By Lisa de Moraes
Friday, August 24, 2007

The raging debate among O.J. Simpson and the families of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ron Goldman as to whether O.J.'s book "If I Did It" should be published has finally turned out a winner.

Oprah.

Denise Brown, sister of O.J.'s dead ex, Nicole, and Fred and Kim Goldman, father and sister of Nicole's dead pal, Ron, agreed to confront each other about the publication on the Sept. 13 edition of the talk show hosted by the queen of book sales.

Denise Brown wants a boycott of the book in which Simpson details how he would have murdered his ex-wife and her friend on the night of June 12, 1994 -- if he'd done it. She has expressed shock and horror that the Goldman family reached a deal for "If I Did It," to be published by New York-based Beaufort Books.

Simpson was acquitted of the murders, but a civil court jury in 1997 found him liable for the deaths and ordered him to pay $33.5 million in damages to the Brown and Goldman families. In March, an L.A. Superior Court judge ruled the rights to the book must be put up for auction and all proceeds paid to Fred Goldman, who is still looking to collect on that $33.5 million judgment against the football star turned actor/sports commentator.

Before being awarded rights to the book, back when O.J. himself stood to see some coin off its sales, Goldman stood side by side with Denise Brown in being outraged at its publication.

It all started back in November when HarperCollins imprint ReganBooks announced it would publish "If I Did It" and ReganBooks chief Judith Regan would interview O.J. about the book in a TV special to be aired by the Fox broadcast network, which, like HarperCollins, is owned by Rupert Murdoch's News Corp.

The Brown and Goldman families protested; also expressing unhappiness were some Fox TV stations, advertisers and booksellers. Just days later, Murdoch himself announced he'd pulled the book and the TV special, calling it "an ill-considered project." One month later, Regan was fired.

Now, months later, Goldman, Beaufort Books -- and Oprah -- have taken over.

Oprah will weigh in on the book for the first time on what's sure to be a highly rated episode of her syndicated talk show -- and just three days into its new season. Everyone will be waiting to see whether she gives the concept thumbs up or down, because you know what can happen to a book when it gets Oprah's imprimatur. Ka-ching!

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After just one episode, Fox has yanked "Anchorwoman," its reality TV series in which it posed the question, "Is a ratings-starved local TV newscast better served by putting a beauty pageant winner-cum-World Wrestling Entertainment diva in the anchor chair rather than the traditional beauty pageant winner-cum-communications major?"

Sadly, it turns out there are only about 2.7 million serious students of local television newscasting in this country. Though every one of them turned out to watch the debut of "Anchorwoman," starring Lauren Jones as "herself," that wasn't enough to compete with the 4.6 million serious students of "According to Jim" reruns, the 8.7 million serious students of "The Power of 10," the 6.5 million serious students of "Most Outrageous Moments" repeats and the 2.1 million serious students of "America's Next Top Model" reruns who flocked to the same time slot.

But what really sank poor Lauren Jones was the realization by Fox suits that young viewers, particularly young male ones, are so averse to watching news they won't even watch a newscast anchored by a woman who looks like a cheaper Anna Nicole.

Fox says remaining episodes of "Anchorwoman" will be streamed on its Web site.

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Just when you thought it was safe to come out from hiding:

Disney Channel has scheduled a dance-along telecast of "High School Musical 2" early next month.

Zac Efron and those other people will host a special telecast of the TV flick and teach viewers some of their dance moves. Already your family members may be on the Disney Channel Web site, downloading instructions to prepare for the Sept. 8 telecast.

"Our viewers made dance moves from the first movie iconic, and we're pleased to once again provide them with an opportunity to learn the new dance moves from HSM2," Disney Channel Worldwide senior VP Scott Garner said ominously in yesterday's announcement.