O.J. Simpson invites questions in online chat
Starstruck fans, angry detractors and inquisitive neighbors will squeeze The Juice for answers today, when the fallen football legend responds to screened questions in a live Webcast.
Viewers willing to pay $9.95 can reserve space at Askoj.com, a new Web site produced by a company with ties to the online adult-entertainment industry. The site will host the fallen football legend for about two hours starting at 3 p.m. PT.
Simpson, who was acquitted of the 1994 slayings of his ex-wife and her friend, plans to answer questions about his golf score and upcoming move from Southern California to Miami.
He will also discuss the murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman, but people who are working on the Webcast say Simpson will not likely go into much detail on the events surrounding the gruesome slayings.
Entertainment Network, the company that developed Askoj and has produced other live Webcasts, says it will give a $100,000 reward for information that leads to the arrest and conviction of the killer or killers.
Tampa, Fla.-based Entertainment Network specializes in broadcasting video footage on the Web. The company operates sites such as Voyeurdorm.com, which features college-age women, ostensibly roommates, who pose for 55 cameras throughout their home.
The company also produces adult sites Dudedorm.com and Spanish-language site Voyeurcasa.com, said spokesman Brian Barry.
Barry emphasized that Entertainment Network is an expert in live-cam Web technology.
"They don't see any problems with the technology on the (Simpson) broadcast," Barry said. "Voyeurdorm and Dudedorm have, like, 55 cameras and operate 24-7."
Simpson, who was held liable for the murders in a civil trial, has said that he decided to talk to the public about the murders after controversy in early June over a polygraph test he allegedly took after his ex-wife's death. He feels the need to talk to "the public" to present his side of the case, he said today in TV interviews.
Laura Shamas, a professor of cultural mythology at Pepperdine University and the University of California, said the Webcast is Simpon's effort to return to the good graces of the American public. The 1968 Heisman Trophy winner and the first player ever to rush over 2000 yards in a single season was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1985, but he was widely maligned after the mysterious deaths of his ex-wife and her friend.
"He's suffering from a fallen-hero complex," said Shamas, creator of Headline Muse, a free online journal that analyzes current events through mythology. "Clearly the collective consensus on him is that he's a fallen hero, and now he's trying to use every means possible to fight back and become a hero again."
But talking to the public won't necessarily clear Simpson's name, Shamas said, regardless of whether it makes more people aware of Simpson's revived media presence.
"The difference between a hero and a celebrity is that a hero serves other people; a celebrity is very self-interested," Shamas said. "In order to be considered a hero, like Hercules in Greek myth, you have to be doing things that benefit the greater good. I'm not sure many people would consider this for the greater good."
If numerous anti-Simpson Web sites are any indication, the NFL's leading rusher in 1972 has a difficult challenge in regaining his revered status among inner-city children, football fans and others.
"O.J. Simpson is a dog," said one posting created by a woman who works at the Nicole Brown Simpson Charitable Foundation. "How can you even say his name or give him the time of day?"