For Hard-Core Trial Buffs, It’s Virtual O.J.

“O.J. Simpson” dutifully looked solemn as he sat next to his “attorney, Robert C. Baker,” listening to testimony against him in the double murder trial.

When “court” adjourned, “Simpson” grabbed his shirt bag and rushed off. He had to get to an acting audition, plus prepare for a jazz singing gig later that night.

In a Mid-Wilshire high-rise, miles away from where former actor O.J. Simpson sits uncomfortably in a Santa Monica courtroom during his second trial in the slayings of his ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend Ronald Lyle Goldman, actors posing as Simpson, his defense team, prosecutors and witnesses stage their abbreviated version of the real-life drama for broadcast across the nation.

It’s not O.J. It’s Faux J.

Since the start of testimony last month in Simpson’s civil trial, the “O.J. Players,” armed with trial transcripts, have been gathering weekday mornings to reenact verbatim highlights for E! Entertainment Television. The scenes, which cover proceedings of the previous day, are then shown that evening during the cable network’s one-hour recap, “The O.J. Civil Trial.”

The featured members of the troupe are from local stage productions or have had small parts in movies and television. Some look like their real-life counterparts. Some don’t.

Six-foot-two actor Stephen Wayne Eskridge has an uncanny resemblance at times to the athletically built Simpson. Actor Howard Miller is more likely to be mistaken for Simpson friend Robert Kardashian, the role he was originally submitted for, than lead prosecutor Daniel Petrocelli. The jet-black hair of actor Calvin Jung has to be whitened for him to look more like Superior Court Judge Hiroshi Fujisaki.

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The reenactments are taped at E’s studios on a no-frills set that approximates the look of the Santa Monica courtroom. Actors use TelePrompTers when saying their lines. Director Scott Reiniger helms the action, keeping his eye on a monitor while instructing the actors on their movements and phrasing.

“Look simple and relaxed, O.J.,” Reiniger told Eskridge on Wednesday as the actor clenched his jaw and stared at the witness stand where “LAPD criminalist Dennis Fung,” being played by Roger H. Fan, was testifying. Reiniger, wearing a black baseball cap, told the ensemble to “focus on each other, concentrate and listen to each other.”

Executives at E!, an entertainment-oriented channel more known for covering movie premieres and offering light fare such as “Talk Soup” and “The Gossip Show” than for its news operation, says it is doing the reenactments to satisfy the insatiable public appetite for Simpson information, and as a service to interested viewers unhappy about the banning of cameras in the courtroom by Fujisaki.

“People want to be inside that courtroom, and this is the best way for them to be there,” said John Rieber, vice president of programming for E!, adding that being accurate in the reenactments is the network’s “highest priority.”

Rieber said he is encouraged by viewer response to the reenactments and that ratings have jumped substantially. “The O.J. Civil Trial,” which airs live at 5 p.m. and is repeated at 10 p.m., has increased viewership 94% over the various programs that appeared in those time periods during the last quarter of 1995.

But E!, which reaches 41 million households, declined to release exact viewership numbers. Cable channels typically draw only a fraction of the audience of broadcast networks.

Some reaction to the reenactments among trial watchers and media experts has been almost as divided as the post-criminal trial sentiments toward Simpson, who was acquitted last year in the double murders.

“It’s clearly not anything that a viable news organization would do,” said Erik Sorenson, executive producer and executive vice president of Court TV. “The people who are reading these transcripts have not seen the testimony, so they have no idea what the body language is, what the phrasing is.”

CBS News spokeswoman Sandy Genelius said, “As a news organization, reenactments do not fall within the CBS news guidelines and standards.”

But the re-creation of the trial highlights has also received its share of praise and support from legal experts.

Laurie Levenson, associate dean at Loyola Law School, said the reenactments “were very well done and captured the essence of both the highlights and how tedious at times the proceedings can be.”

And USC law professor Erwin Chemerinsky said: “Doing these kinds of reenactments is absolutely ethical. I don’t blame E! for doing them, I blame Judge Fujisaki for not allowing the public to see for themselves what’s going on. The only way they can be informed is through media reports, and this comes the closest to letting them see with their own eyes and ears what’s happening.”

Levenson added that the participation of legal expert Charles Rosenberg in E!’s coverage heightens the network’s accountability. Rosenberg is at the courthouse every day and provides commentary on the daily program.

“My biggest concern was editorial judgment, and given the fact that Charles is sitting in the courtroom, it helps their coverage be more accurate,” Levenson said.

E! executive Rieber said that when dealing with the reenactments, the network is standing on the highest ethical ground.

“We’re honestly saying at all times that this is a reenactment, and we don’t distort the proceedings in any way,” he said. “We’re bringing viewers the trial exactly the way newspapers bring the story to their readers.”

He added, “We believe that the standards we set for ourselves live up to all ethical journalistic standards that any news organization would adhere to.”

The frantically intense process of putting together the reenactments begins as each day’s testimony unfolds, forcing Reiniger and the staff to work long hours.

Anchor Greg Agnew attends court each morning and phones the production staff periodically to feed notes about testimony, mannerisms and what the principals are wearing. The information is dispensed to executive producer Richard Camp and other key members of the production team, including the casting agents and wardrobe staffers.

Agnew returns to the network after lunch and is replaced for the afternoon by legal expert Rosenberg, who has monitored the morning session through an audio feed. Rosenberg returns to the station later in the day to prepare for the recap show while an E! producer moves into the courtroom.

After the live broadcast at 5 p.m., Camp, Reiniger, Agnew, Rosenberg and others meet to map out possibilities for the next day’s reenactments.

During an overnight shift, producer Robert Bentley receives the transcripts, which sometimes do not arrive until midnight or later. He then marks out the dialogue for the planned reenactments. That preliminary “script” is faxed to Camp’s home around 6 a.m.

By 7 a.m., Reiniger and the cast arrive at the E! studios. After a table read, the actors study their lines until 10 a.m., when they gather in the studio to start rehearsals and taping. The taping of anywhere between 15 and 25 minutes of highlights continues until about 1 p.m.

Those segments are then incorporated into the recap program. After the show goes on the air at 5, the process begins anew.

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While the network concerns itself with accuracy, some in the cast of unknowns are concentrating more on their future, feeling that the reenactments will help rocket them to stardom. NBC’s “Today” show, “Entertainment Tonight” and People magazine have already come calling. One of the actors playing an attorney has been calling publicists around the city, trying to get representation for himself and his colleagues.

No one in the cast feels the heat of breakthrough stardom more than Eskridge, whose resemblance to Simpson has been a double-edged sword. Along with Simpson’s build, Eskridge also has a handsome countenance, a sometimes overpowering charisma and a rounded hairstyle with a hairline that closely matches the ex-football star’s.

Eskridge, who declined to give his age--saying only that he is “in my fourth decade”--has heard for years from friends and strangers that he looks like Simpson, which proved painful during the first trial.

“The media was all over the place with their reporting about him, and people kept saying I looked like him, and they always wanted to talk to me about it,” he said. “I was trying to play the saxophone and act. It had nothing to do whatsoever with me.”

But since being cast on E!, he has seized upon the Simpson persona with a vengeance, devouring news footage, watching all his television appearances and interviews. Feeling empathy for the Hall of Famer, he even found himself squirming at home when Simpson was accused this week of harassing an 18-year-old court intern.

“When I first read for this, it just jumped out from the page at me,” Eskridge said excitedly. “I just felt it. It was there. This is a guy who went from being totally adored to being completely reviled.”

Smiling a bit, he added, “I’ve felt that in relationships with women, and that’s what I brought in.”

These days, Eskridge often finds himself bursting with energy while sitting and staring silently in the studio, playing a supporting role in the courtroom drama surrounding him.

He knows, however, that his big star turn is coming.

“When Simpson takes the stand, it is going to be huge!” Eskridge said. “It’s going to be so out of control. Even people who are sick of seeing the trial are going to turn in for that! I’ll be so glad when that day comes. I can’t wait!”

Although Eskridge, who bills himself as “Stephen Wayne” when performing as a jazz singer and tenor saxophone player, has some trepidation that “I might be typecast, I hope that people recognize the job I’m doing as an actor.”

He will not say whether he thinks Simpson is innocent. “But I think O.J. believes that he’s innocent, and that’s how I play him.”

* PATHOLOGIST TESTIFIES

Expert witness says cuts on O.J. Simpson’s left hand could be from victims’ fingernails. B1