Sometimes a brief, seemingly casual line in a news story can set it head and shoulders above the competition. That was the case with the Times' coverage of movie star Uma Thurman's testimony against her alleged stalker yesterday in New York State Supreme Court. A trembling Thurman told a jury about a disturbing card that included "a picture of a headless bride" and the inscription "My hand should be on your body." The defense tried to paint the alleged stalker, Jack Jordan, as crazy "in love" but benign and compliant. Jordan carefully avoided looking at Thurman during her testimony — important when you're accused of being her stalker, presumably. But one detail, which eluded the Post, Daily News and People, among others, indicated Jordan was still more than a little obsessed with Thurman:

It was the closest Mr. Jordan had ever been to her — he sat 20 feet away at the defense table — yet he studiously ignored her, looking away with a bottled-up, blank expression. In the only hint that he was aware he would be so close to the woman he called, in one letter, “the love of my life,” Mr. Jordan put on cologne just before entering the courthouse.

Shudder.

[Times]