We mentioned last week that enterprising locals are making bucks on the Michael Jackson trial renting out parking spaces and vantage points, and restaurants and stores are doing record business as well.

Specialists are also raking in the dough.

Sketch artist Bill Robles and two colleagues are providing the only visuals of the trial as no cameras are allowed in the courtroom. He is making $400 a day per media outlet from a collection of TV networks, the AP, and various foreign outlets on a case that may last up to five months:

The pop star has proved challenging to draw. "He has a petite nose and prominent cheekbone alignment that comes down to the jaw. Fortunately, he has that big hair that almost covers it," Robles says. "If you don't hit him right on, people are going to say, 'Wow, that doesn't look like Jackson.' So there's a lot more pressure."

....Jackson's is just the latest high-profile case Robles has covered in his long career, which began in 1970 with Charles Manson's trial. He has sat and sketched during the trials of O.J. Simpson, Unabomber Theodore Kaczynski, Oklahoma City bombers Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols and serial killer Richard Ramirez.

"What's amazing is that in this day and age of satellites, digital this and digital that, I still have my $20 drawing pad, my pen and my colored markers," says Robles, who lives in Los Angeles. He declines to give his age except to say he's "younger than Dan Rather," who is 73.

....[Robles] usually draws six sketches a day. He can be creative. "You can edit out what you don't want, slightly move things for the sake of composition."

But Nina Zacuto, who is producing the Jackson trial coverage for NBC News and has known Robles since 1979, says the artist is "very good at reproducing what you see in court. He's done a remarkable job of giving you a sense of what these people look like. He's really quick, and his style is very clean. I think everyone agrees that in terms of his sketches, he's the best in L.A."

A few weeks ago, Robles made headlines when Jackson approached him to inquire about a drawing that showed the pop star with his three attorneys. "Jackson lit up like a candle when he saw it. He was totally fascinated," Robles says. [USA Today]

27 year-old Edward Moss has an even more specialized job: he plays Michael Jackson in the nightly E! channel (and licensed to Sky News and Sky One, among others) reenactments of the trial.

(E! online)

The role hasn't been super demanding thus far, only requiring a modest repertoir of facial expressions and gestures, but he's ready if and when the King of Pop busts out a "Jacko moment":

"Well I'm not about to hop up onto the table!" he says. "Unless Michael does that in court himself, of course."
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