Fred Goldman on Oprah: If you spot him in the men's section at Nordstrom, don't ask to try on the size 12 Bruno Maglis...
Anyone catch the Valley's most famous Nordstrom employee on Oprah yesterday? I'm talking about the silver-mustachioed Fred Goldman, father of O.J. Simpson-victim Ron. See, Goldman, who recently had been working in the Scottsdale Nordstrom's men's department, was on Oprah Winfrey's show with Ron's sister Kim shilling for his version of O.J.'s now-infamous pseudo-confession If I Did It. You remember, the book Goldman was so pissed about before he won the rights to it in court.
Goldman looked uncomfortable, and how could he not be? After all, as Oprah pointed out, back when O.J. and publishing exec Judith Regan were behind the book, Goldman was denouncing it, going on Larry King to announce that, "The fact that someone is willing to publish this garbage...is just morally despicable to me. I would hope that no one buys the book."
The Goldman version of the infamous O.J. tome.
Now here the guy is on national TV trying to make an argument for the very same snuff book. Goldman complains that he and his family have not been able to collect on the $21 million awarded to the Goldmans in 1997 as a result of their civil suit against Simpson. So this is their chance. Indeed, the Goldmans will receive 90% of the profits from the book, according to the Oprah show. That's 17 cents on every book sold.
So what if Simpson had been putting out a DVD with footage of Ron's mutilated body? Would Goldman have sued for the rights, repackaged it and sold it to the very same public he asked to reject it? Anyway you slice it, Goldman's one-eighty on all this smacks of betrayal, money-grubbing, and media-whoring. And this lame cliche that it might help victims of domestic violence is total hooey. Goldman told Oprah:
"I hope that one single woman in an abusive relationship reads this book and says, 'God, that could be me. I have to get out and save my own life.' One single woman will be worth it."
Hey, tell it to Denise Brown, sister of the murdered Nicole Brown Simpson. Actually, he couldn't tell it to her because Denise Brown refused to even be seated near Goldman, whom she's been denouncing left and right as a hypocrite. Brown was only slightly muted on the Oprah show compared to print interviews she's given. Still, she came off as an avenging angel, full of righteous fury towards Fred Goldman et famille for pulling this stunt, one she wants no part of. To Oprah, she complained,
"I truly believe that they did wrong, that they did me wrong this time. Everybody stood up and said no to the publication of this book. I stood my ground on that. I still don't think it should be published. I think it is a morally wrong thing to do."
Can't say I care much about the morality of it, I just think Goldman's a hypocrite. I'm sure he'll sell plenty of copies though. And this little Vegas incident O.J.'s alleged to be involved in will likely help sales, along with Goldman's many media appearances. BTW, you missed your chance to score a free copy. It was up on scribd.com, the free Internet library, until about a week or so ago. It's since been taken down "at the request of the copyright holder." That Fred Goldman doesn't miss a beat.
