Amid the fallout and finger-pointing surrounding O.J. Simpson's hypothetical confession "If I Did It," there's one man who knows everything but has said nothing -- ghostwriter and longtime L.A.-based screenwriter Pablo Fenjves.
He was Nicole Brown Simpson's neighbor and a witness at the 1995 murder trial, the man who famously testified that he heard a dog's "plaintive wail" the night of her murder, a key plot point in the prosecution's case. Now he's at the center of the Simpson saga yet again, muzzled by a confidentiality agreement and hounded by the media and movie producers eager to tell his story.
For The Record
Los Angeles Times Tuesday November 28, 2006 Home Edition Main News Part A Page 2 National Desk 1 inches; 42 words Type of Material: Correction
Ghost writing: An article in Saturday's Calendar section about ghost writer Pablo Fenjves and O.J. Simpson reported that Fenjves wrote a book for Richard Pryor's daughter, Rain Pryor. Fenjves was involved in writing the book, but Cathy Crimmins is credited as co-author.
It's a familiar, perhaps even nostalgic, place for Fenjves, a bookish sort who during the Simpson trial couldn't step outside his own apartment without being recognized by tourists or approached by reporters. But in the last 11 years, he drifted back into the periphery of fame, penning books for Bernie Mac; Amber Frey, the ex-girlfriend of convicted murderer Scott Peterson; Richard Pryor's daughter Rain Pryor; and model turned reality show star Janice Dickinson, among others.
Fenjves never confirmed he was Simpson's ghostwriter to the National Enquirer, which five weeks ago named him in the story that broke the news of the ReganBooks/HarperCollins book. In the weeks since, his name has resurfaced in several New York newspapers, including the New York Post, which suggested he and Judith Regan were once romantic. The New York Daily News quoted him as saying only that ghostwriters were "contractually barred" from talking about their projects. And in a New Yorker article that appeared online last week, he was quoted seemingly justifying having taken the job.
"I think you'd be hard pressed to find a reporter in this country who, given the opportunity to sit down and take a confession from O.J. Simpson, no matter how oblique, would have refused to do so," Fenjves told New Yorker writer Jeffrey Toobin.
Fenjves, who as a writer has toiled in anonymity for much of his career, is reaching an almost surreal career high with a work he cannot claim as his own. Though News Corp. canceled the publication Monday -- and a Fox interview that was set to promote it -- several copies popped up on EBay two days later with one bid reaching $1 million. By Friday, however, all copies had been withdrawn from the site.
