THAT’S NOT BUNNY!
Movie court quip
It has been decades since Carolyn Warmus was convicted for a murder that echoed the film “Fatal Attraction” — but she still can’t escape one of the flick’s creepiest scenes.
A former attorney for Warmus, whom the convicted killer is suing for malpractice, said she may ask potential jurors if they’d seen the 1987 movie — but quipped that “we’ll exclude the bunny rabbit scene.”
The attorney, Julia Heit, then explained the scene as she talked with reporters and Warmus’ current lawyer, James Lenihan, after a hearing in Manhattan Supreme Court on Monday.
In it, star Glenn Close puts a pet rabbit in a pot of boiling water as an apparent threat to her lover, played by Michael Douglas.
Lenihan responded by saying: “I never saw that part. I never saw the live bunny go into the boiling water.”
He then added in a serious tone, “I happen to think that rabbit is an exceptionally delicious Italian delicacy.”
Heit said in disbelief, “Come on, she boiled it alive!”
Lenihan insisted that the film “has nothing to do” with his client’s backstory.
Warmus, now 54, shot her lover’s wife in the back nine times in Westchester in 1989, two years after “Fatal Attraction” hit theaters.
She has completed 24 years of her 25-years-to-life sentence and was denied her first chance for parole last month.
She is suing Heit for allegedly botching her appeal of the conviction a decade ago.
Warmus said during a pretrial hearing in November that she’s innocent and warned that “the real killer is still out there.” Jury selection for Warmus’ malpractice case against Heit is scheduled to start Tuesday.
Warmus will join Lenihan during the jury-selection process to try to detect “visceral reactions” from potential jurors when they are told that she is a convicted killer.