Voyeur Dorm owners close deal with O.J.

The company will operate AskOJ.com, which will let subscribers question and see O.J. Simpson.

By STEVE HUETTEL

© St. Petersburg Times, published July 8, 2000

TAMPA -- The owners of Voyeur Dorm say they have closed a deal to run a Web site where subscribers can chat online with O.J. Simpson by the end of this month.

Simpson will make his first appearance on AskOJ.com July 27 from the Tampa offices of Entertainment Network Inc., said David Marshlack, the company's president.

For $9.95 per month, subscribers will be able to pose questions to Simpson and see him through a live Internet video stream two or three times each month, he said.

The former NFL Hall of Fame running back plans to donate his share of the revenues to charities and sees the site as a way to tell his story about the 1994 murders of ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend Ronald Goldman, Marshlack said.

"O.J.'s not about the money, it's about telling his side of the story," Marshlack said. "He's tired of the media running it. He's not saying, "Believe me.' He's saying, "Here's all the evidence, you make your own decision.' "

Simpson was acquitted of two counts of murder for two stabbing deaths in one of the most celebrated trials in history. But he was found liable in a wrongful death suit and ordered to pay $33.5-million to the victims' families.

Entertainment Network gained national notoriety through its Web site voyeurdorm.com, which shows live video of college-age women shot by cameras positioned throughout the Tampa house where they live.

City officials ruled the business is adult entertainment like a strip bar and that it must move out of the residential neighborhood. Entertainment Network is challenging the decision in federal court.

Simpson was familiar with the Web site, Marshlack said. He and partner Bruce Hammil flew to Los Angeles to pitch the project, Marshlack said, and Simpson signed a deal last month giving Entertainment Network exclusive rights to produce his Internet ventures.

Besides offering online chat, the site will offer merchandise autographed by Simpson, ranging from a $75 football jersey to a $375 helmet, he said.

Subscribers also will be able to pull up information from an electronic archive on the legal case.

Simpson has agreed to submit to a lie detector test on AskOJ.com but only after a court rules on an appeal of the civil suit, Marshlack said. The site has a home page, but subscribers won't be able to subscribe until next week, he said.