Recent Entries

And Pyle said she delighted in the atmospherics.

"Trish, the costume designer, she was so excited because Nancy wears a lot of leather, and she wears a lot of loud clothing," Pyle recalls. "I got to wear all those leather jackets — bold print pants — and get my hair really big and a lot of makeup. So it was really fun to do that. And that kind of also put me into the character."

But there is a more serious side to depicting Grace — both in her advocacy for victims and the substantive criticism of her.

Like Grace, Gone Girl's Abbott seemingly investigates, indicts, tries and convicts suspects relentlessly, night after night on TV. She comes across as an interviewer who doesn't weigh opposing arguments but combats them.

Pyle says she watched Grace's show repeatedly with a friend who's a die-hard fan. She earlier played a version of Grace on CBS's The Mentalist. And Pyle says she now instinctively understands the part.

"I think she sees herself as someone who's very pivotal to getting justice done. The word 'justice' is constantly something that she is thinking or saying," Pyle says. "It's the idea of finding righteousness or justice for someone who can't speak for themselves is her role."

You might think Nancy Grace would bristle at the depiction. But Grace says she and her husband laughed throughout the movie.

“ "Well, I guess they kinda got the hair right. I imagine the black leather jacket was right. The Southern accent was a little over the top but it was pretty good."

- Nancy Grace on the fictionalized depiction of her in 'Gone Girl'

"Well, I guess they kinda got the hair right," Grace says. "I imagine the black leather jacket was right. The Southern accent was a little over the top but it was pretty good."

And Grace says Gone Girl gets her combativeness on TV more or less right, too, though she characterizes it as fierce advocacy for victims. Grace has cited the murder of her fianc more than three decades ago as the inspiration for her earlier career as a prosecutor and her subsequent appearances as a commentator and host.

That has come with public criticism and even lawsuits claiming she cynically casts aside the presumption of innocence in pursuit of ratings and heat.

She takes credit for turning national attention on Casey Anthony, a Florida woman suspected and then tried for killing her young daughter. After Anthony's acquittal, Grace said, "somewhere out there, the devil is dancing tonight."

Grace settled a lawsuit in 2010 filed by the estate of a woman who committed suicide shortly after taping an interview for her show. The woman's son was missing and Grace strongly suggested the woman might bear some responsibility. She settled another lawsuit last year after making statements a judge found to be patently untrue about another high-profile murder case involving Michael Skakel.

More On 'Gone Girl'

Movie Reviews

Who's Worth Your Trust In Fincher's Moody, Atmospheric 'Gone Girl'?

Monkey See

'Gone Girl,' Take Two: The Very, Very Spoiled Edition

Monkey See

'Gone Girl': A Missing Wife And A Cloud Of Suspicion

While we did not explore those legal claims, Grace says she is not constrained by the same rules she faced as a prosecutor in her current incarnation as impassioned televised advocate.

Grace says the scenario in Gone Girl most closely reminded her of the case of Scott Peterson, a California man who feigned concern about his missing wife. A jury convicted him of murder after her remains were found.

But Grace says she has enjoyed earlier send-ups — on NBC's Saturday Night Live and elsewhere — and is appreciative that she is worthy of skewering.

"I laugh — laugh out loud at it. And so does my family. And so does my husband," Grace says. "I did not go into this to win a popularity contest. I do not expect to be crowned Miss Congeniality, OK?

"If that were what I was looking for, I would have gone into a different line of business."