Payback time for freed OJ
FREED OJ Simpson will start paying off the record damages awarded against him by selling the story of his life behind bars, writes MIKE PARKER.
The shamed sports star and Hollywood actor is in negotiations with “several” networks and cable giants over the rights to both a documentary and a drama based on the past decade, friends have revealed.
Simpson, 70, last weekend walked free from remote Lovelock Prison in the Nevada Desert. He had served nine years of a
33-year sentence for armed robbery and kidnapping.
Legally, he will have to hand over any TV or other income to the families of ex-wife Nicole Brown and her friend Ron Goldman after a civil jury found him responsible for their unlawful deaths and awarded
£25.6million in damages against him.
Simpson had been sensationally acquitted of murdering Nicole and Ron in America’s so-called Trial of the Century 18 months earlier in 1995.
He has paid “barely a penny” to the families and plans to live in Florida, where his assets and NFL pension are protected by state law. A source said: “He knows he will never, clear that debt but aims to at least make a dent in it.”
THE BBC has hired a new hawk to scare away pesky pigeons.
Telly weatherman Tomasz Schafernaker showed off the bird, called Bran, on Twitter.
He posted a snap, adding: “This is Bran… he swoops about #BBC #BroadcastingHouse a few times a month in an effort to control pigeon activity.”