| Clooney and his star, David Strathairn, elected to portray Murrow as a grim, tight-lipped cipher who never ingratiates himself or even smiles, and laughs only mirthlessly, as a way of indicating how bad things are. |
| And presently he grew conscious that the gods had played a very good practical joke on him, and he laughed at himself mirthlessly. |
| Athena chuckled mirthlessly, truth be told, she was glad things had turned out the way they did. |
| The lurid unearthly glow still hovered in the shadowy chamber, lighting ghostlily the dead face of Thugra Khotan, which seemed to grin mirthlessly and cavernously at them. |
| He glances down, smiles mirthlessly, and switches the picture from his right hand to his left. |
| Adam, seen standing close to a tree half of which is visible at the edge of the composition, frowns mirthlessly. |
