I haven’t seen anything up here about the Judith Regan drama that’s been unfolding, so I figured it was time to post. This is a pretty big deal in the publishing world, in any case.
The short version: Judith Regan had her own schlock-selling imprint at HarperCollins (“How to Make Love Like a Porn Star,” etc) and was slammed hard for signing and publishing OJ’s revolting book, “If I Did It,” in which he speculated on how, exactly, he would have committed double murder if, in fact, he had (which of, course, he didn’t.) The book was cancelled, but not before making the company (and Murdoch, its owner) look terrible–thus putting Regan on thin ice already. Then she began getting some flak over a forthcoming Micky Mantle pseudo-memoir. The last straw that lead to her dismissal, however, was about some charming statements made to the NewsCorp (HarperCollins’ parent company’s) lawyer. The WSJ reports:

Andrew Butcher, the News Corp. spokesman… added that Ms. Regan said the following in the phone conversation: “Of all people, Jews should know about ganging up, finding common enemies, and telling the big lie.” He said Mr. Jackson [the NewsCorp lawyer] had taken notes during the conversation.
In the next breath, Mr. Butcher said, Ms. Regan said that literary agent Esther Newberg and HarperCollins employees David Hirshey, Jane Friedman, and Mr. Jackson constitute “a Jewish cabal. All of you people are conspiring against me.”

Full story here.
But that’s not the interesting part. The NYT reports,

Ms. Regan was investigated in the spring of 2003 after an editor complained that she had boasted of removing the scrolls from her neighbors’ mezuzas and replacing them with torn pieces from dollar bills.

(Story here.)
Cabal or no cabal (there is one, of course, and it convened shortly before her sacking), that is… way over the line. A good klaf costs way more than a dollar!