Murdoch Offered $$$ in OJ Hush Money

WWW- The O.J. Simpson book fiasco took another shocking turn yesterday when his former sister-in-law claimed that Rupert Murdoch's deputies offered her family "millions of dollars" in "hush money."

Denise Brown concluded the money was intended to buy her family's silence on Simpson's print and TV deal with Murdoch's News Corp. in which Simpson was to expound on how he would have committed the 1994 slayings of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ron Goldman.

But the offer made to the Brown and Goldman families over the weekend - after criticism erupted over the book and TV deal - amounted to a hollow promise because it was contingent on the book and TV special turning a profit.

With advertisers balking at backing the TV show, stores threatening to keep the book off shelves and millions of dollars in expenses, any profits would have been iffy at best.

Simpson, much to the fury of the Browns and Goldmans, may get the last word on his scandalous tome titled "If I Did It." His attorney Yale Galanter told The News that Simpson is planning to break his silence and do "a couple of major interviews" to react to the book debacle.

Both the Brown and Goldman families turned down the money offer made by senior News Corp. executives, and on Monday, Murdoch pulled the plug on the entire project calling it "ill-considered."

"They wanted to offer us millions of dollars. Millions of dollars for, like, 'Oh, I'm sorry' money. But they were still going to air the show," Brown, 50, told NBC's "Today."

"We just thought, 'Oh my God.' What they're trying to do is trying to keep us quiet, trying to make this like hush money, trying to go around the civil verdict, giving us this money to keep our mouths shut."

But News Corp. spokesman Andrew Butcher denied the offer was hush money.

"There were no strings attached," Butcher said.

He explained the offer was for the families to split the profits from the book and TV deal once the company recouped its initial outlay. Reports said ReganBooks, an offshoot of Murdoch's HarperCollins publishing house, paid as much as $3.5 million for the deal.

Ron Goldman's sister, Kim, confirmed her family was contacted by News Corp. executives over the weekend and offered profits from the Simpson deal.

"Our first reaction was we want you to pull it and that's the most important thing," Kim Goldman told the Daily News yesterday. But she said, "It was not in exchange for anything from our family whatsoever."

Last night, the Goldmans' attorney, Jonathan Polak, sent a letter to News Corp. Senior Executive Vice President Lawrence Jacobs demanding all copies of the book and taped interviews with Simpson be destroyed.

"It is vitally important that in order to honor the wishes of the victims' family members, News Corp. must do everything in its power to make sure that the book and interview never see the light of day," Polak said.

Polak also demanded that the Goldman family be assigned "all rights News Corp. or its affiliates has in the book and the interview."

Butcher said News Corp. will try to accommodate the request.

"We'll destroy everything we have in terms of books printed and tapes made of the interview," Butcher said. "We'll do all we can to make sure they're not made public."

The families also were still fuming over News Corp.'s financial deal with Simpson, made with a mysterious third party, that allowed him to be paid and avoid paying down a $33.5 million civil court judgment for the murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ron Goldman.

"He brokered a deal again to evade the judgment. You can't get around that," Kim Goldman told The News. "I don't care who it went to, it was an absolute effort to evade the judgment."

Galanter, Simpson's lawyer, insisted that Simpson's children, Justin and Sidney, directly received the entire advance from the News Corp. deal.