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Googlefight.com: Stage your own celebrity death matches

Two things you need to know about Googlefight.com, a website my husband discovered a few days ago. First, it is in no way affiliated with or endorsed by Google (NASDAQ: GOOG), although I'm sure free publicity is always appreciated. Secondly, it can quickly become the cause of profound procrastination. The innovative but simple site simply compares two inputs (provided by the user) and ranks them in terms of their respective number of results gleaned from Google's search engine. Each "fight" takes mere seconds, and the time passes quickly as animated stick figures slug it out.

Of course, I had to start with my own name (I probably think this blog is about me). I pit myself against a co-worker who also has a unique name (Mark Fightmaster). Aha! Google FIght found 634,000 results for "Beth Gaston Moon"; 57,200 for Mark (I do have about 6 years of seniority over him at our company, so that was hardly fair). But when compared against Pamela Anderson, I lose, 634,000 to 7.73 million (I have a feeling they round their numbers).

Some other matches I conducted before begrudgingly heading back to work:
  • Hillary Clinton (9.1 million) defeats Barack Obama (2.62 million)
  • Fred Thompson (10.6 million) defeats Rudy Giuliani (2.05 million) - to be fair, this may be pulling for more than one "Fred Thompson."
  • Ben Bernanke (2.62 million) defeats Alan Greenspan (1.96 million)!
  • Steve Jobs (88.5 million) defeats Bill Gates (44.6 million)
  • Howard Stern (2.09 million) defeats Don Imus (1.98 million)
  • 50 Cent (68 million) defeats Kanye West (6.72 million), despite what the numbers say
  • O.J. Simpson (15 million) narrowly defeats "criminal justice system" (14.4 million)
  • Mets (26 million) defeats Yankees (22.9 million)!
The site is hardly scientific, but it's interesting and certainly fun. According to Google Fight, some of its classic battle royales include God v. Satan, Luke Skywalker v. Darth Vadar, and Mohammad Ali v. Mike Tyson. Victors are God by a landslide, Vadar (hooray!), and Ali (again, by a hefty margin). Let the madness begin here.

Beth Gaston Moon is an analyst at Schaeffer's Investment Research.

O.J. Simpson going down like Al Capone?

Here's an interesting possible twist in the O.J. Simpson story-line: After, in the opinion of many observers, getting away with the murder of his ex-wife and her friend, it may finally be Simpson's avarice that allows justice to prevail.

According to media reports, lawyers for the Goldman family are investigating reports that Simpson hid money in offshore bank accounts to prevent the Goldman's from gaining access to his assets with the family's $33.5 million wrongful death suit against the former football player.

In a video released by TMZ.com, Bruce Fromong, one of the two memorabilia collectors Simpson is accused of stealing from, rants in an audiotape recording reportedly made one hour after the incident: "Nobody puts a gun in my face. I stood up for [him] while he was in jail. I stood up for him in the press. I stood up for him... on the stand. I helped him set up his offshore accounts."

Continue reading O.J. Simpson going down like Al Capone?

Judge sets O.J.'s bail at $125,000

Last Friday we learned that O.J. Simpson had been questioned over a break-in at a Las Vegas casino, and today the ex-NFL star had his arraignment hearing today, and was granted bail of $125,000. When we looked at this Friday the details were still fuzzy, but the events of the break-in now point to much more than just a break-in snatch and grab.

In court today O.J. had the following charges handed down to him:
  • Kidnapping
  • Robbery with use of a deadly weapon
  • Burglary while in possession of a deadly weapon
  • Coercion with use of a deadly weapon
  • Assault with a deadly weapon
  • Conspiracy to commit kidnapping
  • Conspiracy to commit robbery
  • Conspiracy to commit a crime
If you ask me, "The Juice" got off pretty easy with only $125,000 in bail considering the amount and severity of the charges. The crime occurred last Thursday and O.J. has been in custody since Sunday. Reports indicate that O.J. was subdued during the hearing, and did not enter a plea on the charges.

Continue reading Judge sets O.J.'s bail at $125,000

O.J. Simpson questioned in hotel break-in; O.J. vigilante for memorabilia justice?

In case you missed it, ex-footballer and tabloid icon O.J. Simpson is making the news again today. Las Vegas police have confirmed they questioned him regarding a casino hotel break-in that occurred last night.

O.J. Simpson was one of the most liked American celebrities once. He was a former Heisman Trophy winner, an ex-NFL star, and an actor (who can forget his Naked Gun performances?), but he fell from grace in dramatic style following the 1994 murder investigation of his ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend Ronald Goldman. While he was eventually found not guilty of the charges in his criminal (and highly televised) case, he will probably never shake off the stigma of the event, and he was later found liable in a wrongful death civic suit.

The current investigation involves a break in that took place at the Palace Station Casino last night. While there are no official details on what, if anything, was taken out of the hotel room, some reports indicate there were sports memorabilia in the room and that one auctioneer had reported that O.J. was simply taking back articles that had been stolen from him.

Continue reading O.J. Simpson questioned in hotel break-in; O.J. vigilante for memorabilia justice?

Take-Two Interactive (TTWO) makes video game with O.J. Simpson

Take-Two Interactive (NASDAQ: TTWO) is a creepy company in a lot of ways: extremely violent video games, scandals over hidden nudity, accounting and options investigations, and constant management turnover.

Now we can add another item to the list. Take-Two's All-Pro Football 2K8 features O.J. Simpson as one of 240 former NFL legends. A judge has ordered Simpson to hand over any money that he makes from the licensing deal to the Goldman family to satisfy the civil judgment they received in a wrongful death suit.

It's obvious that the judge did the right thing, although it seems unlikely that there was that much money involved. Simpson is hopefully not enough of a selling point to draw a huge amount of money for his likeness in a video game.

But why would Take-Two management want as putrid a person as O.J. in a game? Can a game featuring someone who was found liable for 2 deaths really be rated "E for Everyone"?

Take-Two has never had any problem with acting in poor taste, and that trend continues.

eBay removes 'If I Did It' listings, worth $1000s for OJ Simpson's tell-all

if i did itIf I Did It, how much would I be worth? That's the question many buyers on eBay and reporters from the Wall Street Journal are asking today. Many listings of If I Did It, OJ Simpson's supposedly hypothetical retelling of the murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ron Goldman, have already been pulled by eBay, Inc. (NASDAQ:EBAY) at News Corporation (NYSE:NWS)'s HarperCollins unit's request. The bids were reportedly in the thousands before the auctions were ended, although many booksellers interviewed by the WSJ said they would put the price of the book closer to $1000 (although they'd only pay $100, buy low, sell high, anyone?). This auction ended at a whopping $8300.

Some put the book's price between $2000 and $5000, although everyone seemed to agree that such a price wouldn't be sustainable in the long run.

Instead of beating the First Amendment drum, I'll just riff on a capitalist beat: people obviously want to read the darned thing! My objection would likely be more literary snobbishness than righteous horror -- Judith Regan ain't known for her wordcraft. But if people want to read it so badly they'll pay thousands ...

Fox did right by cancelling OJ "If I Did it" project

Finally, Fox did something I can applaud. Today Fox's parent News Corporation (NYSE:NWS) announced that it was canceling the OJ Simpson book If I Did It, and corresponding TV interview. The project was so vile, so immoral, that even the media's most whorish member bowed to universal disgust and kaboshed the thing. So much for its Sweeps week zinger.

"I and senior management agree with the American public that this was an ill-considered project," Rupert Murdoch, News Corp. chairman said in an Associated Press report. "We are sorry for any pain that this has caused the families of Ron Goldman and Nicole Brown Simpson."

Books have been pulled out of contract or off shelves when there are questions of accuracy, but it's almost unprecedented, thanks to the First Amendment, to pull a book solely due to objectionable content. Certainly this may be the first time such a high-profile book has been pulled this close to publication. The only book that springs to mind that spawned such widespread vitriol from publishing circles was Brett Easton Ellis's "American Psycho" in 1991.

It's not surprising that Fox's affiliates, many of whom bear the mantle of Conservatism proudly, would protest loudly. How many of its Christian-family- values" audience want to see this sort of content on the tube? As for bookstores, Borders Group, Inc. (NYSE:BGP) one of the nation's largest, said it would donate any profits resulting from the book to charity.

Absolutists on the First Amendment might disagree with the decision to pull the project from public consumption, preferring to let the marketplace decide for itself, but in today's world, that's going to happen anyway. The book is now officially a collectible. And eBay Inc. (NASDAQ:EBAY) is there to make sure there's a market for it.

Perhaps the ACLU can help Rupert Murdoch

The Australian media baron Rupert Murdoch gave in to public pressure and his News Corporation (NYSE:NWS) book operation, Harper Collins, will not publish the OJ Simpson book If I Did It. A TV special related to the book was to run on Murdoch's network, Fox.

Australia is a former penal colony and perhaps Mr. Murdoch was worried that his US citizenship would be revoked and he would be returned to his island home.

The US has a long history of banning books. Catcher In The Rye was kept out of schools off and on for years. Ulysses by James Joyce, perhaps the greatest novel of the 20th century, was banned by the US Customs Office for fifteen years. The wonderful thing about banning books or blocking their publication is that, once the process begins, it has no clear end.

Mr. Simpson's book is a hypothetical account of what might have happened if he had killed his former wife and one of her friends. How could it be that Mr. Simpson has no First Amendment rights? OJ may be a jabbering horror of a human being, but he retains the right to write and publish as he see fit.

Murdoch may have wanted to appear the apple polisher to the public, but has done his industry a great disservice.

Douglas McIntyre is a partner at 24/7 Wall St.

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Last updated: November 27, 2009: 12:37 AM

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