Free Republic

STAMFORD, Conn. — After spending more than a decade behind bars for the murder of a teenage girl in Greenwich, Conn., Michael C. Skakel, a cousin of the Kennedys, was ordered free from prison on Thursday to await a possible retrial.

Full title: The great woman behind the Kennedy men: Rare and never before seen pictures shed light on Rose Kennedy as the matriarch of America's celebrated dynasty A month before the nation marks the 50th anniversary of President John F. Kennedy's assassination, a new photo book put together by Caroline Kennedy tells the story of her remarkable family through the eyes of her indomitable grandmother. Rose Kennedy's Family Album, which went on sale Tuesday, features a trove of 300 images - many of them never made public before - taken between 1878 and 1946, when John F. Kennedy won the...

Political intimidation is alive and well in this country. Anyone who believes that Hollywood has the power to make any film they want without consequence must be dreaming. You may remember what happened to the excellent docudrama The Path to 9/11 in 2006. The scared-to-death Clinton camp was so terrified that they pushed with all of their might to get the program pulled from the air. Fortunately it did get one single airing in two parts. Regardless, the Clintons used their pull at Disney (who owns ABC) to intimidate producers, writers and anyone else involved in the project. People like...

History Channel pulled the plug the controversial "The Kennedys" doc Friday, and now this question: Where? Where will eight hours of a now-highly-promotable miniseries end up on U.S. TV, or is it too hot to handle? For reasons still unclear, HC said no, and widespread speculation about the reason landed at the door of part-owner Disney/ABC, which buckled under pressure from the family; the mini - an unusual venture for HC under any circumstances immediately drew fire from various liberal points on the cultural compass when it was announced because of the association with producer Joel Surnow, former "24" producer,...

It may not make for good conspiracy theory fodder, but a sunken Kennedy boat sure has a certain ring to it. River Maiden, a 59-foot steel boat registered to Max Kennedy, son of the late Sen. Robert Kennedy, sank into the north slip of Lake Michigan between Rainbow Beach and the Calumet River on June 12, according to the U.S. Coast Guard. It's still there.

Now that the hit show 24 is a thing of the past, creator Joel Surnow has set his sights on the Kennedy Legacy. Surnow is putting together a miniseries about the Kennedy family that will air on the History Channel. Unfortunately, since Surnow is a conservative in Hollywood there have already been people bashing the project. Surnow responds to critics: “It’s not fair because they looked at early drafts of script that don’t even resemble the final draft. It was way too early for them to comment on it. The fact of the matter is, because I’m known as one...

Kennedy clan black sheep William Kennedy Smith is again facing accusations that he raped a woman. The nephew of Massachusetts Sen. Edward Kennedy and the late President John F. Kennedy was sued yesterday in Chicago by his former personal assistant, who charged that Smith, 43, sexually assaulted her in his home five years ago. The suit, filed 13 years after Smith beat a highly publicized rape case in Florida, comes from Audra Soulias, who says Smith attacked her at his North Side digs in 1999 after plying her and friends with booze to celebrate her 23rd birthday. "He dragged me...

Jacqueline Kennedy was so racked with loss after her husband's assassination in 1963 that she spoke repeatedly of suicide to her confessor, a new book about the Kennedys' Irish-Catholic heritage reveals. "It is so hard to bear," she told the Rev. Richard McSorley months after her husband's death. "I feel as though I am going out of my mind at times. Wouldn't God understand if I just wanted to be with him?" Later, after she seemed to rebound, she sank further into gloom and again spoke of suicide as a way out, saying, "I was glad that Marilyn Monroe got...