Tacky! Tawdry! Tasteless! Pathetic! Exploitative! Worst of all, knowing this story means you probably remember stuff that happened in the early 1990s!
(This could go under 'News' but it's being marketed as 'Entertainment, so ...)

Edit: The "JUST SAY NO" anti-drug brigade will like this too. After all, like pot smokers, Ecstasy users are fond of claiming that unlike alcohol, THEIR drug of choice doesn't result in anybody becoming angry and violent. Think again ...

Amy Fisher Blames Ecstasy for Attack

The Ecstasy made her do it. Amy Fisher says she was strung out on the club drug when she shot her boyfriend's wife in the face in 1992.


"I was using Ecstasy, a lot of Ecstasy," Fisher, nicknamed the "Long Island Lolita," tells "Entertainment Tonight" in an interview that was to air Thursday. "I had no control."

Fisher was 16 when she visited the home of her much-older lover, Joey Buttafuoco, a car mechanic on New York's Long Island, and shot his wife, Mary Jo, as she answered the door.


The drug made her feel "stronger and confident," she says.


"I just did something totally irrational," Fisher says. "Believe me, rational people don't go to do something like that in the middle of the day. It's just insane."

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/articl...e141737D67.DTL
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Amy Fisher's Apology

May 2, 2006

"Long Island Lolita" AMY FISHER and her former flame JOEY BUTTAFUOCO hashed it out face-to-face exclusively for ET this week -- but can they apologize to each other?

"You know, if our relationship was anything and anybody thinks it was inappropriate, I apologize to my wife and children -- and you know something? Even to you, okay?" Joey told Amy. "But you don't shoot somebody. You don't take somebody's life. You just don't do that. You ruined [my former wife] MARY JO's health. She's deaf and paralyzed; that girl, you left her [for] dead. You left Mary Jo [for] dead, the mother of my children."

"Yeah, I think the whole world knows this already," replied Amy, who became contrite. "And you know, like I said, I am sorry. And if Mary Jo were here, believe me, I am sorry."

It was the story that became a tabloid sensation. A 16-year-old Amy met the older, married Joey, then 35, in May of 1991 when she took her car to his Baldwin, Long Island auto shop for repairs. Soon after that, they began an illicit affair and Amy asked Joey to leave his wife, Mary Jo. Joey refused, and on May 13, 1992, Amy had an accomplice drive her to the Buttafuocos' home, where she shot Mary Jo in the head.

Mary Jo miraculously survived, and Amy was imprisoned for her crime. Joey was also put behind bars for having sex with a minor, and the story of what seemed like a calculated, cold-blooded murder attempt began to change when details of Amy's tragic past -- filled with stories of rape, molestation and prostitution -- came to light. When ET brought the pair face to face, sparks flew and everyone in the room could feel the tension. But after verbally sparring back and forth, the two attempted to bury the hatchet once and for all.



"Do you take any responsibility for what happened, for even getting involved with me in the first place?" asks Amy.



"Yes I do. I absolutely do," responds Joey. "Do you cry? Because I do. I've cried a river. I've cried a river for my children, and for Mary, for everything that happened."



"You know all I ever wanted you to do, and you did this privately, is just be honest with me and say you're sorry," says Amy. "That apology meant a lot, it really did. And it was part of my healing process."



Joey asks, "Do you think that this whole thing ruined a good part of your life, or a portion of your life?"



"Oh it definitely did; definitely," responds Amy.



"Me too," says Joey. "Will something good come out of today?"



"I think something did, for me," says Amy. "I don't have to hide. You know, for me, I feel like I've been honest. I feel like a big brick has been lifted off my back. And I feel good for what I did. I really do. I feel good for finally just being honest. Because it's something I haven't done for so many years because I was scared."



"For the first time in 14 years I'm able to put down what I call a backpack full of anger also, and move on -- and really, really put it down and move on," says Joey. "Really. Really. Setting everything aside. So yeah, something good came for me as well."



Watch ET for more with Amy and Joey!
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http://et.tv.yahoo.com/celebrities/14614/

This kind of tacky grand guignol shit about people infamous only for doing something exceptionally horrible or shocking CAN be done well, but on "ET!", it's always anti-climactic shit. I still wish I'd seen it.

Amy Fisher completely kicks The Runaway Brides ass in terms of great tawdry entertainment. I was able to cut her a little slack when I saw her on Oprah too. She seemed genuinely contrite, poised and not completely without intelligence - but this ...

("Joey's apology really means a lot"? I can believe her story that the shooting was his idea now!)

Didn't Mary Jo write letters to help secure Amy's release from prison?

This entire case has been bizarre.

She did, and she attended Amy's last parole hearing to support her release. It's an absolute miracle Mary Jo is even alive. It was an incredibly noble and kind act. On Oprah, they showed clips of her on CNN, no less, describing how Amy was in tears, and couldn't stop saying "I'm so sorry!"

Yeah, bizarre is right. Controversial too. Amy's bail was set at two million dollars, the highest amount in the entire history of Nassau County, Long Island. The much maligned feminist Naomi Wolf had a lot to say about that.

There were three TV movies made about the case, and for some reason, all were shown on the same night on different networks.

I still see copies of the one starring Drew Barrymore as Amy under 'True Stories' at video libraries. I think it was the producers of that movie who actually raised Amy's bail, thereby briefly securing her release.
Definitely bizarre.

Amy was on ecstacy now? And that's why I shot her?
In her autobiography, she claims it was a gun malfunction and she didn't intend to shoot her at all. Or something.
I don't know. Amy Fisher really weirds me out.

__________________

Maybe she dropped some E in the chamber of the gun. And she was probably just cleaning it, too, when Big Bird came in and hypnotized her into doing his evil Manson-esque work. She would've started molesting children, but that usually comes BEFORE shooting your boyfriend's wife. I mean, she had a clear shot and he JUST swooped down. What was she supposed to do, run over to the playground and have her wait!? That's fucking rude.

Or maybe she's just feling guilty.

__________________
"the height of arrogance is the height of control of those who create God in their own image"

i think all their 15mins were up loooooong ago, no?

This is so Jerry Springer that I'm blushing at posting it, but for what little it's worth, it contains what I consider to be the, err, "highlight".
(Amy calling Joey a "fat ass" and blaming not the shooting but her attraction to his "fat ass" on being high. THAT I can believe!)


AMY FISHER was the 17-year-old "Long Island Lolita" who shot MARY JO BUTTAFUOCO, the wife of her 35-year-old lover, JOEY BUTTAFUOCO, in the head on her doorstep.

ET exclusively sits down Amy and her former flame face-to-face for the first time ever on camera to hash out the past -- and it gets downright ugly.

JOEY: "You know, if our relationship was anything and anybody thinks it was inappropriate, I apologize to my wife and children -- and you know something? Even to you, okay? But you don't shoot somebody. You don't take somebody's life. You just don't do that. You ruined Mary Jo's health. She's deaf and paralyzed; that girl, you left her [for] dead. You left Mary Jo [for] dead, the mother of my children."


AMY: "Yeah, I think the whole world knows this already ... You know what, you have spent the last three months cultivating -- I don't want to say your friendship, because you're not my friend and I'm not your friend -- but a sense of peace and understanding, and I really felt that, and I thought it was real."

JOEY: "Oh, it's real. It's real."

AMY: "And you know, like I said, I am sorry. And if Mary Jo were here, believe me, I am sorry, and everything I said was real -- I'm sorry, I need a break, I can't do this!"

Amy in tears storms off, but after consoling her, ET producers convince her to continue.


AMY: "You're some kind of con-artist. You sat there for three months, cultivating this whole niceness, and didn't mean a word of it. You know what? You manipulated me when I was a kid, telling me, 'Oh I love you, I'd never cheat on my wife, but you're so special.'"


JOEY: "I did not manipulate this situation at all."


AMY: "It's not nice to screw 16-year-olds, okay?"


JOEY: "No, it's not. It's totally wrong, and I'm not responsible for that."


AMY: "You're not responsible? Then who did it?"


JOEY: "You have taken accountability for what you did and that's a beautiful thing."


AMY: "Yeah, you know I was so high, I looked at your fat ass!"



JOEY: "And gratitude is a beautiful thing."



AMY: "You know what? You're disgusting."



JOEY: "If our relationship was inappropriate, I apologize to you for that."



AMY: "Well, yeah, having sex with 16-year-olds is inappropriate."



JOEY: "And I never had sex with a 16-year-old, and check your records."



Joey did serve six months in prison after reaching a plea deal when he was charged with statutory rape for his affair with Amy. As Joey denies he ever had sex with Amy, her husband LOU comes to her defense.



LOU: "She took responsibility for her actions. She went to prison. She paid her price, all right? She apologized five thousand times already. How many more times does she have to say she's sorry? She cleared the air."



JOEY: "Okay, good."



LOU: "Okay, now why don't you do the same?"



JOEY: "We just did."



LOU: "No, but you're not taking any responsibility. You don't seem to think there's anything wrong being with a 16-year-old girl."



JOEY: If that's the case, that's the case, but it's not my case."



After Lou says his peace, ET asks Amy and Joey to interview each other to finally get the truths the world has waited for.



AMY: "Do you take any responsibility for what happened, for even getting involved with me in the first place?"



JOEY: "Yes I do. I absolutely do."



AMY: "Finally. One responsibility. That's really good. We're getting somewhere."



JOEY: "If I could ask you, what was going through your mind the morning you shot Mary Jo?"



AMY: "You know what, this sounds like a horrible answer, but I'm not really sure. I think it was just, I think at that particular moment I was thinking I thought of you almost as a father figure. I don't know what I was thinking."



JOEY: "How much do you think the shooting of Mary Jo hurt my children? And frightened them?"



AMY: "More than anything in the world. Oh my god, that must have been -- you know, I have children now, so that must have been the most horrible thing. I started thinking about that as I got older. And now I have a five-year-old and he hugs me, 'Mommy I love you,' and it, like, rocks me because I think about, I almost took a mother away from her little babies. Oh god, it kills me."



JOEY: "Wow, I feel that pain for you also."



AMY: "And it's something that will never go away for me."



JOEY: "Do you cry? Because I do. I've cried a river. I've cried a river for my children, and for Mary, for everything that happened. I really do."



AMY: "You know all I ever wanted you to do, and you did this privately, is just be honest with me and say you're sorry. That apology meant a lot, it really did. And it was part of my healing process."



JOEY: "Do you think that this whole thing ruined a good part of your life, or a portion of your life?"



AMY: "Oh it definitely did. Definitely."



JOEY: "Me too. Will something good come out of today?"



AMY: "I think something did, for me. I don't have to hide. You know, for me, I feel like I've been honest. I feel like a big brick has been lifted off my back. And I feel good for what I did. I really do. I feel good for finally just being honest. Because it's something I haven't done for so many years because I was scared."



JOEY: "For the first time in 14 years I'm able to put down what I call a backpack full of anger also, and move on -- and really, really put it down and move on, man. Really. Really. Setting everything aside. So yeah, something good came for me as well."

http://et.tv.yahoo.com/celebrities/14595

Oh God, definitely. I think the main reason I even remember it at all is because Drew Barrymore looks gorgeous on the cover of the made-for-TV movie you can get on video.

Why did they even all get their 15 minutes? It obviously made people curious because it was a young girl who did the dastardly deed, but there are other young girls just as pretty who have done worse.

About a year ago, there was a rich, attractive girl who lived near me who inspired a minor media frenzy for doing worse, for the same reasons. She went over to the home of a girl she believed was screwing her boyfriend (described as a "nightclub DJ"), and she began stabbing the other girl. I remember it because the details were very gruesome. The girl being stabbed allegedly tried to run away, screaming, "Please stop! You can have him!" and the other girl replied, "I don't want him! I want you!" and chased after her. She stabbed her until she'd killed her.

I don't even remember her name, but her crime was much worse than Amy Fisher's.

Everyone except Mary Jo must have been in the right place at the right time, and even Mary Jo has an Oprah appearance coming up.
I guess Australia's no Long Island.

how is that at all the same? the amy fisher thing was such a big deal because she was having an affair with a man old enough to be her father & shot his wife. hardly the same as two teenage girls fighting over the same boy.

Well they aren't the same. Amy wasn't nearly as bad as this other girl, for one thing, and there are far more extenuating circumstances in Amy's case. In spite of these extenuating circumstances, Amy was depicted as a total psychopath at the time and called a "wild animal" by the judge who sentenced her.
Unfortunately, I don't think it's THAT shocking or unusual for a girl as young as 16 to be having an affair with a man old enough to be her father.
The "Lolita" aspect helped make it seem more shocking and outlandish of course.

This other case had some similarities, that's all. Two teenage girls "fighting" over the same boy makes it sound like it was no big deal! It was horrific.
It reminded me of Amy Fisher at the time because of A) Motive & the "Fatal Attraction" angle. B) the girl was a pretty, middle-class white girl like Amy Fisher. Girls like that don't do these things very often, so you tend to notice when they do, and the media often pay more attention.

However, this crime I'm thinking of was much worse to me and more shocking than Amy Fisher's but as I said, it failed to attract the same attention. I can't even remember the names. Only the details.

P.S *Band Aid* - I think I might know where you're coming from to make that point to me though. Last year Schapelle Corby, a young Australian woman, was convicted of smuggling marijuana into Bali, Indonesia, and was jailed for 20 fucking years. The verdict was telecast live. I've never seen anything like it. Court proceedings are never televised here. But everybody kept saying, "People smuggle drugs all the time. Why is this getting so much attention? She deserves to be treated like anyone else. This is only coz she's a pretty girl ... It's just another drug smuggling case ... "

Once I'd learnt the facts of the case, this attitude really pissed me off. She was claiming total innocence, and not only was there nothing to link her to the drugs, NOBODY before had EVER been accused of smuggling marijuana into Indonesia from Australia. For a number of reasons, it just does not happen. So it grated on me when people said it was 'similar' to other drug smuggling cases; it really wasn't!