Oprah_ A Biography - Kitty Kelley [152]
During her opening show of 2007 she announced yet another show on O. J. Simpson, saying she had invited the Goldmans and Denise Brown, Nicole’s sister, to discuss the confessional novel with the former prosecutors Marcia Clark and Christopher Darden. But Denise Brown was so angry at the Goldmans for proceeding with the book that she refused to appear with them and canceled her appearance. She finally agreed to tape a separate segment in which she could urge people to boycott the book.
Oprah opened that show (September 13, 2007) with Fred Goldman and his daughter, Kim, sitting onstage. “This is a moral and ethical dilemma for me,” she said. “We sell books on this show. We promote books, but I think this book is despicable.… I’m all for it being published, because I don’t believe in censorship, but I personally wouldn’t want to be in a position to encourage people to buy this book.”
Immediately thrown on the defensive, Kim Goldman responded, “It’s either him or us.” Oprah bored into the Goldmans on how much money they would make from the publication.
“Seventeen cents per book? That’s all? What kind of a publishing deal is that? Seventeen cents?” Oprah said. “Does that ease your pain?” She returned to the money again and again.
“Do you consider the proceeds from the book blood money?”
The victim’s sixty-six-year-old father said there wasn’t that much money involved.
“If you’re only going to get seventeen cents, who gets the rest of it?” said a skeptical Oprah.
“We have a judgment,” said Fred Goldman, “the only form of justice that we were able to attain through the civil court. And that piece of paper is meaningless unless we pursue that judgment. We took away the opportunity from him [Simpson] to earn additional money, and that money is the only form of justice.”
Oprah looked disgusted and disapproving. “We as a country have been able to move on,” she said. “I would hope you would [be able to move on and] get peace.”
Riled, Kim Goldman snapped, “It’s insulting to assume we would ever get peace.”
“I did not mean to be insulting,” said Oprah. “Thank you for honoring your commitment to be here.” She quickly moved to a commercial and then introduced Denise Brown.
“I will not be reading this book,” Oprah told her. “My producers have read it and tell me that Nicole is depicted as a drug addict and slut and deserves the description.” Denise Brown said the book was “evil” and publication was “morally wrong.” At the end of the hour, Oprah looked like she had clean hands: she had said she wouldn’t read the book, and she wouldn’t recommend the book. Still, she allowed the principals to come on her show and give her huge ratings, while pushing O. J. Simpson’s confessional novel to number two on The New York Times bestseller list.
To celebrate the tenth anniversary of O magazine in May 2010, Oprah had herself photographed with ten fans for an article titled online as “The Ultimate O Interview: Oprah Answers All Your Questions.” One fan asked, “After interviewing so many people, are there any … who … you still want to talk to?” Oprah said she still wanted to interview O. J. Simpson’s daughter, Sydney Simpson.
When Oprah started her book club in 1996 she gave all of her authors “the love treatment,” and her enthusiastic endorsements sent their books