On last night's Countdown, Keith Olbermann named Rupert Murdoch his "Worst Person in the World" for the inside baseball decision of firing HarperCollins chief Jane Friedman, supposedly because she quashed the O.J. Simpson book and fired Judith Regan, despite Murdoch wanting the book out.
But maybe Friedman's fate was sealed much earlier? Like, three years ago? When her ally Lachlan Murdoch, son of Rupert, left the company, and she had to begin reporting to COO Peter Chernin? And had to start meeting certain financial targets? Which would've meant layoffs? That Friedman would've had a problem with?
Like the learned press operative that she is, Judith Regan isn't just issuing a press release to fire back at her old attorneys that are suing her for nonpayment — she's suing them. Dreier LLP and Redniss & Associates, who Regan dumped before reaching a reported $25 million settlement agreement with News Corp. over her firing, claim they were never paid their fees or the percentage of the settlement they were promised. Actually, says Regan, she did send them a check, for $125,000 — and they sent it back. Says Marc Dreier: "She sent us a letter terminating our services, and yes, she sent us a check - for $125,000. But our agreement spelled out that we would get 25% of her recovery … which has been reported at $10 million to $20 million. Our payment should be a lot more than $125,000." How about $1 million in all the free publicity your firm is getting?
Just like Britney Spears, embroiled ex-publisher Judith Regan is having lawyer trubs. She's being sued by Dreier LLP and Redniss & Associates, who represented Regan in her $100 million lawsuit against former employer News Corp. before she fired them in December, hired Bertram Fields, and scored a settlement deal in January. Regan was supposed to pay them 25 percent of any proceeds she received, but after settling with Murdoch & Co. for a reported $25 million, they've only received $125,000. So: They're suing for their share, plus $42,560 in unpaid fees.
Ousted publisher Judith Regan – whose firing we were the first to tell you about – has settled with Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. in hopes of putting the cloud of Jew hating behind her. Gawker says she got $25 million. And News Corp. says they "accept Ms. Regan's position that she did not say anything that was anti-Semitic in nature, and further believe that Ms. Regan is not anti-Semitic."
…why Judith Regan turned down a reported $6.5 million settlement offer and decided she'd rather take her chances in court, accuse her former bosses of colluding with News Corp. and claim she was fired not for greenlighting an offensive step-by-step guide to double homicide but, rather, as part of some giant conspiracy to get Rudy Giuliani elected president?
Earlier this week, we told you Judith Regan pulled a Dan Rather by suing News Corp. over what she claims is a giant conspiracy orchestrated by high-level Republicans. Today, CBS' lawyers filed a motion to dismiss Rather's aforementioned precedent-setting lawsuit, claiming to be "mystified" by Rather's "bizarre allegations" and arguing that the suit is merely "a regrettable attempt by plaintiff Dan Rather to remain in the public eye, and to settle old scores and perceived slights, based on an array of far-fetched allegations" and is "time-barred because of a one-year statute of limitations."
No telling yet which way the courts will decide, but we have a sneaking suspicion News Corp's legal counsel will be, as they say, quick to follow suit. Expect their own motion to dismiss within the next few months.
Might Judith Regan's refusal to name the "senior executive in the News Corp. organization" – who, she alleges in her $100 million defamation lawsuit, coerced her into lying to the feds about her relationship with now-indicted Bernie Kerik to protect Rudy Giuliani's presidential campaign – have a little something to do with leverage in a settlement?
If she doesn't give a name and ruin the exec's reputation at this stage, she has a better chance Rupert Murdoch & Co. will cave and agree to settle, even if its for dimes on the dollar.
The Judith Regan lawsuit conjured up some disturbing mental images of the former editrix and Bernard Kerik. But less unsettling was the allegation that News Corp. was trying to protect “America’s Mayor,” Rudy Giuliani.
Indeed the two have long ties. Roger Ailes and Giuliani go way back to his first failed run for mayor in 1989. In 1994, for a reception honoring Ailes, Giuliani prepared a speech where he wrote, "Roger has played an important role in my own career." Aw, thanks Rog. CONTINUED »
It’s hard to find good scapegoats these days. After taking the fall for the O.J. Simpson book deal last year, Judith Regan is back with a $100 million defamation suit against News Corp.
In her case, Regan claims that HarperCollins told her to lie about her affair with Bernard K. Kerik, the former New York police commissioner. How Regan and Kerik got together remains a mystery, but conservative America is starting to seem like one big high school.
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In the December issue of Harper's Bazaar, ousted HarperCollins publisher Judith Regan magically reappears just in time to answer the question everybody wanted to know six months ago: What in the hell ever happened to Judith Regan? As it turns out, not very much. The "retired" editrix claims she's tired of the public spotlight, desirous of a major lifestyle change and finally ready to come clean about her biggest regret, namely:
"Agreeing to reward a known murderer with a hefty book advance in exchange for his detailed how-to guide to committing double homicide."
Kidding! Her much more boring answer: "… that I spent too much time in the office. I gave so much to my work, and honestly, it wasn't worth it."
Weird! We hear her former assistants (who are, coincidentally, all suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder) had the exact same regret!
We can't remember the last time we even thought about ousted HarperCollins publisher Judith Regan. (Although we suspect it was may have been the night a drunk buddy of ours told an extremely offensive antisemitic joke, prompting another friend to interrupt with, "Hey, Judith Regan. Zip it, and grab me a cold one.") In any event, it's been far too long since we've read anything in the press about the former publishing scion who handed a confessed killer a huge book advance, was then promptly fired for completely unrelated reasons.
Until now.
Because today, Judith is back once more to defend her reputation, and this time, she claims to have secret tapes of phone calls and meetings that "provide explosive evidence" in her $20 million lawsuit against News Corp.
Want to learn how to stretch a dollar? It's simple, says Times' editor Damon Darlin, so long as you're prepared to learn how to cook, ignore any/all raises, curb that morning latte habit and get married—for tax purposes, of course.
[Ed: Interestingly, Darlin neglects to group TimesSelect membership fees in with those other so-called "extraneous" expenses.]
And, as Darlin is quick to remind us, this is not his first foray into doling out penny-pinching advice. In fact, he previously wrote a similar cost-cutting column for the Times, which was then forwarded by thousands of overprotective mothers (using some kind of newfangled technology called "the internets") and subsequently rejected by their sons and daughters, some of whom were even pissed enough to write Darlin a not-so-formal email.
The former senior producer over at Good Morning America, Lisa Sharkey has apparently found herself a new gig…as publisher Judith Regan's replacement over at HarperCollins. Fortunately, Sharkey couldn't be more qualified for the position!
• She's great at working with celebs, as evidenced by her (brief) stint working alongside tv weatherman, Al Roker.
• Judith may have put herself on a 21-day liquid diet, but Lisa sees her liquid diet and raises her an 82-day physical and spiritual fast!
• Sharkey's no stranger to celebrity sleaze…she used to work at Inside Edition!
Anyhow, we're sure Sharkey will be great as the next Judith Regan. Not only does she have the whole bizarre eating habits thing locked up, but we hear she's even practicing her racial epithets in preparation for the new job!* So congrat, Lisa! We can't wait to see why everyone says "you put the 'shark' in "Sharkey."**
* Not true…as far as we know.
**Nobody says that…as far as we know.
Well, the verdict is in, and this time the Juice wasn't so lucky. A judge in L.A. County Superior Court ordered yesterday that the rights to "If I Did It" be auctioned off, and stipulated that if the book should ever be published—or the tv interview with Simpson ever aired—all proceeds would go directly to the Goldman family (and not to that bogus company, Lorraine Brooke Associates, Simpson allegedly set up to avoid paying the Brown/Goldman families the original $880,000 book advance).
"They took a beating in there today," Goldman family attorney Jonathan Polak told reporters after Tuesday's hearing in Santa Monica. "The judge was very clear that we get the money in the event this book is ever published….Plus, now there will be a sale to completely divest Simpson of any rights he might hold at this time," Polak said. "He will never again be in a position to profit from this book."
• Faith Hill and Tim McGraw's home is burglarized! No official word on the precise number of cowboy hats, snakeskin boots or tins of Skoal chewing tobacco are missing.
• Judith Regan gets advice from a sex-toy expert on her Sirius radio show; listeners (and Jossip editors) silently "throw up a little" in their mouths.
• Barbi twins tried, failed, to save Anna Nicole Smith by leaving her an impassioned unanswered voicemail.
• Meanwhile, the National Enquirer reports that—in addition to starving herself—Anna Nicole Smith was intentionally underfeeding baby Dannielynn so she's look "slim and sexy."
• Brandy celebrated her 28th birthday by blowing out the candles and wishing this whole vehicular manslaughter thing goes away faster than Ray J's sex tape.
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Hey, remember the other day when New York Magazine ran that long, in-depth profile on Judith Regan, claiming to offer the "bitchy editrix" perspective on that whole O.J. Simpson earning-money-for-murdering-his-wife fiasco?
Well, turns out Nicole Brown's family was none too pleased, both by the part where Judith admitted to fasting for months at a time (seriously, who does that?) and that whole business where the author claimed Brown's family was in negotiations to strike a deal with their loved one's "hypothetical" killer for a piece of the (profit) pie.
So, they decided to sue.
Yesterday, their lawyers slapped NY Mag with a letter, demanding an immediate correction and apology, and accusing the author of ignoring any/all of their statements contradictory to the story she originally had in mind.
And now, NY Mag has apparently fired back, responding with a half-hearted apology to the Brown family, (i.e. sorry we may have accidentally implied you were in bed with a homicidal maniac) and then points out they never even saw the letter.
Incidentally, the only place we've seen this letter is on [the Mediabistro] today. It never arrived in any offices associated with New York magazine or Bruce Wasserstein.
Wait a second, so first, the Brown family has to sit through a long article about Judith Regan's eating habits (or lack thereof). Then, they realize the author has suggested that they sanctioned the hypothetical ramblings of Nicole's alleged murderer. And finally, it turns out that their scary-sounding letter to NY Mag never even made it there because the messenger who was supposed to deliver it "got high" instead??
Yeah…we understand that "bitches have feelings too," but we're going to have to side with the Brown family on this one.
• Judith Regan enjoys fasting and impromptu 21-day liquid diets, as well as publishing hypothetical tell-alls by not-so-hypothetical killers.
• The Village Voice is reportedly having trouble convincing anyone that they should work for The Village Voice.
• Slate offers the Sulzbergers free advice on how to "take the NYT private." In exchange; Slate requests bi-annual invites to the Sulzberger mansion and 2 years free membership to Times Select.
• Heroes may have used its superpowers to save NBC president Jeff Zucker's job.
• YouTube to share its revenues with You, possibly giving You that extra monetary incentive to illegally record Saddam Hussein's execution on your cell phone cam.
• Bill Gates says "with tv, in five years, people will laugh at what we've had." Related: Bill Gates' sense of humor reportedly 'almost as funny' as binary code.
It's been far too long since we heard about Judith Regan, isn't it? The fired publishing giant has been uncharacteristically silent since her departure, with Regan's trademark ethnic slurs being channeled into a lawsuit against her former bosses at the company that's resorted to changing its name to disassociate themselves from her entirely.
And while Regan certainly didn't leave on the friendliest of terms, (reportedly an armed guard escorted her out after HC set her up to take the fall for greenlighting the O.J. tell-all controversy), we're frankly sort of surprised that she didn't get her boxed up office crap yet.
But that's the latest, according to those in-the-know gossips over at the Daily News:
Rupert Murdoch's minions at HarperCollins have been going through Judith Regan's personal effects and still haven't returned them five weeks after the publisher was fired amid the controversy over her plans to publish O.J. Simpson's book "If I Did It."
Legal staffers at the publishing house, which Regan is suing, have had access to everything from documents to her children's report cards, a source tells us.
"They have her financial statements, her will, her divorce papers, photographs of her children, unopened Christmas gifts, even her clothing," said the source.
Because really, come on guys. It's no secret that you hate Regan, but do you really need to withhold her divorce papers, her will and pictures of the kids she never sees? And seriously, how many times do you really have to rifle through her designer Prada handbags before you're entirely convinced that she didn't slip a stapler (or other office supplies) into one of them?
We gotta say, when it comes to the issues of Jew-bashing or rewarding a murderer for brutally slaying his wife, we're unilaterally against Judith Regan. But with respect to the unopened Christmas gifts, hilarious collection of office-related New Yorker cartoons and dirty laundry? We say, just give the witch her her cloak and broomstick back already.
• And the countdown is finally over! Time Inc. "bloodbath" said to begin today with 250 job cuts.
• Political satirist Art Buchwald is dead at 81. Ironically, the only person capable of turning that into a funny punchline: Art Buchwald.
• Web newspaper blog traffic has more than tripled since this time last December. Related: Jossip to find itself a newspaper sponsor ASAP.
• Ron Burkle and Eli Broad are in a bidding war against Chandler fam for the Tribune Co. Page Six to stay completely and utterly out of it.
• HarperCollins books to change their name, as part of plan to distance themselves "as far from Judith Regan as is humanly possible."
• The Onion to partner with WaPo and move to D.C., despite fears that Dick Cheney will "shoot them in the face" over all the bad press.
• Not only did most newspapers have Gerald Ford's obit ready to go, the NYT had all sorts of fancy Flash animations set to post.
• Newly unemployed Judith Regan announces plans to get drunk, Irish-style.
• Who says math has no practical real world applications?
&bull: Despite masterminding, casting, starring in new Rolling Stone reality show, Jann Wenner is not the purported breakout "star."
• It's been less than a week since Alan Hevesi resigned and murders in NYC are already way up. Coincidence? We don't belive in coincidences.
• GalleyCat demands new sci-fi editor for NYTBR. We hear teetotaling Judith Regan is available.
Editorial Director
