LATE SHOW NEWS #180  ** EXTRA **
November 18, 1997
by Aaron Barnhart

 Turns out Sunday's taping was *nothing.*  Thanks
 to my LATE SHOW NEWS moles in the audience! -- AB

 Guest stint by Simpson creates studio chaos
 By AARON BARNHART Television Writer
 Date: 11/18/97 13:07

 Filmmaker and gonzo journalist Michael Moore has
 made a career out of getting his camera crews
 thrown out of corporate headquarters. But Monday
 night he dared a studio audience to throw him out
 -- of his own TV talk show, no less.

 During a taping of a late-night talk show in New
 York, an unscheduled pilot for the Fox network,
 Moore announced he was bringing out a "special
 guest" -- none other than O.J. Simpson, football
 great and infamous trial defendant.

 Simpson's 45-minute appearance, believed to be
 his first before a studio audience since his
 civil and criminal trials, soon degenerated into
 chaos. According to Moore and others, some
 audience members began shouting epithets at
 Simpson and angrily accusing Moore of trying to
 pull a publicity stunt. Others stomped out of the
 studio.

 If the Fox network ever decides to do "World's
 Scariest Talk Show Appearances," this one is a
 cinch to get in.

 Moore's 1989 film "Roger and Me" and television
 series "TV Nation" have already established him
 as a successful on-screen troublemaker. He was at
 the end of two days of taping before a live
 audience when the surprise interview occurred.

 "I've never seen him on a talk show," Moore said
 by phone Tuesday. "And yet he has been a central
 figure in this country, probably the most
 controversial person in this country in this
 decade, and there's been this constant drumbeat
 from the media from `Geraldo' to Larry King to
 every place else, where we've had to listen to
 more than three years of `O.J. is guilty, O.J. is
 guilty' -- and I've never heard him speak."

 After sending a letter to Simpson's attorney
 requesting the interview, Moore was contacted
 about a week later by an assistant who said
 Simpson was interested.

 Still, Moore said, "We didn't know up until the
 last minute if O.J. would actually be there."

 The show's producer, Don Mischer, told the
 audience that there would be a surprise guest at
 the end of the taping, and Moore later said to
 the audience, "We're going to make television
 history tonight."

 But when Simpson was introduced, said one
 attendee, "You could hear the jaws dropping" in
 the audience. Some of those jaws, Moore said,
 belonged to Fox network executives; they hadn't
 been informed of Simpson's booking.

 Then, raising tensions further, Moore began
 pursuing a line of questioning with his guest
 concerning -- football. His opening line:

 "I think the question that is on the minds of all
 Americans and what people really want to know,
 O.J., is -- do you think adding 10 yards to the
 kickoff has ruined professional football?"

 But Moore spiked his questions with inferences to
 Simpson's alleged role in the murders of his
 ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend
 Ronald Goldman.

 "When you were a receiver you didn't wear gloves
 -- now they all wear gloves," Moore told Simpson.
 "Tight-fitting gloves."

 "Well, it really depends if you play offense or
 defense," Simpson replied, apparently not getting
 the joke.

 "Did you play offensively or defensively?" asked
 Moore.

 "I played offense," said Simpson.

 "The mood was very palpably tense," said one
 audience member. Another agreed, saying that some
 began to hiss during the interview.

 Finally, when an audience member called out,
 "Murderer!" Moore abruptly changed his line of
 questioning and the free-for-all was on.

 Eventually Moore opened up the floor for
 questions -- and, surprisingly, Simpson answered
 them. Details of the case were discussed
 candidly, and at one point Simpson allowed as how
 his spousal-abuse record damaged his credibility
 with the public.

 "I was amazed that the man was really willing to
 answer any question," said an audience member,
 who asked not to be identified. "One kid got up
 and said, `Can you look me in the eye and say you
 love your wife and you miss her?' And O.J. said,
 `Yes, I do, very much.' "

 As the taping wore on, however, some of the
 audience began to shift their resentments from
 the surprise guest to the show's host.

 "It started to get into a thing between the
 audience and (Moore)," one witness said. "They
 were like, `We've seen enough of O.J.,' `Get him
 off the stage,' `Why are you doing this,
 Michael?' "

 There were "a dozen people or so trying to shout
 other people down," said Moore, who added that he
 had actually expected worse.

 Moore told the audience that he brought on
 Simpson because, as he wrote in his 1996 book
 Downsize This! he thought there were enough
 doubts raised about the credibility of the
 prosecution's case in Simpson's criminal trial to
 warrant a not-guilty verdict.

 "I said, `Do you think the reaction would be any
 different if we were doing this show on the stage
 of the Apollo Theater?"' said Moore, referring to
 the noted Harlem establishment.

 At the end of the taping Simpson stayed to answer
 other audience questions and pose for
 photographs.

 "He didn't want to stop," Moore said. "He said,
 `Ask me anything. No censorship.' "

 If and when the piece airs, it will be edited
 into a much shorter segment as part of a one-hour
 talk show for Fox, which aired "TV Nation" in the
 summer of 1995. It would be the network's first
 foray into late-night TV since the disastrous
 "Chevy Chase Show" in 1993.

           All content (c) 1997 The Kansas City Star