In a development that wasn't hard to see coming, HarperCollins is disbanding the imprint started by ousted publisher Judith Regan. The News Corp.-owned book company announced this afternoon that Regan Books will be temporarily renamed "HC" before being dismantled and integrated into its parent company later this year, reports AP.

Regan herself was fired in December following the pulping of If I Did It, a "novel" by O.J. Simpson hypothetically describing the murders of his ex-wife, Nicole Brown, and her friend, Ron Goldman. She quickly promised to get back at News Corp., which let her go amid accusations of anti-Semitism, with a wrongful termination suit. That has yet to materialize, but today Court TV's website revealed that Regan Books had contracted to pay Simpson at least $1 million, despite promises that he would not personally profit from the deal.

Regan was again in self-justification mode on her Sirius Satellite Radio show this morning, claiming that Newsweek's article paraphrasing a chapter of Simpson's book (almost all copies of which have been destroyed) proved her noble intentions. "The defamation has been so intense," she told her guest, self-help author Sheenah Hankin.

When Regan's producer, Howie Green, slipped up and said the chapter recounted "how [Simpson] would have committed the crime," Regan snapped at him.

"No, it was how he committed the crime. Even today the mistakes the media made have been repeated by you, my producer, because it is so inundated, so insidious."

Hankin did a better job of placating her host, lamenting "this horrible thing that happened to Judith with that O.J. thing. It was a weird, crazy backlash. Is this world going to get moral now?"

Later, Hankin added, "The truth is it didn't take them very long to come around and vindicate you. It just made no sense. The story held no water."

PREVIOUSLY
• Judith Regan: Standard-Bearer
• The Firing of Judith Regan: A Look Back
• Regan Rant Pulled from Sirius Show
• Regan Trashes O'Reilly and the Post on Sirius
• Judith Regan's Fortress of Solitude

Photo: Patrick McMullan