O.J. Publisher Was Fired For Alleged Slur
News Corp. Says Judith Regan Made Anti-Semitic Remarks During Phone Conversation
50NEW YORK, Dec. 19, 2006 | by Sean Alfano
E-Mail Story
Print Story
Sphere
Share
O.J. Book Fallout
The decision to cancel a controversial O.J. Simpson book is not enough for the family of Ron Goldman. The Goldmans will file a lawsuit, claiming that Simpson still made money. Hattie Kauffman reports. | Share/Embed
Related
Find out more about the latest books and what best-selling authors are working on.
A look back at the Simpson-Goldman murders.
(CBS/AP) In an explosive telephone argument that led to her firing, publisher Judith Regan allegedly complained of a "Jewish cabal" against her in the book industry and stated that Jews "should know about ganging up, finding common enemies and telling the big lie."
A spokesman for Regan's former employer, Rupert Murdoch's News Corp., told The Associated Press on Monday that the remarks were made during a conversation between Regan and HarperCollins attorney Mark Jackson, who took notes. At the time, the two were discussing the future of a controversial new novel about baseball star Mickey Mantle.
The spokesman, Andrew Butcher, released the comments in response to a threatened libel suit from Regan's legal representative, Hollywood attorney Bert Fields, who had called earlier reports of inappropriate remarks "completely untrue" and added that the publisher "didn't have an anti-Semitic bone in her body."
Since 1994, Regan had headed the ReganBooks imprint at News Corp.'s HarperCollins. She was fired Friday.
The allegations first emerged earlier Monday when The New York Times, citing two unnamed News Corp. officials, referred to unspecified anti-Semitic comments.
Regan, one of the book world's most successful and temperamental publishers, reportedly had a long history of tension with HarperCollins CEO Jane Friedman even as Murdoch supported her. But last month, Murdoch canceled "If I Did It," her planned O.J. Simpson book and Fox television interview.
Simpson's book, said to have described how he theoretically would have committed the murders of ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend Ronald Goldman, had been scheduled for release Nov. 30 following the airing of a two-part Simpson television interview. Its announcement was greeted with universal disgust and the project was called off despite Regan's vehement defense of what she called Simpson's "confession."
Lawyers tell CBS News Ron Goldman's family will file a lawsuit in Los Angeles Tuesday, seeking to undo all the transactions related to Simpson's deal and, where appropriate, recover money for the Goldman family.
Regan's tirade last Friday, if true, marks the latest such outburst by a public figure. In July, Mel Gibson uttered anti-Semitic slurs after being arrested on suspicion of drunk driving. The Academy Award-winning filmmaker later apologized for his "vitriolic and harmful words," and stated, "Please know from my heart that I am not an anti-Semite."Read The Early Show's interview with Kim Goldman.
News Corp. and Fields offered widely different versions of Friday's phone call between Regan, in Los Angeles, and Jackson, based in New York.
Butcher said that Regan and Jackson were discussing an upcoming Regan book, Peter Golenbock's "7: The Mickey Mantle Novel," in which the author, imagining he is Mantle, confesses in detail to a life of sexual exploits, including a tryst with Marilyn Monroe.
With Mantle's family and fans of the late Yankee enraged, Regan and Jackson of HarperCollins were discussing the timing and content of the planned March release, according to Butcher. Regan became frustrated by what she believed was HarperCollins' lack of support, and lashed out.
She complained that Jackson, HarperCollins CEO Jane Friedman, HarperCollins Executive Editor David Hirshey and longtime literary agent Esther Newberg were a "Jewish cabal," Butcher said.
Butcher said she pleaded with Jackson: "Of all people, Jews should know about ganging up, finding common enemies and telling the big lie."
Fields, whose other clients have included Steven Spielberg and Tom Cruise, said Regan and Jackson had discussed some "records" Regan was trying to obtain. Fields acknowledged that Regan argued with Jackson, but denied she said anything anti-Semitic.
The future of the Mantle book is uncertain. Fields said HarperCollins had warned Regan that "7," the title referring to Mantle's uniform number, was "unpublishable." Butcher did not comment directly on Field's allegation, but told The Associated Press that the novel was currently "under review."
HarperCollins has been equally unclear about what will happen to ReganBooks, which produced a long series of racy best sellers, from Jenna Jameson's "How to Make Love Like a Porn Star," to Jose Canseco's steroid tell-all, "Juiced."
Over the weekend, the publisher announced that longtime Regan editorial director Cal Morgan would head the imprint, but added, "Any future decisions relating to the imprint name or the publication of unpublished books will be addressed at the appropriate time."
Besides the Mantle novel, upcoming Regan publications include "Making War to Keep Peace," by former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, Jeane J. Kirkpatrick, who died earlier this month; and "The Best Defense," by former Pentagon official Douglas Feith, a key supporter of the Iraq war.
An industry force since the 1980s, when she produced best-sellers by Drew Barrymore and Kathie Lee Gifford for Simon & Schuster, Regan has been labeled 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 her books and to herself.
She has headed the ReganBooks imprint at News Corp.'s HarperCollins, an ideal fit for Murdoch's tabloid tastes. Regan has published a long list of racy best-sellers and is the rare publisher of interest to gossip columnists, notably for a rumored affair with former New York City Police Commissioner Bernard Kerik.
©MMVI, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Back To Top
RSS
Sarah Palin To Resign As Alaska GovernorAt Hastily Convened Press Conference Says She Will Not Run for 2nd Term, Mum On Future Plans
Gov. Sarah Palin Resigns
RSS
Day In Pictures
Lose Weight By Tweaking Grandma's RecipesAuthors Of "Cook Yourself Thin" Take Out Half The Calories With Some Slight Recipe Changes
Comments [ + Post Your Own ]
Now you're in the public comment zone. What follows is not CBS News stuff; it comes from other people and we don't vouch for it. A reminder: By using this Web site you agree to accept our Terms of Service. Click here to read the Rules of Engagement.
Here's another saying, "Great minds talk of ideas, average minds talk of events, and small minds (like yourself) talk about people".
Have you ever considered writing a book? That way we could ignore it at our leisure at the book store instead of having to wade through it in this blog.
The trouble here, with most whites and blacks, %u201Cconvenient denial%u201D and %u201Clet%u2019s shift the blame%u201D, all blacks and whites should watch the movie %u201CIn My Country%u201D, an excellent true story about post-apartheid South Africa, during the crimes against humanities trial of former Afrikaans governmental officials, police officers, and ordinary citizens, this inhumanity touched the lives of all South African citizens, not just blacks but whites. It was a testimony how greed, self-hatred, and social apathy can transmogrify human compassion into the most grotesquely, vile degradation imaginable.
Black leaders like, like Al Sharpton and Jessie Jackson, etc. have misdirected themselves by continuingly attacking white America, which doesn%u2019t negate the fact, racism is alive and thriving in White America, by which you are both a testament of that.
They continue to %u201Charp%u201D on the despicableness of whites, while purposefully overlooking the contemptibleness within black communities, such as random and wanton acts of violence committed by blacks on blacks. However, blacks, like whites, are equally in denial, and have conveniently chosen circumventing this degradation placing it on white Americans shoulders.
Just like their white counterparts, who viciously beat and murdered Yosef Hawkins, drugged a black man to his death decapitating him, and firing hundreds of rounds of ammunition into Emmett Till, and the countless other vicious acts of brutally, these individuals have become a %u201Cmirror%u201D image of those who sought to annihilate Native Americans, enslave Africans, and brutally murder post-Emancipation blacks.
You are just as much of the problem as they are, in which individuals like yourselves, including those blacks that continue to darken black communities with their degradationious filth, the drug dealing, random drive-by shootings, murderous rampage, social apathy, and self-abasement, need repent and cleanse your own moral decadence, before pointing the finger at on another.
And comparing the "Black Panthers" to the KKK how ludicrous or ridiculous, this is also a demonstration of RACISM. The KKK a murderous vigilante group that viciously attacked unsuspecting blacks for no apparent reason, other than, they%u2019re black, lynching, burning, castrating, etc., with the full support of law enforcement on their side, in contrast to the Black Panthers a vigilante group spawn out of Marxist Revolutionary ideology whose aim was to combat the wanton gratuitous violence against blacks.