Game Over for O.J.
O.J. Simpson once dominated the gridiron, earning a Heisman Trophy in college and rushing into the Hall of Fame as pro. But when it comes to legal, he's just been stuffed at the goal line by Fred Goldman.
Simpson's longtime nemesis has obtained a court order forcing the former footballer to fork over income from a videogame deal. The move comes just a week after the Goldman family scored the rights to Simpson's ill-fated hypothetical tell-all, If I Did It, to help satisfy a $33.5 million judgment against SImpson for the wrongful deaths of Ron Goldman and Nicole Brown Simpson.
A Los Angeles Superior Court judge ruled Tuesday that Goldman is entitled to all money the Hall of Famer was paid by publisher Take-Two Interactive Software to use his name and likeness in the new All-Pro Football 2K8 videogame.
There was no immediate comment from Simpson or his attorney.
Not surprisingly, though, the Goldman camp trumpeted the ruling.
"O.J. Simpson is busy peddling his persona as a murderer for money both in the videogame and the book. No doubt about that," Goldman family attorney David J. Cook told E! Online. "Under the Constitution, we can't stop him. But we can take the money away."
The game publisher, whose hit titles include Grand Theft Auto and Manhunt 2, included a digital version of Simpson on a fictional squad called the Assassins, which features a hooded mascot who makes stabbing gestures in the air with a knife every time the team scores.
No word exactly how much The Naked Gun star made off the venture.
The judge also instructed Simpson to turn over all paperwork, including contracts related to the agreement as well as any other financial deals in the works, to the Goldmans.
Simpson was acquitted in 1995 of murdering his ex-wife and the younger Goldman in 1995. The following year, however, O.J. lost a civil case when a jury held him liable for the deaths and he was ordered to pay the victims' families the huge sum.
Neither the Goldmans nor the Browns have collected very much so far, mainly because Simpson's $4 million NFL pension is protected by law and he now resides in Florida, which bars creditors from confiscating a person's primary home.
But the Goldmans have managed to squeeze a few pyrrhic victories out of the Juice.
Earlier this year, a Los Angeles judge ordered Simpson to turn over all future residuals earned from his past acting jobs and TV and personal appearances.
The Goldmans then sued to obtain sole publishing rights of the scuttled If I Did It, alleging Simpson pocketed a reported $630,000 advance by setting up a shell company to hide the cash. The former running back claimed he spent the entire advance on bills and taxes.Last week, a day after losing the battle over the book, Simpson blasted the Goldmans.
"I find it sort of hypocritical that they talked everybody in America to boycott the book: It was 'immoral,' it was 'blood money,' " he said during an online interview. "But we now see it wasn't 'blood money' if they got the money."
O.J. found an unlikely ally in Nicole Brown Simpson's sister, Denise.
"[Fred Goldman] is a hypocrite,” Brown told the Chicago Tribune in a phone interview after the Browns lost a court ruling over control of the book's rights. “The morally right thing to do is not publish this book. The morally wrong thing to do is to publish the book and then Fred Goldman will be true to his last name—a man out for gold.”
Brown, who has become an advocate for victims of domestic violence since the murders, was incensed about the Goldmans' plans to go forward with publishing the book (Goldman says he will rename it Confessions of a Double Murderer and market it as an actual tell-all). She has since posted a petition on her Website seeking to halt the book sale.
"I can't see straight whenever I think that Fred Goldman would use the American people then turn around and put money in his pocket," she told the Tribune.
But Goldman attorney Cook says the Browns shouldn't be complaining, since they were awarded a stake in the book sale.
"The bankruptcy trustee representing their interests made a deal which was approved in a highly contested hearing by a bankruptcy judge," he told E! Online. "The Brown family ought never to complain because they are the recipients of the Goldmans' significant efforts to market the book.
"They're getting 10 percent of our efforts," the attorney continued. "If the Brown family is so repulsed by this book, they can go right ahead and withdraw that proof of claim."



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