CNN.com is reporting that Judge Larry Paul Fidler has just declared a Phil Spector mistrial, the hung jury still split 10-2. (That means there's been three converts since the original 7-5, but we don't yet know if favor of what.) We're not sure what we're supposed to be feeling right now; we're mulling outrage, but then we start picturing that adorable Great Dane and that parade of fun wigs and we just can't seem to muster it—which could very likely be the same thought process going through the minds of those stubborn holdouts.

• Mistrial declared in Phil Spector murder case [cnn.com]

Deadlocked Spector Jury Given A Wider Variety Of Verdict-Rendering Options

What we had presumed would take a matter of hours—the handing down of a guilty verdict upon Phil Spector, after an endless parade of witnesses took to the stand to testify about his gun-toting and woman-hating rock n' roll-pioneer ways—is now dragging into its second week, the jury still deadlocked 7-5. To muddle matters further, Judge Larry Paul Fidler has revoked a highly technical instruction that rendered the hung tribunal (and us) thoroughly confused. The defense is now asking him to clarify what it is he meant when he said that Spector didn't need to be holding the gun to be found guilty of murder:

As jurors returned to deliberations in Phil Spector's murder trial Monday, the record producer's defense filed a motion asking the judge to give the panel more guidance to clarify controversial new instructions he issued last week to help break a deadlock.

It's Second-Degree Murder Or Bust For Hung Spector Jury

The Phil Spector jury still sits deadlocked, one faction firmly convinced the pouffy-wigged eccentric shot Barbarian Queen star Lana Clarkson in the mouth, the other feeling Spector was merely the victim of a convoluted self-murder plot for which he'd unwittingly provide a suicide-friendly foyer and firearm. Presiding Judge Larry Paul Fidler, meanwhile, in his ongoing attempts to shake some clear-minded consensus into the divided group, has opted not to offer the option of a reduced sentence of manslaughter:

The judge told lawyers he was considering allowing the panel to consider a lesser charge, but later decided against making involuntary manslaughter an option for the jurors.

Spector Trial Jury Hung; Judge Sends Everyone Home To Get Unhung Before This Drags On Any Longer

Shocking a world that expected it to return the first ever official "So fucking guilty. I mean, come on, look at that guy!" verdict in the history of American jurisprudence, the jury in the Phil Spector murder trial today instead informed the court that it was unable to reach a verdict in the case. Perhaps suspecting that a number of his jurors had somehow been exposed to the mesmerizing, reasonable-doubt-instilling stare of Team Spector's sad-eyed Great Dane, Judge Larry Paul Fidler sent them home for the day, hoping that they'll return in a more unanimously decisive mood tomorrow. Reports the LAT:

"It is possible I may give you further instructions tomorrow," Fidler told the nine men and three women on the jury. He warned the jury that he might ask the lawyers to reargue a part of the instructions.

"Just set the case aside for the rest of the day," he said and then dismissed them for the day

LAist has a handsome photoset capturing the mini media frenzy surrounding today's field trip to Phil Spector's Alhambra mansion. Included is the above portrait of Lily, the neighbor's Great Dane, prominently sporting a TEAM SPECTOR badge on her fishing cap. While the sweet-faced, panting canine makes an adorable and unlikely champion for Spector's innocence, her eyes suggest a different story indeed—that of a terrified animal, whose refusal to surrender a rubber chew toy led the defendant to point a semi-automatic handgun at her skull, threatening to splatter her "doggie brains" across the lawn, "just like all those other bitches who refused to play fetch."

• Phil Spector field trip - in pictures [LAist]

Michael Bay Takes The Stand, Maintains Innocence In Cocktail Party Snub Allegations

Michael Bay To Take The Stand In Spector Trial

Today brings potentially bad news for Transformers director Michael Bay, who last week was so memorably dragged into the legal clusterfuck that is the Phil Spector trial by a star witness named after a popular seasonal dessert. Apparently, Bay's previous telephone testimony won't be enough, and he'll soon be forced to take the witness stand to explain how he never blew off Lana Clarkson at a party, sending her into a depressive spiral that caused her to take her own life. Reports Court TV's Spector trial blog:

The prosecution unveils a list of 13 rebuttal witnesses, and one name is a blockbuster. Moviemaker Michael Bay, director of "Transformers," will take the stand and say that Punkin Pie was lying when she testified that he snubbed a teetering-on-the-brink-of-sanity Clarkson at a party a few weeks before her death, prosecutor Jackson says.

Michael Bay Refutes Report Of Suicide-Inducing Clarkson Snubbing

Disturbed by recent Phil Spector trial testimony by "star" defense witness Punkin Pie Laughlin that his alleged snubbing of Lana Clarkson at a party had somehow driven the actress to suicide, Transformers director Michael Bay took time out from the Tokyo leg of his Giant Fucking Robots Are Coming world tour yesterday to clarify the spurious claims about his fauxteurial power over life and death. Reports the LAT:

"It never happened," he said in a telephone interview from Japan. "Wouldn't it be a big moment in one's life if you saw someone at a party, and two days later she was killed? Life's made of memories, and that would be a big memory."

Defense Maintains Lana Clarkson Used Phil Spector For His Great Suicide Connections

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.

Playwright Recalls How Badly Lana Clarkson Wanted To Be A Dead Blonde