Is it almost time for us to get the second season of Monsters yet? We know it’s not, but we keep getting all these updates on who has been cast in Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story. Each member is better than the last, making us more excited for the true-crime anthology from Ryan Murphy and Ian Brennan. It was just announced that Leslie Grossman has now joined the second season’s cast, and we couldn’t be happier.
Grossman has been cast to portray Judalon Smyth. For those of you like me who are not aware of who Judalon is, she was the lover and former patient of the Menendez brothers’ psychiatrist, Dr. Jerome Oziel. Though she wasn’t viewed as the perfect witness during the trial, her testimony was a central piece of evidence. According to a People magazine article published in 2015, Smyth told authorities that she had overheard the brothers speaking about shooting their mother.
Grossman joins Nicholas Chavez and Cooper Koch, who play Lyle and Erik, respectively, and Javier Bardem and Chloë Sevigny, who play the boy’s parents, Jose and Mary Louise “Kitty” Menendez. We previously told you that Ari Graynor and Nathan Lane have also been cast and will play attorney Leslie Abramson, and investigative journalist Dominick Dunne.
Of course, this isn’t the first time that Grossman has worked with Murphy. She’s had a long history of shows with him. Including one of my absolute favorites from high school-Popular which aired on The WB (now The CW); yup, I am dating myself, and I don’t care because I loved her character, Mary Cherry, the messy Queen B that she was. Grossman has also worked with Murphy on several seasons of American Horror Story. There is no doubt in our minds she won’t nail this new role.
Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story is scheduled to be released sometime this year and is currently in production.