Goldman family acquires the rights to O.J. Simpson book

The family of Ron Goldman has acquired the rights to the controversial O.J . Simpson book about the murders of his wife, Nicole Brown-Simpson and Goldman, The Guardian reports. The book, which was titled If I Did It, Here’s How It Happened, was cancelled by its first publisher, the now-defunct HarperCollins imprint Regan Books, amid a storm of criticism.

Now, however, the new purchase means that the Goldman family will be looking for a publisher.

“Ron Goldman LLC will own Simpson’s name, likeness, signature and story and will hawk it to satisfy this terrible judgment. Justice has arrived in Miami,” the family’s lawyer, David Cook, told the Associated Press.

“The contract and the rights are going to be circulated among every major publisher, literary agent, movie and TV producer and entertainment lawyer in the United States,” Mr Cook added.

A bankruptcy court last month awarded the Goldman family ownership of the copyright to the manuscript to prevent Simpson profiting from its sale. Goldman’s family argued that any proceeds from the book should go towards a $33.5 [million] (£16.5 [million]) court award against the former actor and American football star. The award was granted by a jury which found he was responsible for both killings in a civil case brought after his acquittal for the 1994 murders. Simpson has avoided paying the award by declaring bankruptcy.

Just when you thought it couldn’t get uglier.

The return of If I Did It

According to Reuters, a judge has ordered that the rights to O.J. Simpson’s notorious – but still-unpublished – pseudo-confession If I Did It are to be sold at auction in order to help the Goldman family recoup more of the monies Simpson owes them for their civil settlement. This means, of course, that the book may yet be published.

The ruling comes four months after Simpson’s book about how he could have committed the 1994 murders of his ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend, Ron Goldman, was scrubbed by News Corp. media tycoon Rupert Murdoch.

[Goldman's lawyer David] Cook said Goldman did not necessarily want the book published but had determined that the rights to If I Did It were one of Simpson’s few “visible assets.” The auction could be held within 30 days, Cook said.

Because the book was such a public relations disaster for HarperCollins, it’s hard to imagine any other major publisher wanting to take it on. Then again, now that the act of releasing the book has been repositioned as a charitable gesture toward the Goldmans, maybe publishing it won’t look so unsavory anymore. And furthermore, any company that chooses to step in now will be able to claim, with total honesty, that at least it didn’t originate the book…

Great moments in Canadian publishing

A little-known Canadian publisher has made news by announcing that it, ah, might be interested in publishing the confessional O.J. Simpson book that HarperCollins canned last fall. The company in question is the entertainment firm Barclay Road, based in Montreal but counting among its holdings a book imprint, Lifetime Books, that appears to be located in Hollywood.

In its press release, Barclay takes the high, er, road.

Although those at Barclay Road were disgusted by the initial information surrounding the book, representatives decided that in order to do justice in the name of free speech, giving the manuscript a read might just prove that the press did not have all the facts.

But in a followup story on Bloomberg.com, Barclay executive Steve Meyers offers a far more telling quote: “We are looking for the book to put us back in the marketplace.”

The Bloomberg story also quotes Simpson’s attorney as saying that a number of publishers are interested, without divulging any of their names.

Give Barclay credit for one thing – this has to be the cheapest publicity stunt ever. (“That’s right, we’re thinking about it. And it’s B-a-r-c….”) But it will also put to the test as never before the old “any publicity is good publicity” adage.

O.J.: Passive and aggressive

In an article from Vanity Fair, James Wolcott reviews O.J. Simpson’s If I Did It after obtaining a copy that avoided being pulped. Wolcott refers to the “confessional” as “a vanishing act in full view,” saying that Simpson is portrayed as a regular guy and a passive participant in the events prior to the murders. The review is bogged down by too many strained comparisons to Sunset Boulevard, and the focus on Chapter Six, “The Night in Question,” which was excerpted in Newsweek, detracts from the exclusive scoop Vanity Fair claims for having a “pristine hardcover.”

Wolcott’s comments on the infamous chapter don’t reveal anything new (though he does manage to squeeze in a quote from Shakespeare) but his screenplay-like description makes Quillblog wonder if a TV movie is far behind.

This may not be the end of Simpson’s literary contributions – Wolcott reports that attorney Yale Galanter is shopping a book on Simpson’s behalf about his marriage to Nicole. Given how low Simpson has already demonstrated he is willing to go, ‘Til Death Do Us Part cannot be ruled out as a possible title.

O.J. deal exposed

O.J. Simpson’s contract with HarperCollins for If I Did It has been dug up, and though nothing too new and shocking comes out of it, it does give a sense of just how methodically publisher Judith Regan lured Simpson into writing the book.

According to the Hollywood Heat website, which obtained the 21-page contract through freedom of information laws, HarperCollins agreed to pay Simpson the promised $1-million only in installments, upon meeting certain deadlines. The largest of the installments was a whopping $400,000 for “Completion of the First Interview.”

If you go to page 22 of the document provided by Hollywood Heat, which also includes Fred Goldman’s recently amended complaint against Simpson, you’ll find the part of the HarperCollins contract in which they break down the seven steps Simpson has to go through, and exactly how much they’ll pay him for each. Hmm… seven steps… seven deadly sins… coincidence?!

O.J.: the ghostwriter did it

The latest in the continuing brouhaha over O.J. Simpson’s notorious “fictional” confession, If I Did It, is Simpson’s claim that the chapter supposedly detailing his killing his ex-wife and her lover (excerpted in the latest issue of Newsweek) was a work of fiction written by the book’s ghostwriter. Simpson says that, furthermore, the account contains enough factual errors to prove he had nothing to do with it. (The chapter, that is…)

According to an Associated Press story reprinted in the Toronto Star, Simpson knew the chapter was going to be a problem and asked to have it taken out, but was told by his publishers that the fictional confession would be “the hook that would sell the book.”

Poor O.J. – fugitive, murder suspect, international pariah, and now, exploited author.

No tears shed for Regan

The abrupt-but-not-shocking firing of Judith Regan, the mastermind behind, among many other things, the O.J. Simpson “confessional” If I Did It, has not exactly brought forth a wave of admiring tributes for the bottom-feeding publisher. As many have pointed out, however, Regan was not ousted for crossing a line with the O.J. book, but for earning her parent companies, HarperCollins U.S. and Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation, so much bad press, and for badmouthing her bosses after the decision to kill the book was made.

Here’s media columnist David Carr in Monday’s New York Times:

No one woke up Friday morning and discovered that Ms. Regan had bad, if lucrative, taste. But when her O. J. Simpson deal went south, she refused to go away quietly even though Mr. Murdoch had already taken a bullet, then continued to complain that she was being undermined long after the story had quieted down.The News Corporation had profited handsomely from Ms. Regan’s tendency to shoot from the hip, but when she started firing inside the corral, well then, that was another matter.

Kicking a little more dirt on the grave is political blogger Atrios, who digs up some of Regan’s choicer quotes about the American culture of “amorality.”

Related links:
Read David Carr’s column
Read Atrios’s selection of Regan’s quotes

And the O.J. shocks keep coming

Holy moly! HarperCollins parent company News Corporation has pulled the plug on the O.J. Simpson book that was set to launch to universal revulsion next week; a planned interview special on Fox TV (another News Corp. subsidiary) has also been cancelled.

In a brief statement, News Corp. chair Rupert Murdoch said, “I and senior management agree with the American public that this was an ill-considered project. We are sorry for any pain that this has caused the families of Ron Goldman and Nicole Brown Simpson.” The right decision, no doubt, and one that will cost HarperCollins plenty, since warehousefuls of books would have already been printed, and Harper imprint ReganBooks will also presumably still be on the hook for whatever advance it committed to (reportedly as high as $3-million, though that has been disputed, and who knows, there may be some escape clause in the contract).

Related links:
Click here for the Associated Press item in the Globe

More on the O.J. confession

It’s pretty rare for a publisher to be openly adversarial toward the author of one of her high-profile about-to-be-released titles. But hey, O.J. Simpson’s If I Did It is a special kind of book.

Judith Regan, who’s publishing the book under her ReganBooks imprint, defends herself in The New York Times today. Regan says she mainly wanted a public confession for the sake of closure. “I wanted him to confess for very personal reasons,” she tells the Times, referring to an abusive relationship in her own past. (She expands on that in a larger essay that was provided to the Times and can be viewed in full on The Drudge Report.)

Regan also tells the Times that she’s happy to help victims’ families recover money that’s still owed them from an outstanding civil judgment against Simpson. “If they want any information I’m happy to give it to them,” she says.

What remains to be seen, though, is how much of a “confession” the book really is. So far it sounds more like a dance of titillation, and as the Times notes, in a soon-to-be-aired TV interview, Simpson “spoke about the murders in the hypothetical sense, a stance that admits nothing and could be viewed as a denial.”

It should surprise none of us, in any case, that nobody involved in the project appears to see it as a resume-padder. Regan says she bought the book rights from a nameless “third party,” and the Times notes in passing that it “was written with an uncredited ghostwriter.”

Related links:
Click here for the New York Times article
Click here for Regan’s full essay

O.J. did it (wrote a book, that is)

Yesterday, the Book Standard pointed out that, according to a National Enquirer news item, O.J. Simpson has been paid $3.5-million for a tell-all book entitled If I Did It. According to the Enquirer, the book is Simpson’s tell-all murder confessional, and “its existence has been kept highly secretive.”

Today, GalleyCat wonders whether or not this can be true: “The Enquirer does have a solid track record, which is the only reason I’m not dismissing the story entirely. On the other hand, I have trouble believing that any publishing house large enough to pay O.J. $3.5 million for something called If I Did It wouldn’t have enough employees sickened at the prospect that news of this surely would’ve leaked sooner.”

Quillblog’s not quite sure what to make of all this, but does wonder what kind of real confession begins with the word “if.”

Related links:
Read the Book Standard article here
Check out GalleyCat’s skepticism here