ABOARD US AIRWAYS FLIGHT TO FORT LAUDERDALE – The passenger in Seat 4D was the biggest deal on Flight 888 – but he didn’t act the part.
US Airways had emptied the plane – which had originated in Los Angeles – when it landed in Las Vegas so O.J. Simpson could board alone with his lawyer, Yale Galanter, and girlfriend, Christine Prody.
The graying, paunchy, 60-year-old took the aisle seat in the first row of economy class.
Nearly every one of us who boarded behind him stole a glance as we passed by his seat.
A few of my bolder fellow travelers whipped out their cellphones and cameras to snap a shot.
The Juice favored some of us with a smile, others with a nod. But that was it – there was no autograph hunting, no shouted insults or shouted words of praise.
O.J. pulled his white tennis visor over his eyes and catnapped for the flight to Fort Lauderdale, which landed just after midnight.
When he was awake, he was watching “Ocean’s 13.”
Prody curled up next to him and laid her blond curls against his chest.
When we landed, he stood and gave Galanter, who had been sitting across the aisle, a big hug before getting into a car and driving off without a word.
Before takeoff, Galanter had said, “There is nowhere in the world where O.J. is not known.”
In other words, if O.J. skipped to another country, he would be made in a New York minute.
But tonight? He’s hardly a blip on the screen.