Late last month, GalleyCat speculated about the rumored book deal for O.J. Simpson, even going so far as to print speculation about who would publish the book. Well as it turns out, the furious denials of any such deal were all smoke and mirrors and indeed, Regan is publishing the book in question, as the New York Times’ Edward Wyatt reports.
According to a news release, the book, which has a working title of “O.J. Simpson: If I Did It, Here’s How It Happened,” will be released on November 30, accompanied by a two-part TV special where Judith Regan interviews Simpson on Fox TV, airing on November 27 and 29 – in other words, just in time for the end of sweeps week. The hook? Both book and special will depict Simpson describing “how he would have carried out the murders he has vehemently denied committing for over a decade.” Which means there’s now a two-week window to debate the tastelessness of such a move and wonder who would actually ante up the cash to advertise products while O.J. blathers on about how he would, ah, “hypothetically murder” his victims even though the “real killers” are still out on the golf course, or whatever the going excuse is of the moment.
The Washington Post’s Lisa de Moraes has more on the story, including a statement from Nicole Brown‘s sister, Denise Brown: “We hope Ms. Regan takes full accountability for promoting the wrong doing of criminals and leveraging this forum and the actions of ‘Simpson’ to commercialize abuse.” But Hollywood cynics aren’t exactly holding their breath. “No, not in Hollywood at all, because we’re all whores, but in the rest of the country where they have morals — sure,” guessed one such exec, who conceded that the moral, non-Hollywood segment of the country probably would nonetheless tune in by the millions.
And I must say, I cannot help but love the irony of this news breaking on the day of the National Book Awards – where the fiction list includes Jess Walter‘s THE ZERO, published by Regan. Wonder what the topic will really be at the lunch held today in his honor…