Murdoch fires publisher behind OJ 'confession'

Published on Sunday 17 December 2006 00:38

MEDIA mogul Rupert Murdoch's publishing arm has sacked Judith Regan, the executive who masterminded OJ Simpson's hypothetical murder confession, If I Did It.

"Judith Regan's employment with HarperCollins has been terminated effective immediately," the firm's chief executive, Jane Friedman, said in a statement yesterday.

Regan's sacking comes less than a month after Murdoch's cancellation of Simpson's planned book and Fox television interview that caused controversy when announced.

The book was said to describe how the former American football star would have hypothetically killed his ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend Ronald Goldman.

Simpson was acquitted of murder in 1995.

Regan, an industry force since the 1980s when she produced bestsellers by Drew Barrymore and Kathie Lee Gifford for Simon & Schuster, has been labelled a "foul-mouthed tyrant" and the "enfant terrible of American publishing".

She is also widely envied - if not admired - for her gift of attracting attention to both her books and herself.

Since 1994, she has headed the ReganBooks imprint at News Corporation's HarperCollins, an ideal fit for Murdoch's tabloid tastes.

Regan has published a long list of racy bestsellers, including Jose Canseco's Juiced and Jenna Jameson's How To Make Love Like A Porn Star, and is the rare publisher of interest to gossip columnists.

She has often clashed with her more temperate peers and is widely believed to have had tense relations with Friedman. Last year, Regan moved her offices to Los Angeles, further distancing herself from corporate officials in New York.

Regan has often complained that her more literary side has been overlooked, pointing out that she has published books by Wally Lamb, Douglas Coupland and novelist Jess Walter, whose The Zero was a finalist for the National Book Awards last month.

But the Simpson project, announced the day before the awards ceremony, quickly overshadowed the nomination.