Yesterday we called out the Daily News for labeling the preppy ladies who robbed open houses "THELMA & LOUISE." Surely, we argued, that was a slight exaggeration — nobody in the theft case, for example, was shot, or committed suicide while running from the law. But today the News star columnist Michael Daly responded to our complaint:

[Jessica] Joyner and [Jennifer] Jones had been armed with nothing more deadly than wigs to disguise themselves as they posed as luxury-home buyers. So it initially seemed a touch extreme to be dubbing them "Thelma and Louise" as the detectives brought them cringing into the courthouse. But the movie was not really about gunplay. It was about sisterhood, the bond between women in a man's world.

Daly, in his typically calm, heart-wrenching fashion, describes how other female defendants came to court for unrelated cases and were drawn to Joyner and Jones because they looked so scared. The group eventually sat together, comforting one another before being called before the judges. "The four had gone beyond Thelma and Louise to Jessica and Jennifer and Silva and Lettitia," writes Daly. "They seemed proof of an important truth: No matter how mean women might be to each other, however competitive they are, in their heart of hearts, they are sisters." Wait a minute. What's that feeling? Are we being … touched? Dammit Michael Daly! You had us at "Lettitia"!

'Thelma and Louise' duo had a bond born of a sisterhood in crime [NYDN]
Earlier: Preppy Ladies Gone Wild