Betty Broderick Story Resurfaces On Lifetime

Two classic made-for-television movies about Betty Broderick, the San Diego woman who was convicted of murdering her ex-husband and his younger second wife, aired on Lifetime Tuesday. The movies, which centered on the high-profile crimes, the eccentricities of the main character and the criminal trial that fascinated the public, drew parallels to the recent Casey Anthony case.

In A Woman Scorned: The Betty Broderick Story, actress Meredith Baxter plays the titular character in an Emmy-nominated performance. The ripped-from-the-headlines film chronicles Broderick's emotional wreckage as she supports her career-switching husband for 16 years, bearing four children, only to receive the slap in the face that he wants a divorce so he can wed his sexy younger receptionist. Increasingly outraged, Broderick stalks and assaults the newlyweds before committing the final act – murder.

Baxter reprises the role of the jilted housewife in Her Final Fury: Betty Broderick, The Last Chapter, the sequel to the story that takes the viewer from murder to trial number one to trial number two, which finally results in Broderick's conviction and sentencing to life in prison – a big departure from the Casey Anthony trial. While rumors have spread about the possibility of a Lifetime movie or feature film based on the Anthony case, nothing has been confirmed and many reps have denied any plans. Due to her resemblance to Anthony, Twilight actress Kristen Stewart was said to be shoe-in for playing Anthony, but Stewart has denied any plan or interest to do so.