Stalker Doppelganger?

You know that story about the Hollywood screenwriter who supposedly had her pit bull cloned?

Well, according to an Associated Press story in today's paper, the same woman was convicted of stalking, kidnapping and sexual assault 31 years ago in London. She was recognized from file photos at several British tabloids. I saw the story in the Star Tribune, but I imagine it ran in many other papers as well -- but not the Pioneer Press, which managed to stay out of this piece of tabloid trash.

I'm not writing about this topic for its intrinsic merit. Rather, I wanted to point out an unintentionally funny juxtaposition I noted on the Strib page.

At right is the whole page, with the story, called "Her photo looked strangely familiar," at the top. At the bottom of the page is an ad for Mills Fleet Farm, selling carbon monoxide detectors. It's hard to see what caught my attention from this small image, so here are close-ups of the photo and the ad:


The woman, Joyce McKinney (looking blissful for some reason), as she is taken away by police in 1977.


The carbon monoxide detector ad, with a child blissfully sleeping on her mother's shoulder.

I'd say that gives new meaning to the headline, "Her photo looked strangely familiar."