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OJ Simpson reacts to Jeffrey Toobin exposing himself on Zoom work call

Toobin wrote the book on which the show ‘The People v O J Simpson: American Crime Story’ was based

Clémence Michallon
New York City
Tuesday 20 October 2020 11:11 EDT
OJ Simpson at a parole hearing on 20 July 2017 in Lovelock, Nevada
OJ Simpson at a parole hearing on 20 July 2017 in Lovelock, Nevada (Jason Bean-Pool/Getty Images)

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OJ Simpson has reacted to the incident in which writer and legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin exposed himself during a work Zoom call.

Toobin is the author of The Run of His Life: The People v OJ Simpson, on which the limited series The People v OJ Simpson: American Crime Story was based.

Both the book and the show are accounts of the 1995 murder case that saw Simpson accused of killing his ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend Ronald Goldman. Simpson was acquitted in criminal court. He was later found liable in a civil case and ordered to pay $33.5m to the victims’ families.

“Damn, Jeffrey Toobin,” Simpson said in a video he shared on social media. “At least Pee-wee Herman was in an X-rated movie theatre. I’m just saying.”

Pee-wee Herman is a fictional character played by actor and comedian Paul Reubens. In 1991, Reubens pleaded no contest to indecent exposure charges after detectives said they had seen him masturbate at an adult cinema.

The New Yorker  magazine said on Monday it had suspended Toobin, a staff writer at the publication. According to Vice, Toobin was seen masturbating during a video call between members of the New Yorker and the WNYC radio station at some point last week.

Toobin has said he thought the video function had been turned off. 

“I made an embarrassingly stupid mistake, believing I was off-camera. I apologise to my wife, family, friends and co-workers,” he told Vice, adding: “I believed I was not visible on Zoom. I thought no one on the Zoom call could see me. I thought I had muted the Zoom video.”

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