Hey, Hey, Hey, Goodbye

It wasn't so bad as all that, after all. There's been worse trash foisted on the reading public, hasn't there been? But to dump Judith Regan for some tasteless garbage? Sure and there's a bit more to the story than anyone will confess, I'd say.

Just like that, HarperCollins' own Jane Friedman announced that Judith Regan was terminated, effective immediately. The publishing program that she headed will carry on, however, due no doubt to their innocence in the entire fiasco. If I Did It brought Ms. Regan a step too far down the road to the dumpster of publishing. Garbage is one thing, but when the garbage reeks, well, it's time to dispose of it properly.

Not that Judith was responsible for anything high end to begin with. She was the one who brought out the celebrity books, the ghost-written bits of nothing that sold well enough. As the head of her own imprint at HarperCollins, she kept doing what she did best, churning out nonsense with relatively infamous names plastered on the front cover. Who could forget that stellar piece of literary excellence, How To Make Love Like A Porn Star. Can't get enough of the do it yourself books, especially at holiday gift-giving time.

Okay, so there was some funny business with her and the New York City Police Commissioner around the time of the 9/11 tragedy, but then she moved to LA to concentrate on her main area of expertise. If she was not getting along with Jane Friedman, they had an entire country between them to act as a buffer. Besides, Ms. Regan was into the tabloid trash that was the stock in trade of owner Rupert Murdoch, so what's not to like?

The O.J. book was ready to ship, printed and boxed and labelled. O.J. or his selected underling had cash in hand, payment for his time and efforts. The ghostwriter had been paid. And then it all went off to the pulp factory.

You can get away with a lot of nonsense if you add handsomely to the corporate bottom line. Lose money, lose a great deal of money, and you cause pain to the CEO and the Board of Directors and the stockholders. When they are hurting, they go after heads, lopping off the one that created their headache.

In the end, the Regan dismissal is a clear indication that Rupert Murdoch lost a great, great deal of money on the whole O.J. mess, and Ms. Regan has paid the corporate price. She'll write a book about the entire ordeal, and she'll receive a huge advance. Not from HarperCollins, however. They've already paid.