Fatal attraction; Nancy Panitz's slaying was an ugly sequel to Springer show.(A SECTION)(Editorial)

'Elliott is here to tell his girlfriend of three years that he's been cheating ... with her mother! ... Later, Brad will meet his Internet lover, Cherri, today for the first time. But Cherri will tell Brad that she's really a man!"

These and other sordid treats were the attractions on a recent Jerry Springer show, a cultural phenomenon that seems destined to define -- once and for all -- just how low human entertainment can sink.

Elliott, Brad and Cherri apparently survived their brush with TV's toxic shockmeister. But not so for Nancy Panitz, a Sarasota woman who was foundslain Monday, the same day Springer's national audience feasted on the carcass of her …