“Man on a Ledge”: Did OJ Simpson Confess to the writer?
By Roger Friedman
TrendPK.com: This week’s main offering at the movies is “Man on a Ledge”–described as “ludicrous” by some critics and certainly not an Oscar nominee. (It was a lowly 20% on Rotten Tomatoes, which is like an F.) It’s January, of course, and if you couldn’t release a movie by December 31st, you know what January means. But “Man on a Ledge” has another reason of interest. Its screenwriter is Pablo Fenjves. Don’t recognize his name? He ghost wrote O.J. Simpson’s infamous confessional book, “If I Did It,” which outlined how O.J. murdered in cold blood his ex wife Nicole Brown and her friend Ronald Goldman.
The ironic part of that is that Fenjves, creepily, was a witness in the Simpson murder trial. He was the neighbor who testified he’d heard a dog’s plaintive wail near Nicole Brown’s house in Brentwood. Did OJ do it? Well, a civil jury said he did, and of course OJ is in jail for something else. Is he metaphorically the man on the ledge in the new movie? Deciphering hidden meanings may be the only reason to see this film, which I keep confusing with a mostly unreleased film from last year called “The Ledge.”
Here’s my exclusive 2007 interview with Fenjves:
Pablo Fenjves, author of O.J. Simpson’s controversial book, “If I Did It,” says the book’s original publisher told him it was a confession.
Fenjves writes in a prologue to the book, obtained by this column exclusively, that Judith Regan, then of ReganBooks/HarperCollins, told him:
“He wants to confess, and I’m being assured it’s a confession. But this is the only way he’ll do it.”
The book, which was canceled by HarperCollins and is today being published by Beaufort Books after a court battle, now belongs to the family of Ronald Goldman. A civil jury found Simpson responsible for the 1994 slayings of Goldman and Simpson’s ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson. A criminal jury acquitted him of murder charges.
Blood, Pregnancy and Dan Rather: Click Here for More Shocking Details From “If I Did It.”
Ironically, Fenjves, who was hired by the publisher to write the book with Simpson, had been a witness in the murder case. He was one of Nicole’s neighbors, and had heard what he describes as the “plaintive wail” of her dog that night after the murders occurred.
The book, which hit stores Thursday, is approximately 60,000 words long. But readers will be mostly interested in a 10,000-word section in which Simpson describes with brutal detachment how — “if” he did it — he killed the pair in cold blood while a companion, named “Charlie,” stood by and watched.
“Charlie,” if Simpson is telling truth, was a new friend at the time and not his best buddy A.C. Cowlings or anyone else from the parade of clowns who occupied America’s TVs and media in 1994-95.
Fenjves writes that he doesn’t believe there was a “Charlie” and that Simpson was alone on the night in question.
While Simpson’s account lines up pretty well with evidence presented in the trial, it’s Fenjves’ prologue that actually says more about the entire episode.
At one point early on in their discussions, Simpson says to the writer, “I don’t know what the hell you want from me. I’m not going to tell you that I sliced my ex-wife’s neck and watched her eyes roll up into her head.”
That Simpson could even speak so dispassionately and violently about his ex-wife and mother of two of his children should sound alarms for those who think “If I Did It” is fiction or a hypothesis.
What’s really alarming is that those two children, Sydney and Justin, now in their late teens, don’t seem to care or understand what their father did to their mother.
When Simpson first was going to sell the book and make money from it, they signed off on an agreement to form a dummy corporation in which they would profit from the proceeds.
Fenjves recalls in his prologue that at one point, Simpson wanted the chapter about the murders to come out of the manuscript. “I hate that f—ing chapter,” he told the writer, but was reminded that it was the reason he’d sold the book. Fenjves observes that Simpson never said it was untrue or imagined.
Simpson did ask for one detail to be removed, however. He originally told Fenjves that Nicole’s Akita, named Kato for their perennial houseguest Kato Kaelin, had wagged its tail when O.J. saw it greet Goldman moments before the murder.
It was a telling detail, Fenjves thought, that Simpson had noticed the dog was familiar with Goldman. No one had ever heard anything like that before. Simpson must have realized that, too.
The ex-football superstar wasn’t stupid, though. He told Fenjves after the manuscript was completed that he’d made some mistakes on purpose in the telling of the murders.
“I treated it as fiction,” he said. “I purposefully didn’t correct some of the mistakes, because if the time comes that I have to defend myself, I can say, ‘Hey look, it can’t be me because that couldn’t have happened.’”
Fenjves says Simpson cited removing his shoes but not his socks, the fact that he would have had to scale a 10-foot chain-link fence to get from the tennis court to the guesthouse and that no one had ever seen him on a golf course with a knit-cap and gloves.
He also told Fenjves he’d never known any “Charlie.” The author felt at this point that Simpson was backtracking, and reading to him over the phone from a prepared script.
It didn’t matter. The book was written, and HarperCollins was set to publish it. Of course, that didn’t happen. The book was cancelled and the Goldmans went to court and won the rights to it as part of their civil judgment against Simpson.
Thursday, with obvious reluctance and distaste, Oprah Winfrey interviewed Ron Goldman’s dad, Fred, and his sister, Kim, on her show. According to sources, she was supposed to discuss this prologue and also an afterward written by Dominick Dunne.
None of that came up. Instead, Oprah appeared to be angry with the Goldmans for publishing the book. In a later segment, she told Nicole’s sister Denise Brown that she wasn’t even going to read it.
The whole thing was very strange, and Oprah — who is usually on the side of the angels — came off badly.
One thing mentioned on Winfrey’s show — that the Goldmans would see only 17 cents per book from sales. Winfrey was skeptical and asked what kind of book deal they had gotten.
In fact, sources tell me that if the Goldmans have figured out their profits to 17 cents, it’s because over 13 years they’ve accrued mounting legal fees and debts for which they were not prepared.
“Fred Goldman was never rich,” says the source. “He works for Nordstrom.”
Winfrey, on the other hand, accepted at face value many of Denise Brown’s ridiculous statements. She didn’t ask her where all the money has gone from the charity that was set up in her sister’s name. She also didn’t bat an eyelash when Denise described Nicole as a good mother because she let her kids mess up her brand new Ferrari.
One thing about Denise … she’s not good at mustering much sympathy for her late, hard-partying sister.
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Has Oprah been chosen as godmother for Beyonce’s daughter?
TrendPK.com: Beyonce’s daughter, Blue Ivy, with Jay-Z already has it made, but it seems that her life might just keep getting better.
It is now being rumored that Oprah has been chosen as the godmother for their daughter as they decided to not choose family members for the role, states RadarOnline.com. On the other side, Jay-Z’s friend, Tyran “Ty Ty” Smith, has reportedly been chosen as the godfather.
It has not been confirmed, but the two have allegedly grown close to Oprah over the years.
Do you think she is the godmother?
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Rosie O’Donnell has a new girlfriend
TrendPK.com: Rosie O’Donnell made her first public appearance with new girlfriend Michelle Rounds at Rosie’s Theater Kids Galas in NYC this week.
The couple apparently met at a Starbucks!
Rosie O'Donnell has a new girlfriend
Rounds is a corporate head-hunter for a New York technology company. Not sure how Rosie’s professional life will impact their time together. She just bought a $2.5 million town home in Chicago and will soon begin production on her new chat show on Oprah Winfrey’s OWN network which will debut on October 10.
Good to see Rosie looking so happy.
Lady Gaga Tops Forbes Celebrity Power List
May 21, 2011 by Trend PK
Filed under Entertainment
Lady Gaga
Lady Gaga has been announced by Forbes as the most powerful celebrity in the world. Forbes magazine’s annual Celebrity 100 Power List is based on earnings, fame and global exposure in the media.
Oprah Winfrey has held the top spot for the last four years but now she sits in second place behind Lady Gaga despite that Oprah’s earnings are still three times higher than Gaga’s. But Gaga is currently the most followed person on Twitter, this combined with her 32 million Facebook followers helped her knock Oprah from the top spot.
“Lady Gaga tops our power list not just because of her $90m (£56m) in earnings but also because of her 32m Facebook fans and 10m Twitter followers,” a spokesman for the magazine tells Metro.
The complete top 10 is:
1. Lady GaGa
2. Oprah Winfrey
3. Justin Bieber
4. U2
5. Elton John
6. Tiger Woods
7. Taylor Swift
8. Bon Jovi
9. Simon Cowell
10. LeBron James
This Year’s list includes actors, athletes, models and comedians. Katy Perry made it onto the list for the first time at no.12, Johnny Depp followed her at No.13 and ex-Beatle Sir Paul McCartney came in at 20th.
Oprah aims for "Mindful TV"
December 31, 2010 by Trend PK
Filed under Entertainment
LOS ANGELES: She is already the most influential woman on television, publishes a magazine, has starred in movies, opened a school in South Africa and is one of America”s biggest celebrity philanthropists.
So why is Oprah Winfrey taking perhaps the biggest gamble in her life and launching a cable TV network this weekend? Because she believes people are hungry for shows that entertain, inspire and offer what she calls “mindful television.”
“What I want to do is build a channel that is a respite for your mind, an oasis of stimulation that you come away from with little pieces of light.
“I”m aiming for a moment where somebody could say, ”I never thought of it that way before.” I just love that,” Winfrey 56, told Parade magazine in an interview this week.
Three years in the making, the Oprah Winfrey Network (OWN) kicks off on January 1 with a weekend of “sneak peeks” into the array of largely female-oriented original series, lifestyle, and advice shows that viewers can expect in the first year.
OWN, a venture between Winfrey”s Harpo Inc and Discovery Communications, will be available in some 80 million homes.
The OWN launch has brought with it some uncharacteristic anxiety for Winfrey, who will end her popular U.S. daytime chat program, “The Oprah Winfrey Show” — which airs in some 140 countries — in May after 25 years.
She told her magazine “O” that she has “never felt such fear in all my life” than she has in launching OWN in a crowded TV market packed with hundreds of cable channels.
The Wolverine, Hugh Jackman Hurt in Oprah TV Show Stunt
December 17, 2010 by Trend PK
Filed under Entertainment
Hugh Jackman was a bit hurt when he performed a stunt during their taping for the Oprah Winfrey show at Sydney Opera House, Sydney.
The incident was shown in live television where Jackman was seen descending from a cable coming from the top of the Opera House going to the enormous outdoor stage; however, he was not able to stop, which caused him to crash into the stage’s light wires and he ended hurting his face.
Later on, the movie star placed a small bandage below his eyes. Oprah said that Jackman stopped too late because of his too much excitement when sliding down the cable.
Some entertainment reporters in the event said that they saw Jackman was hit in the eye. Jackman was seen on live television putting an ice on his face while drinking red wine. It was detailed that he even suffered a black eye.
Oprah Winfrey is in Australia producing two TV chat shows, with 302 other special American guests, as well as other Australian guests such as Jackman, Nicole Kidman, Russell Crowe and many others.
Australia spent over 3 million Australian dollars just to bring “The Oprah Winfrey Show” in their country. This is a way of uplifting their country’s tourism. Oprah Winfrey’s show is actually seen by 40 million Americans and displayed in 145 countries.
Barbara Walters Interview with Oprah
December 11, 2010 by Trend PK
Filed under Entertainment
Barbara Walters Interview with Oprah: Oprah Winfrey is the most powerful woman in entertainment, but watching her Barbara Walters interview, she almost seems accessible, like a person you might want to be your best friend. And for 25 years, for many women, she was just that. Next spring that all ends.
It is impossible (unless you are a male), to really dislike Oprah. You can dislike her influence over women or think her new age power is weird, but watching her, it is impossible to deny her sincerity and her heart.
As a person who has watched her show only a handful of times, I still find her fascinating. Here is a woman who was born in a home in Missisippi where she had no running water who is now worth $2.7 billion.
Her topics were often female-centric over the years, the books she chose for her book club almost all the kind of books women wanted to read more than men and sometimes that got her ridiculed. But to those snobs one might say: $2.7 billion, in your faces!
The Babs interview did not reveal any major secrets, but it did give insight into Oprah’s own thoughts on leaving and the future.
celine dion
June 1, 2010 by Trend PK
Filed under World News
CELINE DION may be over the moon about being pregnant with twins, but it hasn’t been easy.
Some mums-to-be revel in their pregnancy glow, but for Celine Dion the six gruelling courses of in-vitro fertilisation (IVF) she had in order to conceive were “physically and emotionally exhausting”.
She said: “I feel like I’ve been pregnant more than a year. I never gave up. But I can tell you that it was physically and mentally exhausting.”
The 42-year-old singer – who already has a nine-year-old son Rene-Charles with husband Rene Angelil – says she will follow her doctor’s advice to make to ensure the healthy arrival of her babies, who are due in November.
She told newspaper Le Journal de Montreal: “I do almost nothing. If you tell me I have to stay in bed, I will stay in bed until November, when the babies are born. To bring them into the world, there’s nothing more important than that.”
After an agonising wait to have more children, Celine admits she was living on her nerves every time they visited medical experts.
Dion and husband Rene Angelil finally conceived their twins after five failed in-vitro fertilization attempts. Dion admitted to Oprah Winfrey last year that one of those attempts resulted in a miscarriage.
“I never gave up,” Dion says. “But I can tell you that it was physically and mentally exhausting.”
Angelil, 58, adds, “Everyone knows that Celine has guts and is determined. These treatments were truly hard on my wife’s body. It wasn’t simple at all.”
For her sixth IVF attempt, the singer spent a month and a half in New York and also tried acupuncture, Dion’s rep told UsMagazine.com.
The singer, 42, is pregnant with twins after undergoing her sixth in-vitro fertilization attempt and turning to acupuncture to improve her chances of a pregnancy, her rep Kim Jakwerth confirms.
The singer says it was incredibly stressful to wait to see if the pregnancy would stick this time.
“My doctors had to constantly reassure me. I [wanted] to see the babies,” she says. “Each week I had sonograms. I heard their heartbeats.”
When the couple finally got the news that twins were on the way, “There were truly great emotions,” says the singer.
Now, Dion will do whatever it takes to keep the babies healthy.
“It’s stressful but I’m relaxing. I look at my little belly. I do almost nothing,” she says. “If you tell me I have to stay in bed, I will stay in bed until November, when the babies are born. To bring them into the world, there’s nothing more important than that. It’s incredible.”
The twins are due to join brother Rene-Charles, 9, in November.
“We will have a beautiful family nest full of love,” says Dion.
Celine and her husband Rene Angelil already have one son Rene Charles, who is nine.
“Here I was thinking about soon learning the sex of the two. Now I’m trying to hold it down to four. I need to talk with that Octomom!”
“Poor Rene, he hit the floor as soon as I told him four.”
Tom cruise’
May 15, 2010 by Trend PK
Filed under World News
Tom Cruise: Daughter Suri ‘tells me what to wear”
Tom Cruise explained the secrets of daughter Suri’s style to Oprah Winfrey today on her show.
“She likes to dress herself,” said the proud papa. “If she wants to wear it, she wears it. I’m not going to tell her different. She’s got great taste. She tells me what to wear!” He also said, she “loves pink.”
When Oprah asked Tom – who was there to promote his upcoming movie Knight and Day – how Suri, 4, feels about the ever-present paparazzi, he said, “It’s been there her whole life – same with Bella and Connor (his older children). She’s such a happy, easy fun girl. She just deals with it.” He added, “We don’t make it a problem. We don’t get nervous about it.”
Does Suri realize her dad’s a movie star? Yes, said Cruise. After all, she is growing up on movie sets. “She’s excellent on the set. She’ll tell people to be quiet on the set. She has headphones and watches the scenes and gives me notes afterward – the thumbs up.”
Oprah asked about Cruise’s older kids and dating. Of Isabella, 17, Cruise said, “She’s a good girl. So whoever she likes is cool. Bella has very strong sense of herself.”
source: content.usatoday.com
ibm earnings
April 19, 2010 by Trend PK
Filed under World News
IBM optimistic amid signs of tech spending rebound
IBM Corp. said Monday its first-quarter profit jumped 13 percent, and the company offered evidence that corporate technology spending is rebounding after the recession.
IBM said it earned $2.6 billion, or $1.97 per share, in the first three months of the year. In the same period of 2009 it earned $2.3 billion, or $1.70 per share.
The improvement came not just from cost cutting, which IBM relied on much of last year to raise profits. In the most recent quarter, revenue climbed 5 percent to $22.9 billion.
The results beat the average analyst estimate of $1.93 per share on revenue of $22.8 billion, according to Thomson Reuters.
Even before Monday, there were signs that more businesses are spending again on technology such as computer servers and software after clamping down during the recession. Last week Intel Corp., the world’s biggest chip maker, said its first-quarter income nearly quadrupled. And analysts at Gartner Inc. said worldwide information-technology spending is expected to rise more than 5 percent in 2010, after falling 1 percent in 2009.
IBM’s results reaffirm that the pickup in IT spending is significant and broad-based, said Annex Research analyst Bob Djurdjevic.
“I expected good things from IBM but I didn’t expect them to be this good,” he said.
On a conference call with analysts Monday, IBM’s chief financial officer, Mark Loughridge, declined to give an opinion on whether the broader market for information technology has return to normal. But of IBM in particular, he said, “I feel like we’ve got a good hand going into the second quarter.”
IBM said its first-quarter revenue would have been flat at constant currency rates. Deals in other currencies translate into more dollars when the U.S. currency is weak.
Although the revenue growth was tepid, it was a bigger increase than what the company had in the last three months of 2009. In that quarter, revenue grew just under 1 percent from the year before, and would have dropped 5 percent at constant currency values. Now, IBM says, its revenue growth in the current quarter should increase even without accounting for currency fluctuations.
The company also lifted its 2010 earnings forecast to $11.20 per share. Analysts were expecting $11.12.
IBM’s earnings report came out after the company’s shares closed up $1.60, or 1.2 percent, at $132.23. In after-hours trading the stock fell 2 percent.
