Okay, look, I really don't give a fuck about OJ Simpson, but does anyone else think this is bizarre? Plans to stock Simpson's hypothetical "confession," If I Did It, were scrapped for being in bad taste, after a huge public outcry; the rights to the book were awarded to the family of victim Ron Goldman, since Simpson owes them money from the civil suit that stemmed from the murders; and now pre-orders for the book - to be published in the, I guess you could say, "Goldman edition," with special notes and so forth from the victim's family - are skyrocketing. I mean, it's a viciously appropriate move, and don't get me wrong, there's certainly a concept of justice at work here - a very dark, public, and sensational form of justice - but, uh, on some level, if it's in atrocious bad taste to read OJ's hypothetical confession when he publishes it, is it somehow now in good taste to read it when it's been taken from him? I'll leave aside the motivations of the Goldman family, whose name appears as the author on Amazon - but what's inside the mind of the people who are preordering it in droves? Whose blood are they hungry for? (At this point, it's not even clear whose blood is on the pages - is it STILL profiteering from Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman's death, or is it now Simpson's blood being spilled?). I sorta don't blame Barnes and Noble for deciding not to stock the book, no matter who is publishing the fucking thing.
Speaking of media circuses, anyone who likes devastating critiques of the same, and who has not yet seen Billy Wilder's Ace in the Hole, should go to the Cinematheque tonight. A great film - darkly funny and very accurate, starring Kirk Douglas as a cynical but energetic reporter covering - and manipulating the coverage of - an artefact-hound trapped in a cave collapse.
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