Blog Post: Lifetime Network to Broadcast Movie Marathon Featuring Movies Inspired by True Stories of Murder, Obsession, Lust and Revenge

If your goal is to relax this Memorial Day Weekend, then tune into Lifetime Network's three day movie marathon. It's a guilty pleasure festival that is sure to entertain. 

Plus, Sunday night will unveil the world premiere of a new original thriller, Shadow of Fear at 9 p.m. starring Will Estes (Blue Bloods) and Amanda Righetti.

“Tainted Love Weekend” also includes the Lifetime premiere of Murder in Greenwich, starring Christopher Meloni; as well as such fan favorites as Betty Broderick: A Woman Scorned, with Meredith Baxter; The Two Mr. Kissels, featuring John Stamos; The Perfect Husband: The Laci Peterson Story, with Dean Cain; and Sex & Lies in Sin City: The Ted Binion Story, starring Matthew Modine, Mena Suvari and Marcia Gay Harden.

A complete schedule of Lifetime’s “Tainted Love Weekend” marathon is as follows (all times ET/PT):

SATURDAY, MAY 26

12:00pm: Bitter Blood (miniseries) - Based on a true story. After an ugly divorce, a man (Keith Carradine) suspects his ex-wife (Kelly McGillis) and her new boyfriend (Harry Hamlin) of harming their children and possibly being involved in the murder of his family.

4:00pm: The Lies He Told - Based on a true story. A lawless renegade (Gary Cole), wanted by the police for his unspeakable crimes, lures a trusting young woman (Karen Sillas) into a secret world of lust and deception.

6:00pm: Murder on Pleasant Drive - Inspired by a true story.  When Fran Smith (Susan Hogan) mysteriously disappears, her daughter Deanna (Kelli Williams) and her sister Sherrie (Amy Madigan) will stop at nothing to find her. Suspicion begins to fall on Fran's husband John, (Adam Arkin), and the two women are convinced he murdered their loved one yet without a body, there is no evidence a crime has been committed. With Sherrie's assistance, Deanna embarks upon a tireless, 11 year quest, relentlessly investigating John's past. Eventually, they uncover a 25 year-old missing person's case involving John's first wife who also disappeared under mysterious circumstances. With this lead, new evidence is uncovered and John is finally brought to justice.

8:00pm: Murder in Greenwich (Lifetime Premiere) - Starring Christopher Meloni and Robert Forster, and based on the book by former Los Angeles Police Detective Mark Furhman, the true story of Martha Moxley (Maggie Grace), a 15 year-old girl whose 1975 murder in affluent Greenwich, Connecticut, went unsolved for 25 years until an extended member of the Kennedy family was convicted of the crime.

10:00pm: Blue-Eyed Butcher - Based on a true story of the beautiful suburban housewife dubbed “the Blue-Eyed Butcher,” whose husband was stabbed and found buried in the backyard of his suburban home. The prime suspect in his murder was his wife Susan Wright (Sara Paxton), accused of tying her husband Jeff (Justin Bruening) up in an act of seduction and then proceeding to stab him over and over. How could a mother of two commit such a horrific crime with her children in the next room? As Jeff's parents reeled from the devastating news, Susan mounted her aggressive defense: Jeff Wright was a "husband that needed killing" after years of drugs and physical abuse. But Galveston prosecutor Kelly Siegler (Lisa Edelstein) didn't buy Susan's story and felt the murder was premeditated. Siegler saw Susan Wright as a lying sociopath who had used her good looks to get away with anything in life. Siegler would even resort to controversial courtroom tactics to prove her case, and in the end, would see the "blue-eyed butcher" convicted.

SUNDAY, MAY 27

10:00am: Beyond the Headlines: The Real Blue-Eyed Butcher - This documentary chronicles the story of Susan Wright, mother of two, who murdered her husband in 2004 by stabbing him 193 times and then tried to cover-up the crime.

11:00am: Blue-Eyed Butcher

1:00pm: Betty Broderick: A Woman Scorned - In 1989, San Diego socialite Betty Broderick's (Meredith Baxter) life becomes unraveled when her lawyer husband (Steven Collins) of sixteen years divorces her and marries his young assistant (Michelle Johnson). Feelings of anger, abandonment and vindictiveness drive Betty to murder them in their bed.

3:00pm: The Two Mr. Kissels - Two multi-millionaire brothers. Both married the women of their dreams. And both Kissel brothers would be found murdered, one in a Hong Kong apartment after being fed a drugged milk shake by his own child, the other stabbed to death in his Greenwich mansion. It's the incredible story of the Kissels, and how their desire for wealth and excess spiraled out of control. There's Nancy Kissel (Robin Tunney), a social climber who thought she'd met the man of her dreams in husband Rob Kissel (Anson Mount), only to later find herself on trial for Rob's murder, a case the press would dub "The Milkshake Murder." There's Andrew Kissel (John Stamos), a smooth con man who embezzled millions to support his lavish lifestyle. And then there's Andrew's wife Hayley (Gretchen Egolf), caught in the center of the hurricane that the Kissels' life would become, trying to keep her life and reputation intact. The movie takes us behind the closed doors of the Kissels' mansions in Greenwich, their luxury Manhattan and Hong Kong apartments, and answers the central question - who killed Rob and Andrew Kissel?

5:00pm: Karla - True story about a woman who falls in love with a violent rapist and murderer. Karla Homolka (Laura Prepon) marries Paul Bernado (Misha Collins) despite already having aided him in the rape and murder of her younger sister. Through their marriage he brags to her about other rapes he commits and involves Karla herself in the sexual assault and murder of three female victims.

7:00pm: Murder in the Hamptons - A gripping, true crime tale based on a true story. The wedding of artist Generosa Rand (Poppy Montgomery) to millionaire businessman Ted Ammon (David Sutcliffe) seemed like a Cinderella Story come to life to their neighbors in the Hamptons. The newlyweds even adopted a little boy and a girl. But trouble was brewing in paradise, and what was once an idyllic union degenerated into jealousy, open hostility, and resentment between them - leading to a contentious divorce to divide the sizeable Ammon fortune. But when Ted Ammon is found bludgeoned to death in his own home - the police question - could Generosa have convinced her contractor boyfriend Danny Pelosi (Shawn Christian) - who installed the alarm system, to commit the murder?

9:00pm: Shadow of Fear (World Premiere)

In Shadow of Fear, when Morgan Pierce (Will Estes) quits his job at the coffee shop, Casey Cooper (Amanda Righetti) thinks she's seen the last of her odd and off-putting co-worker.  But when Morgan starts calling Casey and watching her at work, she knows something is wrong. As his behavior escalates and he begins to watch Casey every waking hour, writing letters and calling her dozens of times a day, she turns to the police for help. Only they can't help her -- not until Morgan actually threatens to kill her. Distraught, Casey begins to withdraw from life. But when Morgan crosses the line and hurts the people Casey loves, she must find the strength inside herself to stop living in fear, and finally put a stop to this dangerous attraction.

MONDAY, MAY 28

8:00am: Black Widower - The wife of a successful and well-liked automobile executive dies during rough sex. The authorities (Kelly McGillis) become suspicious when they learn that he has had three previous wives who have all died under similar circumstance.

10:00am: A Cry For Help: The Tracy Thurman Story - Based on a true story. Tracy Thurman (Nancy McKeon) leaves her abusive marriage and gets a restraining order against her husband (Dale Midkiff) but he continues to harass her. He beats her and slashes her throat while the police watch. Tracy sues the police department and city for not protecting her. This became a landmark case that led to the adoption of domestic violence legislation and reforms in police responses to domestic violence calls.

12:00pm: The Familiar Stranger - Based on a true story. When a woman's (Margaret Colin) husband (Jay O. Saunders) takes his own life after being indicted for embezzling money, she struggles to raise her two sons alone, only to discover ten years later that her husband faked his death and is living a prosperous life with a new identity.

2:00pm: The Perfect Husband: The Laci Peterson Story - Based on a true story, Laci Peterson is a pregnant mother to-be. On the eve of Christmas, she disappears. Her husband, Scott Peterson (Dean Cain), and her whole family searches for Laci. There are no signs of Laci anywhere. Months go on and on and the media and public, starts to think that Scott murdered his wife. 

4:00pm: To Love, Honor and Betray - When her mother (Dee Wallace-Stone) is murdered, a young woman (Crystal Bernard) becomes convinced that her father (James Brolin) is guilty. She turns to her husband (David Cubitt) to help her find the truth, and discovers that he may be the guilty one and has been scamming her family all along. 

6:00pm: Murder in Greenwich

8:00pm: Shadow of Fear

10:00pm: Sex & Lies in Sin City: The Ted Binion Story - In the long, colorful history of Las Vegas crime, one case stands out: the tumultuous, tortured romance of beauty-queen-turned-stripper Sandy Murphy (Mena Suvari) and reckless casino mogul Ted Binion (Matthew Modine). At first, it seemed like the kind of story Las Vegas was invented for: she was a beauty from the wrong side of the tracks, he was one of the most eligible bachelors in town, and together they found true love. But every Vegas tale has a dark side, and soon reports of drugs, guns, cash, and mobsters begin to soil this storybook affair. When Ted Binion turns up dead of an overdose, all fingers immediately point to Sandy, the beneficiary of his millions. And when her secret lover (Johnathon Schaech) gets caught stealing from Binion's hidden underground vault in the Nevada desert, the sordid facts finally begin to emerge.  Also starring Marcia Gay Harden.

Sandi Berg is also a freelance journalist and writes about television for several magazines including "Written By" (Writer's Guild of America), "Life After 50" and "Whole Life Times Magazine."