Publisher and TV/film producer Judith Regan, who was fired by News Corp. in 2006 (and later sued the company) after her plans to publish the O.J. Simpson quasi-confessional “If I Did It” — and turn it into a Fox special — fell apart, has agreed to take part in next Sunday’s telecast of the unaired interview.
Also appearing on “O.J. Simpson: The Lost Confession?”: Attorney Christopher Darden, who helped lead the prosecution team with Marcia Clark (and was later famously played by Sterling K. Brown in FX’s “The People v. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story”). Nicole Brown Simpson family representative Eve Shakti Chen, anti-domestic violence advocate Rita Smith, and retired FBI profiler Jim Clemente will also serve with Regan and Darden as analysts on the two-hour special, which airs Sunday, March 11 at 8 p.m. ET.
Soledad O’Brien hosts the event, as Regan, Darden, Chen, Smith and Clemente will watch and discuss Simpson’s 2006 interview with Regan.
Regan spoke in 2006 to Simpson, who gave “a shocking hypothetical account” of the night that his ex-wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and her friend Ron Goldman were murdered. That interview was the basis of “If I Did It,” a book that Regan and HarperCollins were scheduled to release that year.
Judith Regan in 2006
RICHARD DREW/AP/REX/Shutterstock
Simpson was reportedly paid $3.5 million at the time by Regan to participate in the book, and it was set to be a Fox special. But after public outrage over the fact that Simpson was paid for the sitdown, Fox canceled the special. Regan was then fired from HarperCollins (owned by News Corp.), and then sued for defamation. The book was later released by Goldman’s family, but the special sat on the network shelves.
According to insiders, Fox was given approval by the Goldman and Simpson families to air the special. Apparently the tapes were recently rediscovered sitting in a box on the Fox lot, and the decision was made to air the special.
Terence Wrong is the executive producer of “O.J. Simpson: The Lost Confession?” Watch a preview clip below.
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