Columnist: Pistorius Took Acting Class Before Trial

Rep calls claims 'devoid of truth'
By Matt Cantor,  Newser Staff
Posted Apr 22, 2014 9:16 AM CDT
Columnist: Pistorius Took Acting Class Before Trial
Oscar Pistorius cradles his head in his hands as he listens to forensic evidence being given in court in Pretoria, South Africa, Thursday, April 17, 2014.   (AP Photo/Alet Pretorius, Pool)

Has Oscar Pistorius' sobbing and vomiting in court all been an act? That's what a former South African columnist is alleging, to vehement denials from the runner's media rep. Jani Allan writes on her blog that Pistorius took acting classes from a friend ahead of his emotional trial, Good Morning America reports. "I have it from a reliable source that you are taking acting lessons for your days in court. Your coach has an impossible task," she says on her website in an open letter, via AFP.

Pistorius' media manager says the idea of "any form of emotional coaching" is "totally devoid of any truth." Adds Anneliese Burgess in a statement: "This type of comment makes a mockery of the enormous human tragedy involving the Steenkamp family and our client and his family." The columnist "has never met Oscar Pistorius and any knowledge she professes to have of our client can only be described as fictitious," Burgess says. (More Oscar Pistorius stories.)

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