Amber Heard, Anton Yelchin in Alpha Dog
Jesse James Hollywood, 30, was sentenced to life in prison Friday at a Santa Barbara courtroom. He was found guilty of orchestrating the kidnap-murder of 15-year-old Nicholas Markowitz in August 2000 because of a $1,200 drug debt owed by the victim's half-brother. Hollywood's was a high-profile case partly because of Nick Cassavetes' 2007 movie Alpha Dog, which starred Sharon Stone, Justin Timberlake, Bruce Willis, and Emile Hirsch in the role of Johnny Truelove, a character based on Hollywood.
Defense attorney James Blatt said his client didn't have a fair trial at least in part because Alpha Dog was released before the trial. According to various reports, four other defendants had already been convicted in the killing, which involved a group of affluent, teenage baseball players in the Los Angeles suburb of West Hills. The gunman was sentenced to death. Hollywood was arrested in Brazil in 2005.
In The Guardian, Philip French wrote about Alpha Dog: "Sharon Stone and Bruce Willis play guilty parents and the movie is supposed to invite acclaim as 'a wake-up call to the American middle classes'. The button it presses on my set reads 'snooze.'"
Also in the Alpha Dog cast: Ben Foster, Olivia Wilde, Harry Dean Stanton, and Anton Yelchin.
Here's more on the Nicholas Markowitz murder case.
Photo: Universal Pictures