Court TV’s Hollywood Heat has unearthed the amended complaint by lawyers representing Fred Goldman in his lawsuit against O.J. Simpson to collect any money he (through his alleged dummy corporation, Lorraine Brooke Associates) obtained from ReganBooks & HarperCollins for IF I DID IT. And about a dozen pages in is a real gem: the actual contract between HarperCollins and Simpson, dated May 8, 2006, detailing the exact payment plan for the book for a total of $1.1 million:
- $95,000 upon “execution of this agreement”
- $95,000 upon acceptance of an outline
- $95,000 upon acceptance of the first half of the manuscript
- $95,000 upon acceptance of a “complete and final manuscript”
- $95,000 for hardcover publication
- $100,000 for paperback publication
- $400,000 for O.J. Simpson’s “first interview” (aka the scuttled interview with Judith Regan for Fox)
- $125,000 “retained by the publisher to pay the writer,” identified as Pablo Fenvjes.
Court TV adds that it is unclear how much HarperCollins actually paid Lorraine Brooke Associates, the holding company Simpson used to accept payment, but it seems fairly likely that Fenjves got his payment and the first four payments, as well as the “first interview” money, were delivered to LBA. And check out page 32 for the signatures of both Judith Regan and HarperCollins CEO Jane Friedman, whom we need not remind you all was Publishers Weekly‘s Person of the Year for 2006, in part (as Kelly Jane Torrance noted) for the effectiveness with which she distanced herself from the project once the public backlash set in. Never has accountability been so visible in a single handwritten scrawl…