There’s no question that the $100 million defamation lawsuit filed Tuesday by former books publisher Judith Regan has news value.
But the 70-page complaint also has literary value, as well.
Though it’s slowed down in places with legal terms, it’s still a Judith Regan-style page-turner, complete with scenes of betrayal, confrontation and deception.
And talk about ripped from the headlines, it has a powerhouse cast of characters including Rudy Giuliani, Bernard Kerik, Rupert Murdoch and O.J. Simpson.
The lawsuit also has a rags-to-riches heroine, a woman who just won’t be pushed around.
“Regan is a self-made, hard-working, dedicated single mother who supported herself from the age of 14, worked her way through school, and built (against all odds) one of the most successful, diverse, provocative and colorful publishing imprints in history,” write Regan’s lawyers, Brian C. Kerr and Seth Redniss.
That publishing imprint, ReganBooks, had its home at HarperCollins, a division of News Corp.
However, after a series of flaps, including the controversy over a proposed memoir by O.J. Simpson, If I Did It, Harper Collins terminated Regan, 54, last December.
Regan is suing HarperCollins and its CEO, Jane Friedman. And Regan’s suing HarperCollins owner News Corp., a company headed by Rupert Murdoch, the media baron.
The New York Times today said that a spokeswoman for News Corp. said “the company saw no merit” in Regan’s suit.
Regan alleges that she was improperly fired, and that she was defamed by officials of HarperCollins and News Corp.
She also alleges that she was the target of a News Corp. effort to silence her from revealing information about Bernard Kerik, the former New York City police commissioner and her former lover.
Kerik is an associate of presidential hopeful Rudy Giuliani, a News Corp. favorite. The company owns Fox News, and Roger Ailes, chairman and CEO of Fox News, is a Giuliani friend and former consulant.
Regan alleges that company officials believed her information about Kerik would hurt Giuliani.
Like any good book, Regan’s lawsuit has what amount to be chapters, some of which have catchy titles. Ex: “The OJ Simpson Confession,” “The OJ Simpson Backlash.”
And no Judith Regan book would miss a chance to name drop. Consequently, the lawsuit drops names like autumn leaves.
Well-over 100 of Regan’s authors are listed, in a non-alphabetical order that stresses her willingness to work with all types.
Robert Bork, the conservative justice and lawyer, is preceded by the rapper Eminem and followed by the heavy metal band Motley Crue. Michael Moore is followed by Sean Hannity and Howard Stern.
But bestsellers don’t make it on names alone. Readers want details.
To be sure, some are missing. The Regan suit is far too discreet about her affair with Kerik, the brief nominee to be head of the Department of Homeland Security.
A longtime Giuliani ally, Kerik was indicted last week on federal tax and corruption charges.
But the suit does suggest that an unnamed News Corp. executive told Regan not to give the government “damaging information” that she possessed about Kerik.
The lawsuit goes into more detail about the Simpson book, the former football star’s “hypothetical” account of his killing of his wife, Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend, Ronald Goldman.
The suit alleges that when word got out about the forthcoming book and controversy ensued, Murdoch pulled the plug on the book.
Then, News Corp, through Fox News and other outlets, used the controversy to smear Regan, the suit alleges.
Futhermore, the suit alleges that Regan never made anti-Semitic slurs, as the company alleged, before her December 2006 firing.
The suit was filed a few days after a New York Daily News gossip item in which Regan said, “I want my life to get smaller, not bigger.”
Maybe so, but Judith Regan the publisher knows a best seller when she sees it.
Hence, her lawsuit. Hence an upcoming story in the December Harpers Bazaar.
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