Brown: We were offered hush money
NEW YORK, Nov. 21 (UPI) -- O.J. Simpson's former sister-in-law said the families of Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend, who were killed in California in 1994, were offered hush money.
In an interview on NBC's "Today Show," Denise Brown said the families were contacted and offered "millions of dollars, like 'I'm sorry' money" from the proceeds of a book and television special of Simpson's account of how he might have killed his ex-wife and her friend, Ronald Goldman.
News Corp., which owns both Fox and book publisher Harper Collins, decided Monday to can the project, titled, "If I Did It, Here's How It Happened." The book, viewed by some as a confession, had been scheduled for publication Nov. 30.
Brown said attorneys for the Brown and Goldman families received phone calls offering them money to drop their claims to $33.5 million awarded in a civil suit against the former NFL football great and actor.
"They're trying to keep us quiet," Brown said, adding the families rejected the offer. "We're not going away."
She said efforts are under way to determine how a reported $3.5 million advance was funneled to a corporation, which controls that corporation and what happened to the money. Publisher Judith Regan, who was shepherding the project, said no money was paid directly to Simpson.
"These people need to be held accountable," Brown said.
Simpson was acquitted in 1995 of the deaths of his ex-wife and Goldman in the courtyard of Nicole Simpson's condominium. The families later sued him in civil court for money to support his and Nicole's children, Justin and Sydney, now 21 and 18.
Britney Spears and K-fed have no sex tape
LOS ANGELES, Nov. 21 (UPI) -- Pop star Britney Spears and rapper Kevin Federline will be seen together in public one more time to tell the world that they never made a sex tape.
Reps from the divorcing couple have said that both Spears and Federline want to put an end to rumors that K-Fed is out trying to sell a sex tape of the pair, TMZ.com reported Tuesday.
The couple has agreed to release a joint statement, hoping to put an end to all of the rumors such a tape exists.
TMZ reported the statement will come out shortly.
Keith Carradine married in Italy
LOS ANGELES, Nov. 21 (UPI) -- Actor Keith Carradine's rep has confirmed Carradine and longtime girlfriend, actress Hayley DuMond, were married in Italy.
The pair married during the weekend in Torino by Mayor Sergio Chiamarino in a "quiet elopement, not a big, formal church wedding," the rep said.
Carradine, 57, and DuMond, 32, co-starred in the 1999 Burt Reynolds movie, "The Hunter's Moon," People magazine reported.
Carradine, whose brother David starred in "Kill Bill: Vol. 1 & 2," played Wild Bill Hickok on HBO's Deadwood. He also recently hosted The History Channel's "Wild West Tech."
Carradine has two grown children from his previous wife, Sandra Will. He is also actress Martha Plimpton's father.
DuMond recently finished filming for the film "All In."
Director Robert Altman dead at 81
LOS ANGELES, Nov. 21 (UPI) -- Movie director Robert Altman has died at a Los Angeles hospital at the age of 81.
Altman's massive body of work ranged from "M*A*S*H" to "Gosford Park" and he was nominated for seven Academy Awards -- five in the Best Director category -- but never won until accepting a Lifetime Achievement Oscar this year.
In his acceptance speech for the award he revealed to the world that he had had a heart transplant some 10 years earlier from a woman several decades younger.
"I didn't make a big secret out of it, but I thought nobody would hire me again. You know, there's such a stigma about heart transplants, and there's a lot of us out there," he said at the time.
His production company -- Sandcastle 5 Productions Company -- confirmed that Altman died Monday night. The cause of death has not been made public.
Altman directed 86 films and wrote the scripts for 37 of them.
