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Los Angeles: O.J. Simpson said he knew any profit from his If I Did It book would be 'blood money,' but that he took part in the project to pay his bills.
"It's all blood money and unfortunately I had to join the jackals," Simpson said on Wednesday, referring to authors of books about him. "It helped me get out of debt and secure my homestead," he added. The former professional football star also said in telephone interviews this week that he saw the book as a way to provide for his children financially.
Revolting
The book, said to describe how he hypothetically would have killed ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend Ronald Goldman, had been scheduled for release on November 30 following the airing of a two-part Simpson interview on Fox earlier this week. News Corporation, owner of Fox Broadcasting and publisher HarperCollins, cancelled the project this week after it was condemned as revolting and exploitative.
Simpson has denied committing the murders, disputed his own publisher's contention that the book amounts to a confession, insisted the title was not his idea, and said the hypothetical sections were written by his ghostwriter.
News Corporation spokesman Andrew Butcher said the company paid $880,000 (Dh3 million) to a third party in connection with the project. Of that amount, $100,000 (Dh367,304) was to go to the book's ghostwriter and the rest to Simpson's children, Butcher said.
"Absolutely no money was ever given to O.J. Simpson by us," he said on Wednesday.
Simpson would not say how much he was paid in advance, but said it was less than the $3.5 million (Dh12.8 million) that has been reported. He said the money has already been spent, some of it on tax obligations.
Butcher said News Corporation has no grounds to try to recoup any of the money because Simpson honoured his end of the contract by producing the book.
Civil ruling
Acquitted of murder in 1995, Simpson was later found liable in a wrongful-death lawsuit filed by Goldman's family. The former football star turned actor has not paid the $33.5 million (Dh123 million) civil judgment, and his National Football League pension and Florida home cannot be seized. He made no apologies for the book and TV deal: "I've been pimped for 12 years. Everyone's made money on me," he said.
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