Auction of rights to O.J. Simpson book cancelled

A court-ordered auction of the rights to O.J. Simpson's halted book-TV project If I Did It, Here's How It Happened has been cancelled.

The auction, originally scheduled for Tuesday in California, was scrapped because the former football star's company filed for bankruptcy in Florida late last week, according to a lawyer representing the family of Ron Goldman, who was killed alongside Simpson's ex-wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, in 1994.

Simpson was acquitted of murder charges in the case in 1995. However, he subsequently lost a wrongful death civil suit brought by the Goldman family and was ordered to pay damages of $33.5 million US — little of which the family has recovered over the past decade.

Surrogate company struck book-TV deal

In 2006, a company Simpson established called Lorraine Brooke Associates struck a deal with HarperCollins and its parent company News Corp. for the book and TV interview project, billed as a hypothetical account of how Simpson could have murdered his ex-wife and Goldman.

However, news of the planned book and companion TV interview drew public outrage in the fall, with News Corp. ultimately scrapping the project.

Other companies, including a Canadian publisher, are reportedly interested in releasing the book.

In March, California Superior Court Judge Gerald Rosenberg ordered the book rights to be auctioned with proceeds and any subsequent profits turned over to Goldman's family. He also ruled that the rights of Lorraine Brooke Associates be included in the auction.

Last week, the estate of Nicole Brown Simpson entered into the fray, saying that the book should never be published, but that it should receive half of any money raised if the book rights are auctioned.