美国国家公共电台 NPR New Memoir Unpacks The Life And Tragic Death Of 'The Hot One'

 

LULU GARCIA-NAVARRO, HOST:

When Carolyn Murnick met her childhood best friend Ashley, it was like love at first sight. They were in elementary school. Ashley just moved into the area. And they became inseparable, sharing all their secrets and dreams. Then, as often happens, as they got older, they drifted apart. Ashley would move to Los Angeles. And she started dating Hollywood celebrities¹ and making money dancing at clubs. Carolyn lived in New York and worked in the literary world.

On a winter's night in 2001, 22-year-old Ashley Ellerin was found brutally² murdered in her Hollywood Hills home in California. The tabloids³ ran the news because Ashley was about to go out on a date with actor Ashton Kutcher. But the real story of her tragic⁴ death and vibrant⁵ life is the subject of the memoir⁶ "The Hot One," written by Carolyn Murnick about her friend. She joins us now from our studios in New York. Thank you for coming onto the program.

CAROLYN MURNICK: Thanks for having me.

GARCIA-NAVARRO: You called this book "The Hot One." Can you explain that?

MURNICK: The title to me is a reference to the way I think that our culture tries to put girls and women in boxes and sort of implicitly⁷ holds them up in comparison to each other. You have a group of women together. One becomes the hot one. Or one is maybe the conservative one or the smart one. And in my book, I explore the ways that those labels sort of take hold and how they can kind of influence your sense of self. And I think Ashley was definitely seen as the hot one in the last year of her life. And I believe that she was beginning to chafe⁸ against the expectations of that label.

GARCIA-NAVARRO: You write in your book that, for girls in particular, there is an innocence⁹, a freedom until a certain moment which you define as the advent¹⁰ of the male gaze. I'd like you to read from page 27 when you talk about that.

MURNICK: Sure.

(Reading) It meant attention was on you at all times for what you wore and how you looked and whether the proportions of your body measured up to whatever standard was the norm that year. It meant that if you were deemed worthy¹¹, a new ocean of power and opportunity opened up to you. And if you were lucky and smart, you'd surf that wave for as long as you could stay on. It was as if Ashley had taken that essential truth I woke up to at 10 that the male gaze was a given and stared squarely, defiantly¹² right back at it, while I was still attempting to avoid eye contact for as long as possible.

GARCIA-NAVARRO: Tell us about the man who's suspected of killing¹³ her. It' - he's a suspected serial¹⁴ killer¹⁵.

MURNICK: Right. It's a horrific case. His name is Michael Gargiulo, and he lived down the street from Ashley and infiltrated¹⁶ himself into her world and kind of would show up at her house unexpectedly. And he's also charged with another murder of a young woman who lived in his apartment building in Santa Monica in 2005. And he was finally arrested for an attempted murder in 2008, where his victim survived.

GARCIA-NAVARRO: You sat in on the pretrial, where you learned so much about Ashley's life. And the way you describe her life - as a fun-loving girl who's 22, having a good time in Hollywood, as would be expected of any young girl, you know, who can - was not the way it was portrayed¹⁷ by the defense¹⁸.

MURNICK: She was working as sort of dabbling¹⁹ in the sex industry in the last year of her life, as working in strip clubs and doing light escorting. And at the time of her murder, she was flying to Vegas for the weekends to do that. And I think that the defense definitely kept wanting to harp²⁰ on it. Every witness who got on the stand was asked about her pole dancing. And, you know, was she someone who was considered promiscuous²¹? And was she someone who, you know, entertained the company of a lot of men? And, unfortunately, I see that as a thing that is used to sort of erode²² sympathy for female victims, both, you know, in the media and in court proceedings²³. And I'd love for this book to kind of push back around - push back about those ideas of the way that female victims are often subject to some slut shaming and light victim-blaming tendencies.

GARCIA-NAVARRO: So the trial is coming up. Are you going to testify, and what is it that you think the jury should hear about Ashley?

MURNICK: Well, as of right now, we are being told that the trial could potentially start in October or November. But, you know, certainly, this alleged²⁴ killer has been in jail since 2008. And so there's been a lot of false starts. But I have been approached about testifying during the penalty phase. And I plan to talk about our childhood. And I hope that I can be a voice for bringing to life the girl who I knew, who was not the girl who's being portrayed as, you know, someone that was supposed to meet Ashton Kutcher one night. And she wasn't a Hollywood party girl. And she wasn't someone who was dating lots of guys and trying drugs. She was someone who was my first best friend and who I really consider to be a part of my identity. Even today, I think that we figured out the world in reference to each other's kids. And she will always be a part of me. And I think that I continue to be shaped by our relationship even 16 years after her death.

GARCIA-NAVARRO: Carolyn Murnick's new book is called "The Hot One: A Memoir Of Friendship, Sex, And Murder." Thank you so much.

MURNICK: Thank you.

(SOUNDBITE OF PORTICO QUARTET'S, "LIFE MASK")

1 celebrities   

n.（尤指娱乐界的）名人( celebrity的名词复数 )；名流；名声；名誉

参考例句：

• He only invited A-list celebrities to his parties. 他只邀请头等名流参加他的聚会。
• a TV chat show full of B-list celebrities 由众多二流人物参加的电视访谈节目

2 brutally   

adv.残忍地，野蛮地，冷酷无情地

参考例句：

• The uprising was brutally put down.起义被残酷地镇压下去了。
• A pro-democracy uprising was brutally suppressed.一场争取民主的起义被残酷镇压了。

3 tabloids   

n.小报，通俗小报（版面通常比大报小一半，文章短，图片多，经常报道名人佚事）( tabloid的名词复数 )；药片

参考例句：

• The story was on the front pages of all the tabloids. 所有小报都在头版报道了这件事。
• The story made the front page in all the tabloids. 这件事成了所有小报的头版新闻。

4 tragic   

adj.悲剧的，悲剧性的，悲惨的

参考例句：

• The effect of the pollution on the beaches is absolutely tragic.污染海滩后果可悲。
• Charles was a man doomed to tragic issues.查理是个注定不得善终的人。

5 vibrant   

adj.震颤的，响亮的，充满活力的，精力充沛的，(色彩)鲜明的

参考例句：

• He always uses vibrant colours in his paintings. 他在画中总是使用鲜明的色彩。
• She gave a vibrant performance in the leading role in the school play.她在学校表演中生气盎然地扮演了主角。

6 memoir   

n.[pl.]回忆录，自传；记事录

参考例句：

• He has just published a memoir in honour of his captain.他刚刚出了一本传记来纪念他的队长。
• In her memoir,the actress wrote about the bittersweet memories of her first love.在那个女演员的自传中，她写到了自己苦乐掺半的初恋。

7 implicitly   

adv. 含蓄地, 暗中地, 毫不保留地

参考例句：

• Many verbs and many words of other kinds are implicitly causal. 许多动词和许多其他类词都蕴涵着因果关系。
• I can trust Mr. Somerville implicitly, I suppose? 我想，我可以毫无保留地信任萨莫维尔先生吧？

8 chafe   

v.擦伤；冲洗；惹怒

参考例句：

• The foaming waves chafe against the rocky shore.汹涌的波涛猛烈地冲击着礁岸。
• A stiff collar may chafe your neck.硬的衣领会擦伤你的脖子。

9 innocence   

n.无罪；天真；无害

参考例句：

• There was a touching air of innocence about the boy.这个男孩有一种令人感动的天真神情。
• The accused man proved his innocence of the crime.被告人经证实无罪。

10 advent   

n.(重要事件等的)到来，来临

参考例句：

• Swallows come by groups at the advent of spring. 春天来临时燕子成群飞来。
• The advent of the Euro will redefine Europe.欧元的出现将重新定义欧洲。

11 worthy   

adj.(of)值得的，配得上的；有价值的

参考例句：

• I did not esteem him to be worthy of trust.我认为他不值得信赖。
• There occurred nothing that was worthy to be mentioned.没有值得一提的事发生。

12 defiantly   

adv.挑战地，大胆对抗地

参考例句：

• Braving snow and frost, the plum trees blossomed defiantly. 红梅傲雪凌霜开。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》
• She tilted her chin at him defiantly. 她向他翘起下巴表示挑衅。 来自《简明英汉词典》

13 killing   

n.巨额利润；突然赚大钱，发大财

参考例句：

• Investors are set to make a killing from the sell-off.投资者准备清仓以便大赚一笔。
• Last week my brother made a killing on Wall Street.上个周我兄弟在华尔街赚了一大笔。

14 serial   

n.连本影片，连本电视节目；adj.连续的

参考例句：

• A new serial is starting on television tonight.今晚电视开播一部新的电视连续剧。
• Can you account for the serial failures in our experiment?你能解释我们实验屡屡失败的原因吗？

15 killer   

n.杀人者，杀人犯，杀手，屠杀者

参考例句：

• Heart attacks have become Britain's No.1 killer disease.心脏病已成为英国的头号致命疾病。
• The bulk of the evidence points to him as her killer.大量证据证明是他杀死她的。

16 infiltrated   

adj.[医]浸润的v.（使）渗透，（指思想）渗入人的心中( infiltrate的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• The headquarters had been infiltrated by enemy spies. 总部混入了敌方特务。
• Many Chinese idioms have infiltrated into the Japanese language. 许多中国成语浸透到日语中。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》

17 portrayed   

v.画像( portray的过去式和过去分词 )；描述；描绘；描画

参考例句：

• Throughout the trial, he portrayed himself as the victim. 在审讯过程中，他始终把自己说成是受害者。
• The author portrayed his father as a vicious drunkard. 作者把他父亲描绘成一个可恶的酒鬼。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》

18 defense   

n.防御，保卫；[pl.]防务工事；辩护，答辩

参考例句：

• The accused has the right to defense.被告人有权获得辩护。
• The war has impacted the area with military and defense workers.战争使那个地区挤满了军队和防御工程人员。

19 dabbling   

v.涉猎( dabble的现在分词 )；涉足；浅尝；少量投资

参考例句：

• She swims twice a week and has been dabbling in weight training. 她一周游两次泳，偶尔还练习一下举重。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The boy is dabbling his hand in the water. 这孩子正用手玩水。 来自辞典例句

20 harp   

n.竖琴；天琴座

参考例句：

• She swept her fingers over the strings of the harp.她用手指划过竖琴的琴弦。
• He played an Irish melody on the harp.他用竖琴演奏了一首爱尔兰曲调。

21 promiscuous   

adj.杂乱的，随便的

参考例句：

• They were taking a promiscuous stroll when it began to rain.他们正在那漫无目的地散步，突然下起雨来。
• Alec know that she was promiscuous and superficial.亚历克知道她是乱七八糟和浅薄的。

22 erode   

v.侵蚀，腐蚀，使...减少、减弱或消失

参考例句：

• Once exposed,soil is quickly eroded by wind and rain.一旦暴露在外，土壤很快就会被风雨侵蚀。
• Competition in the financial marketplace has eroded profits.金融市场的竞争降低了利润。

23 proceedings   

n.进程，过程，议程；诉讼(程序)；公报

参考例句：

• He was released on bail pending committal proceedings. 他交保获释正在候审。
• to initiate legal proceedings against sb 对某人提起诉讼

24 alleged   

a.被指控的，嫌疑的

参考例句：

• It was alleged that he had taken bribes while in office. 他被指称在任时收受贿赂。
• alleged irregularities in the election campaign 被指称竞选运动中的不正当行为