Look-alike Asians are now just messing with us

One of the main figures in the new OJ affair is Tom Riccio, a memorabilia dealer with a long rap sheet. Riccio secretly audio taped OJ as Riccio helped and encouraged the Juice to hatch a plan to retrieve the collectibles OJ believed were still his to hide from the Goldman family. Riccio also had the tape recorder on when OJ busted into a Vegas hotel room like he had seen one too many episodes of Cops.

Riccio then sold portions of the audio tapes to the website TMZ.com -- which was conveniently launching its broadcast television version the week of OJ redux. This has lead some people to question the relationship of Riccio, who had also been a bit player in the Ann Nicole Smith story, and TMZ.

Even if he didn't have an explicit deal with TMZ to get the goods on OJ trying to get the goods -- and I seriously doubt he did -- Riccio, or any morally flexible celebrity hanger-on, knows that keeping a recording device running while nudging a notorious tabloid-worthy figure towards a making a poor decision has the potential to add up to many dollars as long as there are TMZs out there to pay.

While this might sound like entrapment, it's not. Entrapment is a legal term which only applies to law enforcement. But it is still quite sleazy.

But don't worry, TMZ got their's yesterday when it reported OJ part one judge Lance Ito was spotted in the crowd outside the Clark County Detention Center just as OJ part two was released on bail. The website even ran a video of an interview (now unavailable) it did with Ito. In the interview Ito gleefully declared OJ "guilty as sin."

Only it wasn't Lance Ito they interviewed. It was someone named Jeff Lee. Lee had the gall, as a middle-aged Asian man with a beard, to stand in close proximity to the OJ circus and then deviously play along when a TMZ cameraman couldn't help but identify him as Lance Ito.

Again, it's not entrapment -- but it is quite sleazy.

Idle threat of the week

Say what you will about OJ Simpson, but as a high profile double murderer he has few peers. Not only was he able to kill two people in the shadow of a well-trafficked condominium complex, but, despite displaying in the murder's aftermath all the markings of a guilty man , and leaving enough incriminating forensic evidence to fuel an entire CSI series, Simpson was famously acquitted of his crime.

Well, it looks like spending the last decade with an increasingly lower grade of sycophant has turned OJ's brain to mush. Last week the Hall of Fame running back, who was once able to end two human lives with only the help of knife set readily available at the local Bed Bath and Beyond, required four accomplishes and a host of firearms to shake down a man Simpson believed was in improper possession of some of his memorabilia.

Didn't Simpson know merely the sight of his size 12 Bruno Magli shoes and maybe a flash of Isotoner glove would have been enough to convince the most hardened broker of celebrity merchandise that framed photos -- even framed photos of notorious murderer OJ Simpson posing with notorious FBI chief J. Egdar Hoover -- aren't worth dying a bloody death in a cheap Vegas hotel room?

The truth is an OJ Simpson with his wits about him could run roughshod through the quasi-legal backroom world of memorabilia. Instead The Juice has managed to get himself arrested, faces up to 100 years in prison, and will not be granted bail.

While I doubt he will get anything like 100 years, and would even bet it is more likely than not the charges will eventually be dropped, OJ Simpson's pathetic attempt at coercion and robbery -- roles he should be uniquely suited -- has garnered him Idle Threat of The Week for September 10-16. Yet another award that will one day be in the hands of a shady memorabilia dealer.

OJ Simpson does not deny killing Bill Walsh

Let's say you have yourself a "tiny little media company" offering fast financial market information to investors. Let's say you want to generate a barrage of traffic to your company's nascent website and break away from the pack of other "tiny little media companies"offering fast financial market information to investors. Would you:

A. Be the first to announce that the Bancroft family had officially approved Rupert Murdoch's bid for Dow Jones.

B. Score an exclusive interview with Alan Greenspan. Report the former Fed chair sneezed twice when asked about the recent decline in housing starts.

C. Run an expose' on satanic practices among private equity fund managers.

D. Have a double murderer who couldn't tell a bid from an offer take questions from the public all week at 4 o'clock.

If you answered D, you would probably be Market News First. And, of course, the double murderer is OJ Simpson. The Juice is working on his 13th year of being the foremost double murderer in American public life.

The clip above is from yesterday's interview streamed on Market News First's website. As you can see, the public had all sorts of fun with calling in and asking the two-time killer questions that made sure to mention that OJ is, in fact, the malicious ender of two lives.

Some of the questions were more clever than others, but OJ met them all with the same kind of comfortable indifference that one can only develop after having been a high profile double murderer for many years. Successful as OJ had been as a running back -- and then as a killer of two people -- he is now just as successful at giving off the impression he could care less about your opinions on his dual homicide. No matter how many times and different ways it is made reference to.

OJ will be on MN1 again today at 4 -- just in time for the market's close!

OJ laughs at your felony

A detailed analysis in today's Los Angeles Times confirmed what I already knew: Paris Hilton is spending way more time in prison than the typical inmate convicted of the same crime.

In fact, in Los Angeles county, 60 percent of those who violated the terms of their DUI probation by driving without a licence netted less than four days in the slammer -- which is about the time Paris had served before her controversial initial release. And I don't believe those numbers, which are based on inmates in the prison system, even take into account sentences without jail time.

Not surprisingly, the newspaper also uncovered that Paris is the only inmate in recent LA county history to suffer the emotional earthquake of being sent back to prison after being released.

Now that the cat is out of the bag on the overly harsh justice being served our celebrities, I can only hope the good people of America, particularly those in Los Angeles, will demand fair sentencing for Lindsay Lohan and Nicole Richie when they face the music for their own vehicular misunderstandings.

Maybe you think it is trivial to worry about the fate of such a disease spreading few when there are so many others suffering greater indignities around the world and perhaps even in your own backyard.

So I'll put it this way: Once celebrities realize they’re not entitled to the gentle wrist-slaps that the rest of us get for misdemeanors and minor felonies, they may be forced into the kind of more serious crimes in which, traditionally, their celebrity has held sway with the criminal justice system.

You know, like double murder. That kind of stuff.