Book closed on O.J. as News Corp. scraps plans

November 21, 2006 After a firestorm of criticism, News Corp. has reconsidered its plan to release a controversial O.J. Simpson book and television special, with chairman and CEO Rupert Murdoch taking the extraordinary step of personally apologizing for the pain it might have caused the families of the victims of 1994 double murder. "If I Did It," the book in which the former football star "hypothetically" discusses how he would have committed the murders if he had done them, was to be published Nov. 30 by ReganBooks, an imprint of News Corp.-owned HarperCollins Publishers. The publication was to have been promoted with a two-part, two-hour interview of Simpson by ReganBooks publisher Judith Regan that had been scheduled to air on News Corp.'s Fox Broadcasting Co. over two nights, Nov. 27 and 29, the final night of the November sweep.

Subscribe to the Hollywood Reporter and see the entertainment industry from its best angle: the inside looking out. Complete access to real-time news and exclusive analysis that goes behind the scenes from film to television, home video to digital media.

   Subscribe now.