photo: Michael Yarish/Fox

It's the story that most everyone in publishing circles is still talking about, and with good reason - Judith Regan getting OJ Simpson to sorta, kinda, not really confess to the murders of Nicole Brown & Ronald Goldman on TV and in book format is something that seems to sink to a new low. Publishers Weekly's Sara Nelson certainly thinks so, releasing her Monday column a few days early. She wonders "who else has the combination of nerve, foresight and soullessness it takes to publish a book by O.J. Simpson," and that despite how the book fares, [she] "can't imagine any other publishers envying such a success."

The comments section has proven especially spirited, but perhaps the best comes from agent Peter Riva: "I offered Judith Regan a true autobiography by a very famous woman vilified nationally and over-punished for having an intimate relationship with a minor. Her response, 4 weeks ago, was: Why would I want to publish the words of a criminal? The hypocrisy is stunning."

Bella Stander concurs on the outrage front, which is why she's announced the first annual Skank Awards. The winners vary on a theme of OJ, La Regan and Rupert Murdoch, the mogul who owns Fox and HarperCollins. And if you're looking for background, Hillel Italie is your man, though it's also worth checking out Judith Newman's 2004 Vanity Fair piece, "The Devil and Miss Regan."

But to play, er, devil's advocate here, what Regan is doing has some precedent, albeit not in the United States. 25 years ago, Issei Sagawa literally got away with murder - of the cannibalistic variety - because his rich father got him locked up in a mental institution, thus freeing him of any criminal responsibility for the crime of murdering his classmate, Renee Hartevelt. When Sagawa got out, celebrity ensued and in 1983, Sagawa published an account of killing the woman called IN THE FOG. Since then he has been a regular guest speaker & commentator, written other books, and starred in porn films. But Sagawa's books, at least according to Amazon, aren't stocked in America, so that probably counts for something...