Bid to Ban Simpson Miniseries Rejected

A Los Angeles Superior Court judge Tuesday rejected O.J. Simpson’s request for a temporary restraining order to halt filming of a television miniseries based on an unauthorized book on the Simpson murder trial.

Simpson contended that he would be irreparably harmed by the series based on “American Tragedy,” by Lawrence Schiller. The film is scheduled to air on CBS in November, with Schiller directing a script by Norman Mailer.

Simpson also alleged that the miniseries was based substantially on information illicitly obtained by Robert G. Kardashian, one of his attorneys, and Schiller, who had won the former football star’s confidence by assisting him on another book that financed Simpson’s defense.

“This action is about the avaricious disregard of the attorney-client relationship, and of promises of confidentiality, by an attorney and a writer,” according to the complaint filed by San Francisco attorney Terry Gross.

Schiller and Kardashian filed sworn declarations saying that they had done nothing wrong.

Judge David P. Yaffe said Gross, a San Francisco attorney who specializes in intellectual property issues, had not made a strong enough case to win a restraining order.

However, he set a Sept. 6 hearing on Simpson’s request for a preliminary injunction that would bar Schiller, who is serving as director and producer, from further participation in the project--in effect bringing the venture to an end.

The judge also said he would review the script under seal.

Gross submitted sworn declarations from eight attorneys on the Simpson defense team--including Barry Scheck, F. Lee Bailey and Alan Dershowitz--all stating that they agreed to be interviewed by Schiller only after receiving assurances that no confidential or privileged information would be printed unless Simpson approved.

Simpson’s sworn declaration states that Schiller promised to permit him to approve the manuscript but that the writer reneged on the agreement.

Schiller, in a sworn declaration, denied that he had broken any promises not to divulge confidential information. “I never agreed that I would publish the book or produce a motion picture based on the book only if Mr. Simpson or his attorneys approved of the content.”

Kardashian said that he “did not represent to anyone that any privileged or confidential information would be deleted from any manuscript in the absence of specific waivers by Mr. Simpson or his representatives.”

Schiller’s lead lawyer, Gary Bostwick of Los Angeles, said that Simpson had lost the opportunity to stop the book-based movie. Bostwick noted that in 1996, just before Schiller’s book was published, New York attorney Peter Neufeld, a member of Simpson’s defense team, had threatened to sue Random House if the book was released. However, no suit was filed.

Bostwick said that waiting until filming for the miniseries is well underway “makes it abundantly clear that Simpson has not suffered and will not suffer irreparable harm.”

“The information contained in the miniseries has already been widely disseminated to the public by the publication of the [Schiller] book in 1996 and its release in paperback in 1997,” Bostwick added.

In addition, Bostwick, a noted 1st Amendment lawyer, said that Simpson was seeking an unconstitutional prior restraint of free speech. If the order were granted, it would kill the show and lead to an $11.8-million loss for the network.

The miniseries, paralleling the book, is to be a close-up look at the so-called dream team that in October 1995 won an acquittal for Simpson on charges that he murdered his ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend Ronald L. Goldman in June 1994.

There is no appearance by a Simpson character in the series, according to publicists, but a number of well-known actors are in the show, including Ving Rhames, playing Simpson’s lead lawyer, Johnnie L. Cochran Jr., and Christopher Plummer, portraying Bailey in the four-hour miniseries.

In February 1997, a few months after Schiller’s book was published, a civil jury in Santa Monica ordered Simpson to pay $33.5 million in damages after finding him responsible for the deaths. The vast majority of that judgment remains uncollected.