US media gears up as Bryant faces rape charges

THE stage is set for America’s latest celebrity trial of the century, with basketball icon Kobe Bryant due in court tomorrow to answer to rape charges that have spotlighted the issues of fame, sex, riches and race.

The case, which has ratings-ravenous US news media watering at the mouth, is also raising serious legal and constitutional questions which balance the alleged victim's anonymity with the public's right to know.

As a media circus overtakes the 3,000-resident hamlet of Eagle, Colorado, ahead of Bryant's first court appearance there, commentators are already drawing comparisons with the high-profile 1990s criminal trials of football star O.J. Simpson or Kennedy-clan member William Kennedy Smith.