Then & now Marcia Clark, prosecutor

IT WAS THE trial of the decade, and it turned Marcia Clark into the world’s most famous prosecutor – but it also destroyed her courtroom career.

In June 1994, actor and football legend OJ Simpson stood accused of murdering his ex wife Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend Ronald Goldman.

Clark had already successfully tried 19 murder cases, including a high-profile killing of a TV presenter; with her conviction rate, and all the solid evidence against Simpson, Clark should have had no problem, but Simpson’s defence lawyer Johnny Cochrane cannily twisted the trial into a race issue and won an acquittal for his client.

Most of us who were glued to the OJ Simpson trial (Clark called it a circus) on TV will remember the image of a frizzy-haired, frazzled-looking Clark desperately trying to keep control of a case that was quickly slipping out of her grasp.

It wasn’t just the goings-on in court that were stressing Clark out – her new celebrity status meant she was in the media spotlight 24/7. The gossip columns were buzzing with speculation about an affair between her and her co-prosecutor Christopher Darden, and a topless shapshot of her taken 10 years previously was splashed across the tabloids.

After the trial, Clark was burnt out. She retreated from court work and divorced her second husband, Gordon Clark, with whom she had two children. She published her bestselling memoir of the trial, Without a Doubt, and was soon in demand by broadcasters to comment on high-profile court cases. From there, it was just a red-carpet step to covering awards shows for Entertainment Tonight.

She also spent some years writing scripts in the hopes of getting a TV drama series off the ground.

Today, Clark is unrecognisable from the paparazzi shots taken around the time of the trial. Gone are the bags under her eyes, and her shock of curls has been replaced by a straight bob.

These days, the gossip is all about whether Clark has had plastic surgery. And she’s back in the thick of the courtroom action as the author of two crime novels following the adventures of special prosecutor Rachel Knight as she fights to put the criminals of LA behind bars. The first novel, Guilt by Association, was a bestseller in 2011, and its follow-up, Guilt by Degrees, came out in May.

Last month, Clark tweeted: “Great news! TNT has optioned my Rachel Knight series for a TV series as a one-hour drama . . . who do you think should play Rachel?”