The Truth Behind Producer’s Fiction

Barbara Hall believes her world is turning into “a hall of mirrors.” She’s not making a pun about her name, or a joke. She couldn’t be more serious.

Much of Hall’s focus is geared toward steering CBS’ hit courtroom series, “Judging Amy,” which combines emotional legal drama with the personal stories of a juvenile court judge (Amy Brenneman) grappling with work, family and single parenthood. Hall is one of the executive producers of the series, which is going into its second season after emerging as one of last year’s few network successes in the dramatic arena.

But away from the set, it is Hall’s own personal legal and emotional journey that has absorbed her, as she has searched to find peace and healing in her life. It has not come without anxiety.

The source of Hall’s jumbled emotions is her new novel, “A Summons to New Orleans,” which has just hit bookstores, and her reason for writing it. The book examines the changing relationships and derailed dreams of three female friends and is set against the backdrop of a rape trial in New Orleans.

But “A Summons to New Orleans” cuts much deeper for the author--it is a fictionalized account of her own rape in the historic city’s French Quarter in 1997.

Writing the novel was Hall’s catharsis--a way of dealing with the crime, her trauma and its lengthy and painful aftermath, including three trials, two hung juries and a legal system she claimed was often unresponsive to her plight. She is also hoping the novel will spark more of a candid and open discussion about rape and its effect on victims.

“I did not want [the rape] to be part of my history--it was not my choice,” Hall said, sitting in her large office on the 20th Century Fox lot where “Judging Amy” is filmed. “It’s something that happened, and not talking about it becomes a burden for me. I just made a decision that I would not allow myself to be diminished by this--that was the only choice.”

She added: “I’m attempting to ask questions rather than give answers, because I don’t have all the answers. Maybe that’s a reason I wrote it as fiction. It’s really my attempt to participate with the public in a discussion without having to provide a solution.”

It is not the first time Hall has dealt with the subject of rape in a dramatic fashion. She wrote an acclaimed episode of “Chicago Hope” in which chief of surgery Kate Austin (Christine Lahti), who had been a rape victim, killed a man who was trying to rape one of her colleagues.

“A Summons to New Orleans” is much more direct and personal, though there are not that many overlaps between reality and fiction. But no matter how liberating the novel was to write for Hall, she is now dealing with the other consequences of publishing the book, opening up a damaging and painful chapter of her life for scrutiny. She has also forced her family to directly confront the ordeal publicly.

Family Grapples With Her Painful Account

Even now, she says, her husband finds it difficult to read the trial portions of the novel. And then there is Hall’s 8-year-old daughter, who has never been told the whole truth about what happened to her mother.

“Yes, there still is a reluctance for me to go public about this--it makes me nervous,” Hall said. “But I’m going on instinct. I’m almost positive I didn’t go through this ordeal so that I could suffer in silence. It is a personal risk--I’m exposing way more about my personal life than I’m comfortable with. But talking about it is cathartic, and its also reminding myself that I didn’t do anything wrong. That’s a big issue that rape victims have.”

While the specific pain that Hall examines in the novel is difficult for Hall’s husband, Paul Karon, he supports her decision to write the story, in the way she chose.

“A lot of people think it’s nuts to write or even talk about this,” said Karon, a former entertainment journalist. “I admire Barbara’s bravery in confronting it.”

The key character in “A Summons to New Orleans” is Nora Braxton, who travels to New Orleans at the request of her old college housemate and longtime friend, Simone Gray. Also there at Simone’s request is another old college friend, Poppy Marchand.

It’s when the three get together that Simone reveals the reunion is not a casual one. She was raped a year ago, and the trial for her attacker is about to begin. The troubled Simone needs her friends’ support, not totally aware that they are experiencing their own turmoils.

Hall wrote the story from Nora’s point of view--a way of keeping the experience of the attack at a distance--and the account of the rape itself is fictionalized. It took three trials for Hall’s attacker to be convicted, while the book ends with the first mistrial and whether Simone can face coming back again. But like Simone, who had once met her assailant, Hall knew her attacker’s first name and where he worked--a critical factor in his arrest. Both rapes took place in the French Quarter as Hall and her fictional counterpart were returning at night to their hotels. In the fiction, and in Hall’s reality, there was that chilling moment of not knowing whether the attack would also bring death.

Discussing her approach to telling the story, Hall said: “With all the legal aspects and the things I had to go through trying to get this guy convicted, I knew I had to write it down. But I felt too close to it to write a nonfiction book. I didn’t feel I had any perspective. I still don’t feel like I do.”

As it turned out, that was perhaps the only way to tackle the agony of her experience.

“I didn’t occur to me until recently that what I was actually doing was telling the story as if it had happened to someone else, so that I could look at it in perspective and see that it wasn’t my fault, that I didn’t do anything wrong,” Hall said. “I thought if I told it from the point of view of other women, I would have a simpler understanding of myself, which is a big part of the healing process.”

The other women in the novel serve to demonstrate that although Simon is the rape victim, her friends have their own demons to grapple with: “I wanted three points of view because the person who is the biggest victim is not necessarily the most troubled person.”

She also wrote the novel as a comment on the legal system, and how rape victims are handled.

“I thought the handling of rape cases was a problem that was pretty much licked in the justice system,” Hall said. “I thought it was handled better than it was. In my case, it really would have been fine with everybody if I had just got on a plane and gone away. I was really surprised that the district attorney’s office was not all that eager to file my case. I had thought that when something like this happened, you reported it and the wheels of justice just went into motion.”

Discouraged During the Legal Process

The obstacles were many. The district attorney’s office felt that a jury would be prejudiced against a female tourist--particularly one who worked in the Hollywood entertainment industry--who was walking alone at night. The police prodded her for contradictions in her story: “It was all about me. It was never about the perpetrator.” Her attorneys constantly reminded her of the low conviction rate for rape cases.

A key source of support for Hall during the ordeal was Karon, who she met four months after the crime and later married.

“This has always been a part of our relationship, and he’s been really supportive the whole time,” Hall said.

Said Karon: “On one level, writing this book was very painful for Barbara, because it brought back not only the crime but the long and winding road of the trial. But the only way to really deal with something like this is to keep looking at it, not letting it drift into memory like an insignificant event. Not running away from this has been an important part of the healing process.”

There has been some talk of making a movie of the book. Hall also said she wants to eventually write a nonfiction account of her experiences. Though most of her energy these days is focused on shepherding “Judging Amy” into and through its second season, her hope is that “A Summons to New Orleans” generates more open discussions about rape.

“Writing this was something I was supposed to do,” Hall said. “Maybe it’s for my own mental health. Or maybe it’s for something in a larger picture. But it’s something I’ve decided not to question.”