This post is part of a series on celebrity spokespeople who ended up doing serious harm to the brands they were hired to promote, or vice versa. See how we rank the 20 top spokesperson fiascos.

When it rains, it pours. Back in 2005 Defamer reports that Star " I am a lawyer" Jones was booted as a spokesperson for Payless Shoe Source around the same time that she was dumped from The View. Jones was clearly of no use to the shoe chain once she was Barbaraed off of The View. So Payless used its steel-toed boot to kick her to the curb.

Defamer noted that both parties tried to put a good spin on the situation. Payless said that the terms of their contract called for it to end after three years and that it was successful. And Jones said the same thing about the contract ending -- but she suggested that Payless decided it no longer wanted celebrities to endorse its products. Jones clearly still considered herself a celebrity.

But the people who release such statements are often paid well to provide a different view of reality. Unfortunately for Jones, it has been years since she's had as good a marketing platform as The View -- from which to offer such spin.

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It's a new name and a new future for Court TV, the Time Warner (NYSE:TWX) unit that surged in popularity during the mid-1990s, as it covered every bit of dripping minutiae in the O.J. Simpson Trial. As of January 1, 2008, the network will emerge with a new name, look, and logo.

Programming will be fresh as well, building more reality series and revamping daytime shows. On the docket for the afternoon hours are two talk shows hosted by the widely abhorred but habitually watched Nancy Grace and ousted View co-host Star Jones. The evening will feature gritty looks into the underbelly of criminal justice, including shows about police interrogations and con artists. The network is also formulating a deal for quarterly specials with TheSmokingGun.com. Already in the works is a special on The Dumbest Criminals in the World.

According to a release from Broadcasting & Cable, "The network's recent research, which in part prompted the upcoming changes, shows the fringe, primetime and late-night audience is male and loves real people, situations and stories, especially action-focused stories."

Beth Gaston Moon is an analyst at Schaeffer's Investment Research.