...]

[I]n her testimony, Laughlin told of Clarkson being at the end of her rope, but in interviews with homicide investigators just after the death, she gave no indication that Clarkson was dangerously depressed. [...]

"I had to hold back things," Laughlin said. "I didn't want to hurt people."

It falls now to the jury to assess the credibility of a woman who has adopted a Thanksgiving dessert mainstay as her nom de promoteur, and the defense's case in general, who'd have them believe that what we have here isn't a murder scene, but a near-perfect eHarmony coupling of a woman-hating gun nut paired with a failed actress bent on ending her own life.

• Witness says she doesn't recall saying Spector should 'fry' [LAT]