Ghostwruter haunts fringes of O.J. controversies
NEIGHBOR OF SIMPSON'S EX-WIFE WHO TESTIFIED AT '95 TRIAL IS REPUTED TO BE AUTHOR OF CANCELED `IF I DID IT' BOOK
Amid the fallout and finger-pointing surrounding O.J. Simpson's hypothetical confession ``If I Did It,'' there's one man who knows everything but has said nothing -- ghostwriter and longtime Los Angeles-based screenwriter Pablo Fenjves.
He was Nicole Brown Simpson's neighbor and a witness at the 1995 murder trial, the man who famously testified that he heard a dog's ``plaintive wail'' the night of her murder, a key plot point in the prosecution's case. Now he's at the center of the Simpson saga again, muzzled by a confidentiality agreement and hounded by the media and movie producers eager to tell his story.
It's a familiar, perhaps even nostalgic, place for Fenjves, a bookish sort who during the Simpson trial couldn't step outside his own apartment without being recognized by tourists or approached by reporters. But in the last 11 years, he drifted back into the periphery of fame, penning books for Bernie Mac; Amber Frey, the ex-girlfriend of convicted murderer Scott Peterson; Richard Pryor's daughter Rain Pryor; and model- turned-reality-show star Janice Dickinson, among others.
Fenjves never confirmed he was Simpson's ghostwriter to the National Enquirer, which six weeks ago named him in the story that broke the news of the ReganBooks/HarperCollins book. In the weeks since, his name has resurfaced in several New York newspapers, including the New York Post, which suggested he and Judith Regan (publisher of the Simpson book) were once romantic. The New York Daily News quoted him as saying only that ghost writers were ``contractually barred'' from talking about their projects. And in a New Yorker article that appeared online recently, he was quoted seemingly justifying having taken the job.
``I think you'd be hard pressed to find a reporter in this country who, given the opportunity to sit down and take a confession from O.J. Simpson, no matter how oblique, would have refused to do so,'' Fenjves told New Yorker writer Jeffrey Toobin.
Fenjves, who as a writer has toiled in anonymity for much of his career, is reaching an almost surreal career high with a work he cannot claim as his own. Though News Corp. canceled the publication last week -- and a Fox interview that was set to promote it -- several copies popped up on eBay two days later with one bid reaching $1 million. By Friday, however, all copies had been withdrawn from the site.
In another odd twist, Simpson seems to be blaming Fenjves for the fact that the public views ``If I Did It'' as a confession. In a radio interview, Simpson even suggested that the detail in the book about the night of the murders indicates that Fenjves himself could have committed the crimes.
``When I saw what he wrote, I said, `Maybe you did it, because they're saying the chapter contains things only the killer would know,' '' Simpson said on WTPS-AM in Miami. ``I don't know these things.''
So far, Fenjves hasn't taken the bait. He had no comment when reached by phone last week.
``I'm really sorry,'' he said. ``I can't talk to you. I can't even talk to the movie producers who have been calling.''
His comments about Simpson to the New York Times back in 1995 still resonate today. When asked where his sympathies lay, Fenjves responded: ``That's like asking me, `Do I think O.J. did it?' I have an opinion on that, but I don't think it would be wise to express it.''
Although Fenjves' role in the scuttled Simpson book remains mysterious, this much is known: He's an active part of Regan's stable of writers, with three titles at ReganBooks this year, and a player in the netherworld of gossip journalism and ghostwriting.
Mike Walker, a gossip columnist at the Enquirer, remembers him at the tabloid in the 1970s as a young, hardworking reporter with writing talent. Before news of ``If I Did It'' broke, Walker interviewed Fenjves on his KABC-AM radio show. Fenjves told him ghostwriting was the best of all worlds for a writer. It provided steady, lucrative pay and uncomplicated work.
For now, Fenjves remains holed up in his Brentwood home -- the same one he lived in when he was Nicole Brown Simpson's neighbor -- fending off reporters who are awaiting the conclusion to this latest chapter of the Simpson drama. Ironically, when he was interviewed recently on Los Angeles's KABC-AM, Fenjves said that one of the perks of his job was anonymity.
Amid the fallout and finger-pointing surrounding O.J. Simpson's hypothetical confession ``If I Did It,'' there's one man who knows everything but has said nothing -- ghostwriter and longtime Los Angeles-based screenwriter Pablo Fenjves.
He was Nicole Brown Simpson's neighbor and a witness at the 1995 murder trial, the man who famously testified that he heard a dog's ``plaintive wail'' the night of her murder, a key plot point in the prosecution's case. Now he's at the center of the Simpson saga again, muzzled by a confidentiality agreement and hounded by the media and movie producers eager to tell his story.
It's a familiar, perhaps even nostalgic, place for Fenjves, a bookish sort who during the Simpson trial couldn't step outside his own apartment without being recognized by tourists or approached by reporters. But in the last 11 years, he drifted back into the periphery of fame, penning books for Bernie Mac; Amber Frey, the ex-girlfriend of convicted murderer Scott Peterson; Richard Pryor's daughter Rain Pryor; and model- turned-reality-show star Janice Dickinson, among others.
Fenjves never confirmed he was Simpson's ghostwriter to the National Enquirer, which six weeks ago named him in the story that broke the news of the ReganBooks/HarperCollins book. In the weeks since, his name has resurfaced in several New York newspapers, including the New York Post, which suggested he and Judith Regan (publisher of the Simpson book) were once romantic. The New York Daily News quoted him as saying only that ghost writers were ``contractually barred'' from talking about their projects. And in a New Yorker article that appeared online recently, he was quoted seemingly justifying having taken the job.
``I think you'd be hard pressed to find a reporter in this country who, given the opportunity to sit down and take a confession from O.J. Simpson, no matter how oblique, would have refused to do so,'' Fenjves told New Yorker writer Jeffrey Toobin.
Fenjves, who as a writer has toiled in anonymity for much of his career, is reaching an almost surreal career high with a work he cannot claim as his own. Though News Corp. canceled the publication last week -- and a Fox interview that was set to promote it -- several copies popped up on eBay two days later with one bid reaching $1 million. By Friday, however, all copies had been withdrawn from the site.
In another odd twist, Simpson seems to be blaming Fenjves for the fact that the public views ``If I Did It'' as a confession. In a radio interview, Simpson even suggested that the detail in the book about the night of the murders indicates that Fenjves himself could have committed the crimes.
``When I saw what he wrote, I said, `Maybe you did it, because they're saying the chapter contains things only the killer would know,' '' Simpson said on WTPS-AM in Miami. ``I don't know these things.''
So far, Fenjves hasn't taken the bait. He had no comment when reached by phone last week.
``I'm really sorry,'' he said. ``I can't talk to you. I can't even talk to the movie producers who have been calling.''
His comments about Simpson to the New York Times back in 1995 still resonate today. When asked where his sympathies lay, Fenjves responded: ``That's like asking me, `Do I think O.J. did it?' I have an opinion on that, but I don't think it would be wise to express it.''
Although Fenjves' role in the scuttled Simpson book remains mysterious, this much is known: He's an active part of Regan's stable of writers, with three titles at ReganBooks this year, and a player in the netherworld of gossip journalism and ghostwriting.
Mike Walker, a gossip columnist at the Enquirer, remembers him at the tabloid in the 1970s as a young, hardworking reporter with writing talent. Before news of ``If I Did It'' broke, Walker interviewed Fenjves on his KABC-AM radio show. Fenjves told him ghostwriting was the best of all worlds for a writer. It provided steady, lucrative pay and uncomplicated work.
For now, Fenjves remains holed up in his Brentwood home -- the same one he lived in when he was Nicole Brown Simpson's neighbor -- fending off reporters who are awaiting the conclusion to this latest chapter of the Simpson drama. Ironically, when he was interviewed recently on Los Angeles's KABC-AM, Fenjves said that one of the perks of his job was anonymity.
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