Keith Olbermann rounds up tabloid and entertainment news every night on “Keeping Tabs.” On Tuesday, Nov. 28 he said this:
Newsweek is reporting that before the Fox network agreed to air an interview publicizing the Simpson confession type book "If I Did It," ABC and Barbara Walters were on board to do their own Simpson interview.
The book’s publishers, owned by News Corp, had pitched the interview to ABC News. It declined and then an ABC Entertainment arm asked Walters to interview Simpson. Newsweek cites ABC insiders, who say a deal was struck, but after 10 days, Walters decided the interview was not right for her. That meant ABC had to pay News Corp the unfortunately named kill fee of as much as a million dollars for making a good faith agreement on a project only to ultimately reject the project. So Rupert Murdoch profited anyway.
Will Michael Richards also wind up paying anyway? According to the TV entertainment report "The Insider,” the owners of the Laugh Factory want the ill-fated comic to donate $1 million to charity for every time he uttered the N-word on stage 11 days ago here in L.A. That’s six million, the owners of the club say, the former Seinfeld star would need to pony up.
No word if Richards would acquiesce.