WWW- O.J. Simpson called it “blood money” and laughed yesterday as he boasted how he gladly spent the estimated $663,000 he got from Rupert Murdoch’s company for his now-discarded book.
In two interviews, the shameless former gridiron great said the publishing and television deal he made with Murdoch’s News Corp. bailed him out of a financial squeeze.
“Would everybody stop being so naive? Of course I got paid,” Simpson said laughing during an hour-long interview with Florida radio station WTPS-AM. “I spend the money on my bills. It’s gone.”
The Juice also refused to apologize for cutting the deal that sparked nationwide outrage and prompted Murdoch’s stunning decision Monday to scrap the book and two-part TV special on Fox.
“I’m taking heat and I deserve it,” Simpson told the Associated Press. “But Murdoch should not be taking the high road either.”
He would not reveal how much money he received for the book, “If I Did It,” a theoretical account of how he would have committed the 1994 slayings of his ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and Ron Goldman.
News Corp. spokesman Andrew Butcher, however, revealed the total deal was for $880,000, but the money did not directly go to Simpson. The breakdown of the payout included:
# $100,000 to a ghostwriter.
# If it was a standard deal, 15% went to middleman Lorraine Brooke Associates, which brokered the deal.
# The remainder, an estimated $663,000, went to Simpson.
“We told the families what payments we made so they can pursue them,” Butcher said.
Public records show the CEO of Lorraine Brooke Associates is Miami lawyer Leonardo Starke, a friend and occasional golfing buddy of Simpson. Starke did not return calls yesterday.
Murdoch lieutenant Judith Regan, who created the book and TV deal, insisted it stipulated the money went to Simpson’s kids. But Simpson, 59, made it clear that the money benefited him.
“It helped me get out of debt and secure my homestead,” he said.
Simpson said he had no reservations about accepting the money.
“I’ve been pimped for 12 years. Everyone’s made money on me,” he said. “It’s all blood money and, unfortunately, I had to join the jackals.”
“This was an opportunity for my kids to get their financial legacy,” he added. “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.”
He said the cash infusion came at an opportune time because his NFL retirement fund and a separate pension are dwindling, making it difficult to pay his taxes.
Simpson blamed the Goldman family for draining his finances by pestering him with “frivolous” court actions. The Goldman family has yet to receive a penny of a $33.5million wrongful-death case judgment they won against Simpson in 1997.
“They have become professional victims,” he said of the Goldmans. “America, you’re being duped by these people.”
Ron Goldman’s sister, Kim, told the Daily News that she took some pleasure in knowing her family was hurting Simpson financially.
“I’m glad that we make his life miserable and that he’s feeling the pain of it. And if it’s a financial one, then good for us,” said Kim Goldman, describing Simpson’s comments as “arrogant.”
The Goldmans’ attorney, Jonathan Polak, said the family intends to “place Simpson in a ‘virtual’ jail cell, from which he will never emerge.”
Simpson insisted his trashed tome was not a confession to the double slaying he was acquitted of in 1995. He scoffed at Judith Regan for promoting the book as “O.J.’s confession.”
“I made it clear from the first day I met the writer that I wasn’t involved,” Simpson said in the WTPS-AM interview. “I said, ‘I have nothing to confess.'”
He said the title, “If I Did It,” wasn’t his idea and neither was the book.
“That was their title,” he said. “That’s what they came up with. I didn’t pitch anything. I don’t make book deals.”