Oscar Pistorius, the South African olympian on trial for the murder of his girlfriend, may have employed some extra help for drumming up sympathy: The legless athlete reportedly sought the services of an acting coach.
Jani Allan, a famous columnist in South Africa, wrote an open letter to Pistorius on her blog. In it, she claims that her actor friend said Pistorius asked the actor to coach him on how to appear sympathetic in the courtroom.
Allan wrote, “I have it from a reliable source that you are taking acting lessons for your days in court. Your coach has an impossible task … I look at you mewling and puking in the witness stand. You truly represent everything that the West loathes about white South Africans who live extravagant lives in their expensive laagers.”
A laager is a circled, wagon-train fort.
Pistorius’ trial has generated constant media attention, even giving birth to a channel in South Africa entirely devoted to the trial. Pistorius’ model girlfriend, Reeva Steenkamp, was fatally shot behind a closed and locked bathroom door in Pistorius’ home on Valentines Day 2013.
The trial is set to resume on May 5.