Monday, January 29, 2007

Judith Regan Kind Of Grossed Out Rupert Murdoch

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(image via nymag)

Judith Regan's adolescent -- sociopathic, even --love of the dark side of human affairs (porn, OJ, Los Angeles, The National Enquirer, bumping loins with Bernie Kerik)culminated in her spectacularly disgusting anti-semitic flameout. Frankly, considering Regan's moral trajectory we were betting the over/under on allegations of Satanism and involvement with the Klan ultimately bringing her low.

Word is now that Regan, formerly the most powerful publisher in the world, apparently skeeved out her old boss Rupert Murdoch. And ethically-neutral business-types rarely get skeeved out unless it involves a lack of profitmaking. This says so much about Regan's alarming flirtation the outer limits of The Heart of Darkness. From Vanessa Grigoriades in Nymag:

"If the O.J. book and TV special had worked out, she might have been heralded as a multiplatform genius; she would’ve been positioned perfectly to become a kind of Martha Stewart, the face of her own publishing empire. With Martha, there was a veneer of the traditional feminine homemaker over the steely ambition, but with Judith, everything was on show, and what a show it was. Regan had been known to scream, 'I have the biggest cock in the building' from behind her desk. O.J. was meant to be her coming-out in Los Angeles, her clarion call to the entertainment industry. 'Before the book was even announced, back when it was a secret, Judith was telling people it was the book of her career,' says a friend.

"The O.J. project also promised to give her something else she wanted: a new relationship with News Corp. chairman Rupert Murdoch. Regan had a complicated, often paradoxical relationship with her corporate overlords. Murdoch had always respected Regan’s commercial instincts, yet, as ReganBooks made up an infinitesimal portion of News Corp.’s bottom line, she wasn’t exactly in his inner circle. He wasn’t thrilled when her dalliances with former police commissioner Bernie Kerik made the news, and in fact was a little grossed-out before that when Kerik sent on-duty cops to make midnight visits to Fox employees after Regan complained that someone had stolen her cell phone on a Fox TV set. He sometimes left her off the list of conference invitees, like the one for 250 executives in Pebble Beach, California, last year."

Don't feel bad, Rupert, Mate. Judith Regan kind of grosses all of us out.

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