...and sinks to a new low while doing it. Apparently one of the topics to be covered in his interview is how he did would have committed the murders. If that's not just bad taste, I don't know what is.
Story below:
SPOILER:
O.J. Simpson to Discuss Killings of Wife, Friend in Fox Interview and New Book
11-14-2006 9:52 PM
LOS ANGELES -- Fox plans to broadcast an interview with O.J. Simpson in which the former football star discusses "how he would have committed" the slayings of his ex-wife and her friend, for which he was acquitted, the network said.
The two-part interview, titled "O.J. Simpson: If I Did It, Here's How It Happened," will air Nov. 27 and Nov. 29, the TV network said.
Simpson has agreed to an "unrestricted" interview with book publisher Judith Regan, Fox said.
"O.J. Simpson, in his own words, tells for the first time how he would have committed the murders if he were the one responsible for the crimes," the network said in a statement. "In the two-part event, Simpson describes how he would have carried out the murders he has vehemently denied committing for over a decade."
The interview will air days before Simpson's new book, "If I Did It," goes on sale Nov. 30. The book, published by Regan, "hypothetically describes how the murders would have been committed."
In a video clip on the network's Web site, an off-screen interviewer says to Simpson, "You wrote 'I have never seen so much blood in my life.'"
"I don't think any two people could be murdered without everybody being covered in blood," Simpson responds.
Simpson, who now lives in Florida, was acquitted in a criminal trial of the 1994 killings of his ex-wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and her friend Ronald Goldman. Simpson was later found liable in 1997 in a wrongful death lawsuit filed by the Goldman family.
Messages left with Simpson and his attorney Yale Galanter were not immediately returned.
The logic behind this just boggles the mind. Let's ignore the fact that it's OJ Simpson writing the book. Even if it was me writing a book about how I would've killed Nicole Brown and Ron Goldman, it'd still be in poor taste. The fact that it's OJ Simpson though? Just amazing that he'll still try to proclaim his innocence after this.
I DVRed House tonight, and while I was fast-forwarding through the commercials, I thought I recognized OJ Simpson's face, then a black screen with "O.J. Simpson: If I Did It, Here's How It Happened" superimposed on it. I was sure that I must have read it incorrectly, and didn't care to scan back and see. Now, however, it appears that my initial thought was correct.
Seriously...I have no words. This will have to suffice:
The Brown/Goldman families should sue him for money on this book as well. I doubt they can stop it from being published, but at least make sure he didn't see a dime from it.
This is where the genius of Gil Garcetti's plan comes into play. He knew that the LAPD and its forensics lab had royally screwed up, making it impossible for a conviction. So he hired Marcia Clark, Christopher Darden, Lance Ito and the rest of a courtroom staff to simulate a trial in what has been an extended episode of "Punk'd." All Garcetti had to do is sit back and wait for OJ - thinking that he was protected by the double jeopardy clause - to get overconfident and implicate himself. After 12 years, he'll finally nail OJ.
As for the book--mind-boggling. Rarely does my jaw literally drop, but this was one of those cases. Open-mouthed while reading the whole thing. What a god damned idiot. Surely running out of money, can't get a job anywhere, so he'll write this book. I wonder how many people will actually pay for it.
Surely running out of money, can't get a job anywhere, so he'll write this book.
Just as an FYI, OJ gets $400k a year from the NFL pension plan which can't be touched under Florida law by the court decision. I guess he needs another gold plated butcher knife back scratcher.
What kills me is that he could confess to the murders, and not have any legal repercussions as a result, because of the double jeopardy thing. Not that it would be the smartest idea, but he can't be tried for those murders again.
What kills me is that he could confess to the murders, and not have any legal repercussions as a result, because of the double jeopardy thing. Not that it would be the smartest idea, but he can't be tried for those murders again.
They always find tricky ways around double jeopardy though. Say for example, if he did confess, they might try him for perjury since he claimed he didn't do it while under oath during the first trial.
Actually, if I remember right, OJ was never actually put on the stand as a witness. The closest he got was putting on the gloves. So they cant get him on perjury.
But I once heard that its not double jeopardy if new damning evidence is found and entered. Could be wrong though.
O.J. Simpson told The Associated Press he participated in the ill-fated "If I Did It" book and interview project for one reason -- personal profit, and he acknowledged that any financial gain was "blood money."
"This was an opportunity for my kids to get their financial legacy," Simpson said in interviews this week with the AP after the book deal was abandoned by its publisher. "My kids understand. I made it clear that it's blood money, but it's no different than any of the other writers who did books on this case."
In a radio interview Wednesday, Simpson said the project was not a confession.
"I made it clear from the first day I met the writer that I wasn't involved," Simpson said on Miami's WTPS-AM. "I said, 'I have nothing to confess."'
Simpson, 59, said his NFL pension pays only $1,700 a month and the private pension he amassed during the days when he was a TV pitchman and sports commentator is being halved next month because he's had to dip into the principal.
Although he knew the project would bring an avalanche of negative publicity, Simpson said he was willing to face it "if that's what it took."
Despite his financial troubles, Simpson indicated he wasn't entirely unhappy the project was abandoned.
"I feel like a man who's had the weight of the world taken off me," he said.
No, cannot go after him for murder. Might be able to bring something lower like wrongful death should he "confess".
OJ paid despite book being dropped
OJ Simpson today said he had been paid and had already spent his advance despite the controversial book about the murder of his ex-wife being dropped.
The scuttled book also attracted hot but brief bidding on eBay today before being removed.
The book, If I Did It, and an accompanying two-part television interview were dropped by media conglomerate News Corp on Monday after an outcry from advertisers, booksellers and relatives of the dead.
The book and interview were touted as a hypothetical account of how former American football star Simpson would have killed ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend Ron Goldman in 1994.
Simpson was reportedly paid a sum of $US3.5 million in advance.
Publishers have pledged to recall and destroy all the books but one copy appeared briefly on eBay.
It got more than 50 bids, the highest of more than $US1,600, in about two hours.
Radio interview
In an interview with Miami radio station WTPS 1080 AM, Simpson again proclaimed himself innocent of the murders, saying the title of the book was the publisher's idea and that he had been paid but declined to specify how much.
"Would everybody stop being so naive? Of course I got paid," Simpson said with a laugh.
"I spend the money on my bills. It's gone."
The former football star was acquitted in 1995 of charges he committed the June 1994 murders.
But a civil court jury in 1997 found him liable for the deaths and awarded the victims' families $US33.5 million in damages.
Little of the judgment has been collected.
Interviewer Judith Regan said last week she was told the money would go to his children, not Simpson.
Regan added she was mystified why Simpson decided to write such a book.
'Nothing to confess'
Simpson said neither the book nor the title was his idea.
"That was their title. That's what they came up with. I didn't pitch anything. I don't make book deals," Simpson said.
"I have nothing to confess." he added later.
Publisher HarperCollins, part of the News Corp group, said it had contacted eBay about removing the copy of If I Did It from the website.
"We are doing everything in our power to have them all destroyed," HarperCollins spokeswoman Erin Crum told Reuters.
An eBay spokesman said HarperCollins took action under laws governing intellectual property rights.
Looks like everyone is out of luck to get any of his cash!
Cannot go after him even if he does confess. However, should new evidence be found that was "purposely forgotten on accident" then they could re-appeal based on grounds for a mistrial.
On another note, I guess I'm in the minority. (donning flameretardent suit now) If we are to say that his book is in bad taste, and that all copies need to be destroyed (as the publisher is doing...can't find the link atm), then they need to do the same for every single book that was written about the trial.... his book is (as OJ said) just looking for money the same as every other book written about it. Besides, bad taste or not, so far as I remember it is America and he does still have freedom of speech. As for the cries for the Goldman family to sue him (which they have sued the publishing house and Fox for the rights to the book so that it can't be sold...yet....), I don't agree in the least. The first civil trial was merely his family trying to get rich off their son's death once a "Not Guilty" verdict had been rendered. Would be the same thing here.
Yanno, maybe if he hadn't tried to keep up appearances when his career went into the shitter after the trial, he would have been able to save up some money for his kids, but he continued to spend money like a spoiled rich kid.
And how does his NFL pension pay out only $1,700 a month, if it's a $400K a year pension? I make more than that a month, after taxes, on a $48K salary. Something's fishy there.
