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Wow, while we were taking an unexpected week off (the laptop headed off to the hospital for a hard drive-ectomy; while he was there, he got a keyboard lift, some work done to his memory, and what appears to be a motherboard tuck), the unexpected happened. Judith Regan, she being the one who promised to bring culture to our fine city of Los Angeles, got herself fired.

As in they’re using the word “fired” — clearly, someone didn’t get the memo that the proper way to describe this event is “pursuing other projects” or “spending more time with her family” or “thought it was a good time to move on”. All of these mean fired without the out-and-out violence of the word. It is unclear if Regan has been removed wholesale from the entire News Corp. family or just the HarperCollins branch. As she’s made it increasingly clear that she really wants to direct, it’s possible that her work on the motion picture side of the business will continue unabated. She’s certainly shown a flair reality programming.

Needless to say, Regan demise was the result of the O.J. Simpson book (finally, someone was brought to justice!). The so-called fictional work of how a sensational murder might have been committed by the man who was accused of committing said murder was widely regarded as being both in poor taste and poor judgment. While the publisher likely thought it had a huge hit on its hands, so much so that it sold the book “blind” to buyers, blind meaning would-be purchasers only knew they’d be getting something hot. The whole idea is to get big sales numbers while ensuring that no juicy leaks occur before street dates.

Probably it should go without saying, but given the fact that these blind sales tend to backfire, retailers are going to be understandably wary about committing resources to something that will turn-off customers. Like embargoes, blind sales are becoming increasingly quaint and silly in the modern world.

Do not worry about Judith Regan. She lives in a town where you’re nobody until you’ve been fired at least once. And she probably has a really nice clause in her agreement that ensures her financial comfort for a long time to come. Do, dear readers, worry about her poor, hapless staff who have relocated from very expensive New York to the very expensive Los Angeles area. Since they found about their boss’s firing at about 4:00 on Friday afternoon, one can only imagine that the traditional rigors of Christmas shopping will be mixed with a stronger-than-necessary dose of worry.

• Would-Be O.J. Publisher Fired
• The Simpson Book Was a Mystery Order, Dealers Say (Abstract of article; you get to pay if you want it all)

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