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Just for one thing, is it Jackson celebrity that turns doctor case into spectacle ?

There's no bloody glove this time, no smoking gun, no faded music icon showing up in court wearing a wig that made it look like he plugged his finger into an electrical socket.

There's not even a celebrity for that matter — the person on trial is a doctor no one had heard of eight months ago.

Still, the case of the People vs. Michael Jackson's doctor has already taken on all the trappings of a full-blown Los Angeles celebrity trial, complete with a scrum of paparazzi and news photographers staking out the accused's residence and chasing him everywhere he goes. The mere rumor that he would be arrested or surrender sent an army of news photographers from all over the world rushing to a courthouse.

So it seems certain that Conrad Murray will join the ranks of O.J. Simpson, Robert Blake and Phil Spector in the pantheon of Los Angeles celebrity defendants, even if he's an obscure Texas cardiologist in a case of medical negligence.

"There are no surprises here. We know how the guy died, we know who allegedly gave it to him. But lacking surprises, it's Michael Jackson. The news shows can play endless loops of Michael Jackson singing. Maybe his children will come into the courtroom, and what a day that would be," says Judy Muller, who shared in an Emmy for ABC's coverage of the ultimate celebrity trial, the one that ended with O.J. Simpson being acquitted of murder in 1995.

"I hate to be cynical but I've been here long enough to know how this will play," added Muller. "It's Michael Jackson and it's a celebrity trial, even if it's a dead celebrity, and particularly in Los Angeles it's what we're known for."

Not that a trial involving a dead celebrity, even one as revered as Jackson was, is completely unprecedented.

As big as Jackson was, though, it seems doubtful his doctor's case can overshadow Simpson's murder trial.

For one thing, notes critical studies professor Todd Boyd, who has written extensively on pop culture and race relations, there's no divisive racial issue this time, as there was when Simpson's lawyers argued he was framed by a racist police officer who planted a bloody glove at his house.

For another, a lot of people thought going into that trial Simpson was guilty. He had had numerous domestic disputes with his ex-wife before she and her friend were violently ambushed outside her home.

Murray on the other hand is accused of accidentally killing Jackson by administering a powerful sedative, which Boyd said likely lessens some of the emotion. (From AP)