Hold Your Nose Say Dominick Dunne and Oprah Winfrey

It seems a little strange that Dunne and Winfrey are now saying how terrible the OJ Simpson trash book is after each has directly contributed to its sales, Dunne by writing an afterword for the book and Winfrey by featuring the book on one of her television shows. The way that the two seem to be scrambling to protect their reputations makes me wonder if they are experiencing some negative feedback for having had anything to do with the "book."

According to Dunne, he "disapproves" of the book:

The revered U.S. journalist insists he didn't want to contribute to the book, but agreed to as a favour to his friend Fred Goldman after he won the rights to publish the hypothetical account of how Simpson 'murdered' his ex-wife Nicole Brown and Goldman's son Ron in 1994.

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Goldman asked Vanity Fair columnist Dunne to give the book, which was released in America on Friday (14Sep07) an authentic overview, and the writer eventually agreed.

He says, "I'm not profiting. I didn't get paid... I didn't want to get paid, I didn't actually want to do it.

"I have not read the book, I will not read the book, I disapprove of the book.

"I sat with the Goldman family throughout the O.J trial... and we became friends and he asked me to do it. I declined at first. He said they needed my name.

And Winfrey chimes in:

Oprah Winfrey has called OJ Simpson's new book, "If I Did It", "despicable" and says she will not purchase it or promote it.

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Oprah, while interviewing Goldman's father Fred and sister Kim, was critical of the family's decision to make money from the book they had fought so hard to keep out of publication just one year ago. She said: "I don't want to be in a position to promote this book because I, too, think it's despicable. I'm all for it being published, but I personally wouldn't want to be in a position to encourage people to buy this book," Contactmusic quoted her as saying.

Even Fred Goldman seems to be a little embarrassed (but not so embarrassed that he would kill the book) if his comments on Oprah's show are any indication of what he is thinking.

OPRAH was wrong when she claimed the Gold man family would get just 17 cents in royalties from each O.J. Simpson book sold.

According to the publisher of "If I Did It" - Simpson's controversial account of the murders of Nicole Brown and Ron Goldman - and the Goldman's literary agent, the Goldman family stands to make much more.

"I have absolutely no idea where that 17 cents came from," the agent, Sharlene Martin, told the publishing Web site, galleycat.com.

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Ron Goldman's father, Fred, and sister, Kim, did not challenge Oprah's comment during the interview last week that "you all are not going to make a lot of money off of this book . . . you're getting 17 cents per book."

"Pennies," Fred Goldman interjected.

"That is a bad book deal that only gives you 17 cents," Oprah added later in the show.

Is Goldman trying to justify his decision to publish this book by lying about the amount of blood money that he's putting into the family's pockets? Sorry, Fred, but blood money is blood money whether it is $500 or $5,000,000. It is a shame that all three of these people made such poor decisions in the first place.