Meet the new-and-improved OJ Simpson – a buff, fearless jailbird who preaches racial harmony among his fellow inmates while lapping up pulp fiction and pro wrestling.
Since being tossed into Nevada’s Lovelock Correctional Center 11 months ago on robbery, assault and kidnapping charges, the double-murder acquittee has adjusted swimmingly to life behind bars.
“OJ works out every day. He’s lost a lot of weight and he’s in great shape,” Simpson’s longtime producer, Norman Pardo, tells The Post.
“He says that’s one of the benefits of not being able to go out and party all the time like he used to,” adds Pardo, who has remained in regular contact with The Juice.
When not doing push-ups or pumping iron, Simpson, 62, relaxes by reading best-selling author James Patterson, whose Alex Cross novels follow the cases of an African American homicide detective who practices psychology on the side.
The disgraced gridiron great also follows his alma-mater teams, the USC Trojans and Buffalo Bills – thanks to his loved ones’ generosity. When Simpson first got to Lovelock, where he’s serving a 33-year sentence, he had no TV in his cell. Within days, however, friends and relatives had taken up a collection to buy him one at the prison commissary, says Pardo.
But football isn’t the only sport Simpson tunes into. He’s also fond of such wrestling fare as “SmackDown” and “WWE Superstars.”
And though he gives the prison grub two thumbs up, there is one specialty Simpson misses. “OJ loves soul food,” says Pardo. “When we were touring together, he’d always order grits with his eggs and bacon.”
Lovelock’s lack of grits aside, Simpson – who’s now in the general prison population after initially being held in isolation – is doing his best to give back to the system.
While fraternizing with other felons, he often counsels them on such issues as race relations and anger management, says Pardo. In turn, he has managed to avoid even the slightest hint of trouble.
“I have no issues in here. Everybody’s cool,” Simpson has told Pardo, who adds that the prison guards are just as fond of the “Naked Gun” star as his fellow cons are.
Ditto Simpson’s cellmate, though that relationship wasn’t always so rosy. Earlier this year, when Simpson began bunking with him, Simpson’s daughter Arnelle reportedly griped, “The guy’s a white supremacist.” But today, thanks to Simpson’s finessing of the situation, he and his cellmate are pals.
That upbeat attitude toward race relations seems a far cry from how Simpson felt while standing trial for his part in the 2007 Las Vegas heist of his own sports memorabilia.
On Oct. 3, 2008, as the jury deliberated charges against him – 13 years to the day after he was acquitted of murdering his wife, Nicole, and Ronald Goldman – Simpson spoke with Pardo.
“For the first time in my life, I feel like a black man in the 1940s in an all-white justice system,” he said. “I didn’t think I’d ever feel this way.”
Later, while being held in Clark County Jail, he added of his jury, “I looked into their eyes and I knew they would convict me.”
If such behind-the-scenes drama sounds like the makings of a movie, it is.
In 2001, Pardo and Simpson’s mutual attorney suggested that the then-Florida-based producer take the infamous murder defendant on the road to help rehab his image. In all, they would visit 20 cities throughout the East Coast and Midwest over the next five years, mingling with the public at a variety of venues.
Pardo videotaped virtually all of Simpson’s adventures, ultimately yielding more than 70 hours of documentary footage. From the outset of the project, Simpson hoped it would be turned into a reality series, or feature release along the lines of “Madonna: Truth or Dare.”
“OJ wanted these tapes to prove to the world that, contrary to how the media had portrayed him, he’s not a pariah,” says Pardo.
Case in point, while in Philadelphia in 2003, Simpson and Pardo were driving through the downtown area in a white Bentley convertible when they decided to take the top down, just to see what the reaction would be.
“Within minutes, people were yelling, ‘That’s OJ Simpson!’” says Pardo. Soon after that, a friendly mob had descended on the car, clamoring for autographs.
As recently as 2007, Simpson had planned to help fashion the tapes into his vision of a fair and balanced portrayal, but his arrest in September of that year put the kibosh on that dream.
Now Pardo, who owns all rights to the tapes, has taken the project in a different direction, weaving the Simpson footage into a fictional who-done-it, titled “Suspect 32.”
The 90-minute film – which features sabre-wielding ninjas, bloody gloves, a Mark Fuhrman lookalike and plenty of naked girls – finds Simpson and Pardo (who play themselves) going out together on a promotional tour.
Simpson’s secret motive for the tour is to get Pardo out of the house so that burglars can steal the OJ tapes. Meanwhile, unaware of Simpson’s scheme, Pardo also plans to have someone break into his house to steal the tapes, so he can collect the insurance money.
In all, there are five murders, and Simpson – who at one point shouts, “I ain’t done s–t. I’M the one who should be pissed” – ends up in the slammer.
Beginning today, Pardo will post a trailer at http://www.suspect32.com, using it to help secure theatrical, cable and/or pay-per-view distribution of the flick. If he gets no takers, he says he plans to enter the project in the Cannes Film Festival. And if organizers reject it, he’ll buy a booth at the event.
Either way, Pardo vows, “Suspect 32” will be out in 2010.
Simpson was not available for comment. But his attorney, says Pardo, has been notified of the movie.
Juice on tape
Norman Pardo spent parts of five years — and 70 hours of videotape — documenting O.J. Simpson after his murder acquittal. Some excerpts:
On interracial dating: “F – – – white girls! A lot! [Aside to limo driver:] Not me. Give me a sista any day of the week.”
On Miami drug scene: You can’t go to the bath rooms in the club without some body sayin’, ‘Juice, you want a hit?’. . . Next day, I wake up . . . I got some business cards, couple a phone numbers, [and] I must’ve had two things I can only assume were ecstasy pills, a couple of things I can only assume were cocaine, and one little package of pot, right? All of ’em had little phone numbers on them ”
His little habit: “In 1992, my friends gave me a surprise party, and one of the girls brought ecstasy. This is the first I heard of ecstasy. So everybody at the party took an ecstasy pill. Boy, what a party that was! Then [the media] prints, ‘He admits to drugs.’ Like me and everybody else ain’t done something once or twice. Other than that, I ain’t done an illegal drug since last night. I always smoke my doobie.”