O.J. Publisher Was Fired For Alleged Slur

News Corp. Says Judith Regan Made Anti-Semitic Remarks During Phone Conversation

(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.

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Read The Early Show's interview with Kim Goldman.

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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."

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.

[randalds]

(yawn) It was dull. Boring. Long winded even. Learn to write in some form of interesting prose or go back to conversations with illiterates who don't realize you're talking above your head.

[bluestardad]

Mr. Goldman you pimp quit riding your failures of parenting. You played with fire and got burnt. Quit blaming OJ for your lack of being a good parent. How many times where you there for your son or where you off making money while he was growing up and let him raise himself!

[rbfain]

Fred Goldman should shut the H up. He is worat than OJ. Hw lies about every thing.

[kailumego1]

RandalDS, number one, it was interesting enough for you to read it in its entire, it only became complicated because of the extent, or lack of, your intellectual reasoning. You see individuals like yourself feel a certain security of writing insiduous, inane comments which have absolutely no redeeming quality or merit, so its not surprising that reading something beyond your infantile conprehension should be upsetting, considering. Its only a unilaterial measurement of your intellectual capacity, which only moves in one direction.

Here's another saying, "Great minds talk of ideas, average minds talk of events, and small minds (like yourself) talk about people".

[randalds]

Posted by Kailumego1 at 06:54 PM : Dec 19, 2006

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.

[monmacent]

I feel sorry for tiffy because tiffysmom1 is proving my point and still not getting the point. Only in America and other places of this world. God help us all.

[kailumego1]

The Klan terrorized at night also, all this misogynistic and misanthropic collective consciousness by so many people, amazing. Now what do we have here, %u201CWhat we have here is that it is not allowed to speak ill of Jews, Blacks, and Hispanics. Not in jokes, not in print, not in any way. %u201CThey don%u2019t go to Africa to save stretch marks they do it because adopting African children is a novelty%u201D, you sure think very little of your white brethren. So, what are you saying %u201Cwhite folks%u201D, or white women are so amoral and intellectually powerless that their superciliousness overshadows their rationality. There an old saying, %u201CI knew you were a fool, but when you opened your mouth you just removed all doubt%u201D. Without coming out and directly saying it, you comments indicate how little you value your own competence, and that of your clan.

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.

[kailumego1]

It spewed the excrements of bigotry and racism in its most hideous detriment, the mutilation of men [castration and burning of their genitals], women and young girls viciously and savagely violated with wooden and metal objects inserted into their womanhood. It demonstrated how narrow-minded despicable individuals, like yourselves can allow such irreprehensible wickedness to continue, through omission, and then spew sinister wickedness from your mouths.


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.

[kailumego1]

Certainly, %u201Cblack on black%u201D crime has become a major epidemic, in which most prominent black leaders like Sharpton and Jackson have failed to adequately address. As I don%u2019t agree with what the police officers did, I can fully understand their plight, their fear, you have young black thugs, whom pride themselves on wantonly shooting and killing unarm citizens and police officers, in which they have no remorse. They would just as sure shoot a black person as a white, and it doesn%u2019t matter, they have become so redden with apathy and self-hatred, like those of their white counterparts, until it becomes a %u201Cright of passive%u201D to murder.

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.

[kailumego1]

Because, although, Al Sharpton and Jessie Jackson may be opportunist riding on the heels of black misery, its individuals like yourself, with your bigotry and denial that has enabled them to %u201Cjump on the racist bandwagon%u201D, in which individuals like yourselves are no better than them.

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.

[kailumego1]

So, pray tell, how in the world can the KKK be compared to the Black Panthers, to polar opposites, the KKK murderous thugs and the Black Panthers, revolutionaries combating a greater EVIL of violence perpetrated against blacks.
That%u2019s how I know you%u2019re in denial, you can%u2019t even reason or differentiate between the two groups without imposing your own subjective racism. And certainly, the new Black Panther party lacks to zeal and dedication as the old one, but to totally misinterpret their motives as nothing more than inane ramblings says very little about yourselves. George Washington the leader of revolutionary ideology infuriated the King of England, however, the American colonists won out in the end. The difference between George Washington and others revolutionary ideology was they had unity, unlike blacks in America. And if more black folks would read these ridiculous comments made by such infantilism, then maybe they would pool their human and material resources together, in which you and your KKK brethren would be %u201Ceating crow%u201D.

[kailumego1]

That%u2019s why it%u2019s good to know %u201Cthy enemies%u201D, you%u2019ll are as pleasing as %u201Cpeaches%u201D, so boastful with pride, that you%u2019re ancestors, encroached upon the indigenous people of North and South America, extending a hand of kindness while they viciously raped, murdered, and subjugated them. You have so much to proud of, your blue-eyed whiteness, a great Aryan warrior, that savagely murders millions of people, ah, but don%u2019t fret none %u201Csurvival of the fittest%u201D.

You are so proud to be associated with a race who has barbarically ripped children from their mothers arms, forced men to become breeders, and viciously violated women, forcing themselves upon her innocence, oh, but that makes you proud, so wear it with indignity.


You are so glad as to not be one %u201Coppressed%u201D by despotism and violated by demonism, as your ancestors were the violators, but that makes you proud.

I%u2019m not the %u201Coppressed%u201D spurn, I%u2019m white, and proud of it, no matter how my ancestors had to cheat, steal, decimate, depredate, and subjugate others, in order for me to be at this %u201Cspecial place%u201D.

I wouldn%u2019t be surprise, if given the opportunity, that you would have been the first the swing the rope and tie the noose, because you are just riveting with pride.

[gmond]

The remarks don't sound anti-Semitic, they just sound ignorant. Any time there is a majority of a particular minority involved in decision-making, the result is always contested as being motivated by the kinship of the minority, regardless of whether or not their commonality had anything to do with the decision.

[cryonbrian]

Tiffysmom1,

Let%u2019s be real! How much of a threat is the %u201CNew Blank Panthers%u201D? NONE! The same thing that happened to the old black panthers will follow the new black panthers! Whenever the powers that be want to shut them down, they will wait until late night or early morning and go in The New Black Panthers homes and kill them fools like they did the first generations of black panthers! That is why there is no outcry! White folks on the other hand are gully! When they packed their white sheets and hoods away, they became politicians! LOL

[tiffysmom1]

monmacent
We should no longer have to apologize for the past. We have apologized enough for something we had absolutely nothing to do with.
Racism will never die, white people are the only ones not allowed free speech.
Where was the NAACP when this guy made the remark that all whites need to be exterminated, "Death By Genocide" One of the "New Black Panthers" surfaced and agreed with him. I consider this a threat to white people. If a white person had said this about blacks, it would have been on every TV station, Website, Radio and what ever else. Jesse Jackson would have reared his ugly head to the front of the crowd.
All I want to know is "WHERE WAS THE PUBLIC OUTCRY ABOUT THIS!!!"

[cryonbrian]

Cbscrash07,

I like white and nerdy people regardless of what color they are. There harmless. They won't shoot you or steal your stuff.


You are kidding right? Ted Bundy and Ed Gein were harmless? OOOOOOOOOOOKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKK

[Syndicate]

Some people like working on wall street others like picking fruit. The poor are 20 and the rich are 80 thats life. Is racism dead? No. but its not like I don't like that guy because hes black. Its I don't like that guy because he listens to crude rap music. Its not that I don't like mexicans I don't like the one who pointed the gun at me or any that remotley look like him. Its not skin color its everything. Its your culture its your clothing. its your musical taste. The movies you like. That red/blue rag on your head. Thats what I hate. I like white and nerdy people regardless of what color they are. There harmless. They won't shoot you or steal your stuff. I hate conservatives. I hate liberals. I hate theifs and meth addicts. I hate conmen and liars. I hate muslims. I hate christians. I like jews for some strange reason. I don't know any black people. Well theres the older black lady down the hall at work who always smiles at me. I like her. MY number one all time favorite kind of people to hate on is...... Stupid people. I think I came to the right place.

[marcodele]

She was carrying a small dog in her purse after adopting a black baby? I'm confused.

[randalds]

That's true. It's like a few years ago when they just had to have a small dog in a carrying bag. Wonder what will happen to those kids when the fad fades? maybe the celebrities think they can just return them. It's sick.

[Syndicate]

I'm not racist. I hate everyone.