Bravo, Scott Fawell, Bravo!

By Amy Hart in News on Oct 12, 2005 2:48PM

In case you haven’t noticed, Chicagoist has become slightly obsessed with the enigma that is Scott Fawell. First we were scared when he took us back to college with his cocky frat boy routine, then we felt sad when we found out his admiration of George Ryan was not being reciprocated, and now we have been confronted with the love struck Romeo act.

Yesterday, during his fourth day of testimony in the corruption trial against his ex-idol, former Governor George Ryan, Fawell broke down on the stand when explaining that he had turned on Ryan to save his fiancée Andrea Coutretsis from jail time.

The Sun Times delivers the details:

When Collins asked Fawell about Coutretsis visiting him in prison, Fawell sat silent for several moments, blinked back tears and nervously sipped out of a Styrofoam cup.

Taking deep breaths, his face flushed, Fawell tilted his head and scratched his nose as he tried in vain to hold back tears. Collins [the federal prosecutor] asked for a recess. As jurors were led out a door just to his left, Fawell put his head down and his hand on his forehead, then stood up and turned his back away from jurors who hadn't left yet.

Fawell appeared to fight back tears at several points in the day when Coutretsis came up, including under questioning by defense attorney Dan Webb.

The judge was forced to clear the jurors from the courtroom and allow Fawell to leave and regain his composure.

In the great tradition of John Malkovich and Philip Seymour Hoffman, Scott Fawell is becoming one of the great character actors of our time. Cue the slow clap. Well done, Scott Fawell. We are looking forward to your next transformation.