Media clamors to cover Chris Brown hearing

LOS ANGELES, June 22 (UPI) -- Fifty-two media outlets requested permission to attend Monday's preliminary hearing in the Chris Brown-Rihanna assault case, a Los Angeles court official said.

Recording artist Brown, 20, has pleaded innocent to charges alleging he beat up and threatened his then-girlfriend, 21-year-old singer Rihanna, during a heated argument in his car last February.

A hearing was scheduled Monday to determine whether there is enough evidence to take the matter to trial.

The Los Angeles Times said the number of reporters attempting to cover the case is higher than of those who turned out for Paris Hilton being sent back to jail for motor vehicle violations, Britney Spears's divorce, the drunken driving cases of Lindsay Lohan and Nicole Richie, or the murder trials of Robert Blake or Phil Spector.

"I've never seen this kind of interest, and I've been here seven years," court spokesman Allan Parachini told the Times.

"The way it broke -- so fast and so big out of the gate -- has a lot to do with (the public's interest.) There was this big audience exposed to the story as it started," E! executive news editor Ken Baker told the newspaper.

"At the heart of it is this intense romance between these two beautiful people that went bad in this very public way. It has this raw, sensational drama to it," explained Baker, who said he plans to be in the courtroom for the proceeding.

Superior Court Judge Patricia Schnegg has ruled against allowing cameras in the courtroom for the hearing, for which Rihanna is said to be prepared to testify if called by prosecutors.

The Times said a closed-circuit broadcast has been set up in a nearby courtroom to accommodate the overflow of press and members of the public.