No payday for OJ

[+ purplekow]

Much to my amazement, Fox has pulled its OJ interview and though it is unclear whether the book will be published or not, Borders has already promised any of its profits from this book will be donated to charity.

I know this is still a dollar and cents issue and that Fox would put the interview on the air if it did not fear financial repercussions and loss of other income streams. Still, it is nice to at least be able to delude oneself into thinking that decency and respect had some role in the decision making process.

 

Now I can envision OJ sitting at his kitchen table trying to pay his bills and staring at his bank statement whistfully thinking "if I had done it"

[Guest zipperzone]

>Borders has already promised any of its profits from this

>book will be donated to charity.

 

I would have been more impressed if Borders had simply stated that they refused to stock it.

 

>Still, it is nice to at least be able to delude oneself into

>thinking that decency and respect had some role in the

>decision making process.

 

And a delusion it is. The only reason Fox backed down was because they could not find a corporate sponser dumb enough to risk a boycott.

 

>Now I can envision OJ sitting at his kitchen table trying to

>pay his bills and staring at his bank statement whistfully

>thinking "if I had done it"

 

Actually I heard that a portion of the money (or possibly all) had ALREADY been paid towards his children's education. I don't think OJ is hurting for $$$. His untouchable pension is more that most of us will ever see.

 

The scary thing is that the book is completed and OJ owns the rights to it so probably he will find another bottom feeder to publish it in the future.

[+ deej]

>The scary thing is that the book is completed and OJ owns the

>rights to it so probably he will find another bottom feeder to

>publish it in the future.

 

It was completed, printed, and in some cases already delivered to stores. It'll see the light of day, if only in the tabloids.

 

The amazing thing is to see Rupert Murdoch's people saying it "was ill-conceived". Jeez, ya think?!?!?!?!

[Knight911]

I heard on CNN this afternoon that the book release has been cancelled, and that all copies are supposed to be returned to the publisher. They stated that there will inevitable be copies that make it onto the internet for sale, but not in any store anywhere. All this was due to the public outcry. One win for the goodguys:-)

[Louis]

WEll a book like that and all the interviews that would have gone along with it would have been pathetic. It boggles my mind why someone would agree to publish such trash, and why stations would even want to talk with the guy......could it be $$$$$$$?

Sure there is freedom of speech....but then there is also human decency, and compassion... and such a book and TV events would have lacked both.

Louis

[Guest zipperzone]

>The amazing thing is to see Rupert Murdoch's people saying it

>"was ill-conceived". Jeez, ya think?!?!?!?!

 

What I can't get over is how Murdoch (and I don't for a second believe he wasn't previously fully aware of it) and his gang of Fox execs, were so fucking S T U P I D.

[Justice]

Brown Family Lawyer Accuses eBay of Not Doing Enough to Nix O.J. Book Auctions

 

Friday , November 24, 2006

 

 

 

 

LOS ANGELES — An attorney representing the family of Nicole Brown Simpson accused eBay on Thursday of not moving quickly enough to yank auctions of "If I Did It," O.J. Simpson's hypothetical story of how he would have killed his ex-wife.

 

The book had been scheduled for release Nov. 30 following a two-part Simpson interview on Fox, but News Corp., owner of Fox Broadcasting and publisher HarperCollins, canceled the project after an outcry condemning it as revolting and exploitive.

 

• Speakout! What Do You Think About O.J.'s Nixed Deal?

 

Responding to concerns from HarperCollins, eBay spokesman Hani Durzy said Thursday that the online auction house has been removing offers of purported copies from the site.

 

"Once HarperCollins reports to us, we take the auctions down," Durzy said. "We appreciate the concern of the Brown family, but this is a procedure that has to be followed."

 

For much of Thursday, three separate copies were being bid on. Offers for one copy topped $1 million at one point, but those were later pulled, with the seller, from Ridgefield Park, N.J., advising: "To all the shill bidders trying to sabotage my auction with outrageous bids, I just delete you and banish you."

 

Brown family attorney Natasha Roit said the site's deadline-style auctions means some transactions could finish before eBay acts. HarperCollins has said all copies of the book would be destroyed, but there is always a chance some could get out.

 

"The voice of the American public was heard loud and clear by News Corp. and HarperCollins in recalling the books," Roit said. "We really need to stem the tide and get these books out of circulation because anything that's out there now is really hurtful to the family."

 

Simpson, 59, was acquitted of the double murder of his ex-wife and her friend Ron Goldman in 1995 but was later found liable in a wrongful-death lawsuit filed by Goldman's family. The former football star has not paid the $33.5 million civil judgment, and his NFL pension and Florida home cannot be seized.

 

In interviews with The Associated Press, Simpson denied committing the murders. He also disputed his publisher's contention that the book amounts to a confession, insisted the title was not his idea, and said the hypothetical sections were written by a ghostwriter.

 

News Corp. spokesman Andrew Butcher said the company paid $880,000 to a third party in connection with the project. Of that amount, $100,000 was to go to the ghostwriter and the rest to Simpson's children.

 

"Absolutely no money was ever given to O.J. Simpson by us," Butcher said Wednesday.

 

Simpson said any profit from the book would be "blood money," but he said he needed to pay his bills.

 

"It's all blood money, and unfortunately I had to join the jackals," Simpson said, referring to authors of books about him. "It helped me get out of debt and secure my homestead."

 

Simpson would not say how much he was paid in advance, but he said it was less than the $3.5 million that has been reported. He said the money already has been spent, some of it on tax obligations.

 

Butcher said News Corp. cannot recoup any of the money because Simpson honored his end of the contract by producing the book.

 

Simpson said he was convinced the book would have been a best-seller.

 

"If I Did It" cracked the top 20 of Amazon.com last weekend in prepublication sales, but by Monday, when it was canceled, the book had fallen to No. 51.

 

 

 

FOX and HarperCollins are owned by News Corp., which is the parent company of FOXNews.com.

 

http://www.foxnews.com/printer_friendly_story/0,3566,231732,00.html