True crime coverage has always existed in a strange gray zone between journalism and spectacle.
Monday's session of the Lindsay Clancy murder trial in Plymouth, Massachusetts, offered a case study in exactly how thin that line really is.
Brittany Romano became the subject of intense scrutiny after a livestream camera captured her appearing to smile and wink during proceedings, as the Clancy trial continued at Plymouth Superior Court. The clip lasted only seconds. The fallout lasted considerably longer.
Who Is Brittany Romano?
Romano is a New York-based writer and editor who specializes largely in lifestyle and shopping content, with bylines at publications including Glamour, Forbes Vetted, Teen Vogue, and Condé Nast Traveler.
She previously worked as an editor at Future PLC and as a Celebrations Editor for USA Today's Reviewed. She holds a sociology degree from New England College. Not exactly the profile of a seasoned courthouse reporter, and that context matters.
Romano appeared in the courtroom wearing a media badge, and has been described online as a childhood friend of Clancy. She denied working at Vanity Fair in a social media comment and an Instagram livestream, but was reportedly wearing a Vanity Fair press credential inside the courtroom. Vanity Fair is trending alongside her name but has not issued a statement.
That unanswered question, who credentialed her and how, is one the internet isn't letting go of quietly.
The Viral Moment
Romano was in the front row of the gallery when a camera panning the courtroom caught her mugging for it, with a wide smile, and she added a wink for good measure.
Footage of the moment spread rapidly across the internet, prompting criticism from viewers and drawing a public response from Romano, who said she had received abusive messages in the fallout.
The setting made the optics almost impossible to defend. Lindsay Clancy, a former labor and delivery nurse from Duxbury, Massachusetts, faces three counts of first-degree murder in the 2023 deaths of her three children, Cora, 5, Dawson, 3, and Callan, 8 months, who were strangled at the family's Duxbury home.
Whatever was happening in Romano's head in that moment, a courtroom grief-wink during a child-murder trial was always going to land badly.
The Responses That Made It Worse
Romano did not go quiet. She pushed back. Publicly and aggressively.
Screenshots circulated showing alleged replies from Romano's verified Instagram account, including hostile responses to critics. Among the phrases attributed to the account were "f*** off," "jump off a cliff," and "jump off a bridge."
A separate Instagram Story showed Romano commenting on the attention the controversy generated, writing: "All for smiling at a camera?! Love it! Tysm for boosting my analytics Xoxoxoxo."
That last line became the clip everyone kept sharing. Three children died. She thanked her critics for the traffic. Romano has since reportedly restricted comments on Instagram and made her TikTok account private, according to social media discussions surrounding the controversy.
Her Explanation
A streamer caught up with Romano in the parking lot outside the courthouse and asked why she was grinning.
Her answer: she "grew up with Lindsay", and she was also smiling for her dad. Romano said her father had noticed she didn't look happy when he saw her on TV. So she fixed it. In a murder trial. With a wink.
The "my dad said I looked bad on Court TV" explanation did not land well either.
The Childhood Friend Claim, Unverified
The controversy also fueled speculation about Romano's relationship with Clancy, with social media users circulating a childhood photograph that some claim shows the pair together, though no connection has been formally confirmed.
Online users have claimed the image depicts Romano and Clancy together as children and cited it as evidence that the two women were longtime friends. Newsweek could not confirm the claim. It should be treated as unverified until it isn't.
That said, Romano herself referenced growing up with Clancy in her parking lot interview, which has kept the question alive.
Where the Trial Stands
Clancy does not dispute that she killed the children.
Her defense argues she was suffering from postpartum psychosis and is not criminally responsible. Prosecutors say Clancy acted deliberately, sending her husband Patrick Clancy out for takeout and medication to be alone with the children.
Prosecution forensic psychologist Kirk Heilbrun testified on Monday that parts of Clancy's account of hearing voices indicated "exaggerated or fabricated hallucinations." Earlier this week, the judge denied a motion for a mistrial. Once the prosecution finishes its rebuttal case, both sides are expected to deliver closing arguments before jurors begin deliberating on a verdict in one of Massachusetts' most closely watched criminal trials.
The Clancy case has split public opinion sharply. A large and vocal online community organized around the banner of postpartum mental health advocacy has argued for months that Clancy was catastrophically failed by her medical providers.
Both Clancy and her husband Patrick have filed medical malpractice lawsuits against people who treated her for postpartum depression and anxiety following the birth of their third child, claiming her providers over-medicated her and failed to adequately treat worsening symptoms. On the other side, prosecutors have spent weeks arguing that her actions were purposeful and planned.
Into that charged atmosphere walked a woman in a green dress who winked at the camera and told her critics they'd boosted her analytics. The backlash was swift, heated, and entirely predictable.
What the Romano episode really illustrates isn't just bad judgment. It's what happens when true crime courtroom access gets handed to people whose primary audience lives on TikTok and Instagram, and whose instincts run more toward content than toward decorum. Vanity Fair is trending alongside Romano's name without having said a word, which raises a question no one has answered yet: did anyone with that publication's name on a press badge actually authorize her to wear it?
Until that answer arrives, the Vanity Fair angle stays open. And given that closing arguments are imminent, it may stay open for a while.
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