O.J. Simpson is in jail. Not for killing Nicole Brown Simpson, of course. But many feel that he is where he belongs, nonetheless.
Even though the Trial of the Century, as the O.J. Simpson case was called, is ancient history in the perspective of today’s news cycles, the remnants of that time are still very much with us.
‘We may be through with the past, but the past isn’t through with us.”
One remnant of the O.J. Simpson media circus that is still very much alive can be found in the form of Keeping Up with the Kardashians. When most people first became aware of her brood, Kris Jenner was married to Bruce Jenner, the man who we may notbe able to cal “he” for much longer.
But that Kardashian surname was present in the O.J. Simpson trial in the form of the man Kim, Khloe, Kourtney, et al first called “daddy.” One Robert Kardashian was a member of O.J. Simpson’s legal defense team.
Recently, Kris Jenner released a cookbook that included recipes that she says she got from Nicole Brown Simpson. There are still rumors floating around that Khloe Kardashian is actually O.J. Simpson’s kid.
And now those threads are all coming together in the FX series American Crime Story: The People V OJ Simpson.
In the series, David Schwimmer will play Robert Kardashian, with Selma Blair as Kris then-Kardashian. Cuba Gooding, Jr. will play O.J. himself. And Courtney B. Vance will play Johnnie “if it doesn’t fit, you must acquit” Cochrane.
When the Simpson trial was burning through the 24-hour news cycle headlines, America’s love affair with reality television had not quite started. But this real-life drama played out like a slo-mo drive in a white Ford Bronco as America looked on. We learned more about DNA testing and ugly shoes than we wanted to know.
And O.J. Simpson walked free. Many people have walked free in media-rich trials since. But out reality TV has that all-too-familiar O.J. scent to it, even today.