A great feature in the Los Angeles Times today explains that Gilbert, who is retired and lives in Fresno, was friends with the Heisman trophy winner turned double murderer. He even penned a book entitled How I Helped O.J. Simpson Get Away With Murder in which he says that he told Simpson to go off his arthritis medication so his joints would swell and the famous glove wouldn't fit on his hand. The morning after Simpson's big acquittal night of partying, Gilbert saw the suit lying in a closet and Simpson told him he could have it.

But it might not actually be the suit! Gilbert can coy about whether or not the garments are authentic—saying he is not "under oath" when asked if the suit is real—and also has a spotty record with the family of victim Ron Goldman, who sought any of the running back's valuable assets after they won a multimillion dollar civil settlement against Simpson. That family claims that Gilbert has refused to turn over the suit, which could be worth thousands of dollars, though Gilbert claims he has made many efforts to do just that. (And then sometimes he says he's never promised anyone anything, and it wouldn't matter anyway because he acquired the suit [if it's real!] before the civil suit was filed.)

Promoting a book about his soured friendship with Simpson, Gilbert said that he had the suit, that it was worth at least $50,000 and that he would give it and other items to the Goldmans to atone for the help he gave a man he now believes is a murderer.

But the Goldmans say Gilbert refused to return their calls or produce the suit. This quickly led to another kind of suit — the type written by lawyers. The Goldmans demanded the clothing and anything else Simpson had given to Gilbert after the slayings.

The outfit worn by Simpson during what was then the most-watched moment in U.S. television history "might have significant economic value," wrote one of their lawyers.

Gilbert also makes claims to have other rare and "valuable" Simpson memorabilia, such as a swatch of the carpeting where O.J. and his wife Nicole allegedly first had sex. Still, the suit remains his most prized cultural artifact, one that, if it's real, is just a pretty sad artifact.

Goldman attorney Peter Haven, who has spoken at length with Gilbert about the suit, called Gilbert "a tortured soul." "The entourage is over. It's busted up. It's gone. The leader is in jail," he said. "The saddest thing about this whole case is people . . . who cling to its electricity because it's all they got."

Image via Getty

They were having OJ Simpson flashbacks!

Never mind that Brown's girlfriend Rihanna escaped a well-publicized Sunday morning fight with a couple of bruises on her face, while Simpson's alleged victims both died. No, people saw a pricey car with out-of-state plates on the news, heard the driver was wanted for assaulting his girlfriend with a deadly weapon, and that the chase started in Hollywood, and presto: internet rumor that R&B singer Brown was in a televised police chase.

The gossip is circulating on email, Facebook and various blogs. But LAist and KTLA quote the police as saying the driver is not a high-profile celebrity — which means not Brown.

One LA TV station is reporting the driver is this rapper, DJ Khaled, according to LAist. But — whoops — we're pretty sure saying so is how internet rumors spread.

UPDATE:In this episode of MTV's "Cribs," DJ Khaled shows off his cars, including a baby-blue Bentley and, off to the right in this screen cap, what appears to be a white Bentley like the one in the police chase:

There's also this apparent photo of the driver, who resembles Khaled. If you want to go deeper into this thing, there's already a special Twitter stream.

Thanks to Hunter Walker for the screencap and all the pointers.

(Photo via LAist)

[Unrelated rant: Our half-paying attention to the sentencing is better than CNN did, at least.What the shit is wrong with Kyra Phillips? In addition to introducing the sentencing by bitching like a talk radio caller about how OJ is the most evil man alive, she followed up the judge by announcing that she hadn't been paying attention and was unable to follow the sentencing. She can't follow the sentencing? It's 15 years, six years until possibility of parole. (Counting some consecutive sentences it's maybe 18 years? That is part we missed.) Philips explained the news to her viewers like they were children. "He used a gun, and he's going to the slammer." Off to commercial!]

• Britney Spears' last tour led to $34 million and a descent into insanity. This time around she just wants the money. [Billboard]
• Madonna agreed to a duet with Lindsay Lohan. What could possibly go wrong? [Star]
• John Mayer and Jennifer Aniston's previously-reported rekindling included dinner at La Esquina Sunday, the Post would like you to know. [P6]
• Jailed OJ Simpson is supposedly going through painkiller withdrawal. And presumably experiencing stabbing pain as a result. [National Enquirer]
• Naomi Campbell doesn't even know what a safeword is. [Egotastic]

Convened for the first time since their landmark decision Friday, several of the jurors cited a parade of unreliable prosecution witnesses with convictions of their own and a weakness for checking their Keno tickets during testimony. The more important evidence was a collection of taped conversations that occurred between Simpson and pals "before, during and after the heist." Least incriminating, they swore, was Simpson's 1995 acquittal on charges of murdering his ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and Ron Goldman:

Teresa Owens, one of the jurors in the Simpson robbery case, said any suggestion that the jury found Simpson guilty because of the verdict 13 years ago is "terrible."

"There's reports right now that we've had some kind of vendetta against Mr. Simpson for ... 13 years ago," she said. "That in no way had anything to do with this case whatsoever."

No matter: Simpson's defense attorney's filed an appeal on that basis within a minute of his conviction, noting that almost half of the jurors seated admitted they disagreed with the verdict in his 1995 criminal trial. (One reportedly went so far as to reply in her questionnaire, "I think he did it." No problems there!)

Meanwhile, we're hearing more today from Vegas's finest one-eyed gossip that Simpson actually had an acquittal party planned for Friday. "He was predicting a hung jury," said a local radio talk-show host, one of whose guests Friday — a "Simpson associate" — invited him to join the Juice and his gang at an undisclosed location after the acquittal. Alas. And new Facebook makes it so hard to retract those big event blasts to your friends, too. Here's hoping it was a good time; going-away parties are often some of our favorites. And early December is wide open! Let us know if we can bring anything.

• Simpson jury: We relied on tapes, not witnesses [CNN]

• Simpson planned acquittal party [LVRJ]

"This is really depressing," O.J. told an associate. "I feel like I'm back in the '50s—a black man in a white justice system. The judge is helping the prosecution as much as she can. I only hope one juror does the right thing." [P6]

The judge refused bail for O.J. while his lawyer files an appeal, and Simpson's sister, Carmelita fainted as he was led out of the courtroom in handcuffs.

The charges stem from a misadventure last September when Simpson and some gun-toting goons executed a bumbling raid on a room at the Palace Station casino to try to recover some old sports junk Simpson claimed had been stolen from his trophy room.

"He's extremely upset, extremely emotional, but it is something that was expected," O.J.'s lawyer, Yale Galanter said. He says Simpson's fame is what did him in. "Definitely someone like OJ Simpson, everyone has a fixed opinion of him and it's troubling. I wasn't surprised."

Simpson will be sentenced in December. [ABC.net.au]

The man who set up the hotel-room confrontation that led to armed robbery charges against O. J. Simpson testified Monday that he had received at least $210,000 from several news organizations, including ABC News, in exchange for interviews, photographs and parts of an audio recording he had secretly made of the events.

$150,000 of that is what TMZ paid him for "excerpts" of the audio recording. This, for a story that nobody really even cares about.

And ABC News, ha! Playing in the muck, are you? They paid the man $15,000, which is a no-no for real news organizations. Here's how they justified it:

A spokesman for ABC News, Jeffrey Schneider, said the network never paid for interviews. What it paid Mr. Riccio for, Mr. Schneider said, were rights to broadcast parts of the audio recording on “Good Morning America” and to show several photos of Mr. Riccio and Mr. Simpson together on the day of the hotel-room meeting.

Bullshit semantics. ABC pays just like TMZ. They're just not as generous.

[NYT]

From left, OJ Simpson heralded as a triple threat in 1977 (athlete! TV star! potential psychopath!), Olivia Newton-John had America hooked on roller skating in 1979, and 15-year old Brooke Shields was dressed in a loincloth in 1980.

Travolta appeared on an 1983 cover saying Look How Straight I Am!, Fabio was gruesomely all the rage in 1993, and some sick editor decided it would be a hoot to "disrobe" Judge Judy in 1999.

Eight entire years ago, the mag wondered if perhaps, there might be something a little kooky with Britney and her grown-up ways (prophets, those editors!), Jen and Brad tied the knot in 2000, and Tom Cruise ran off with his second beard his Vanilla Sky co-star Penelope Cruz, leaving Nicole Kidman "shocked," naturally.

• ARCHIVE: PEOPLE.COM [People]

"In a soft mumble, Simpson told him: 'If she hadn't opened that door with a knife in her hand ... she'd still be alive.'

"'Nothing more needed to be said,' Gilbert writes. 'O.J. had confessed to me. There's no doubt in my mind.'" [AP]

• Tom Cruise will appear on Oprah Winfrey's show who for the first time since his couch-jumping insanity the last time he was on the daytime talk program. The twitchy Scientologist will be on the show twice, once May 2nd from home and then May 5th in Oprah's usual studio. The visit coincides with the 25th anniversary of his movie Risky Business. [AP]
• After going on Oprah, Cruise will smother Katie Holmes by following her to New York for six months. Or they were never going to get separated in the first place and the tabloids are looking for a storyline that prevents Cruise's presence from proving them wrong. Either way. [OK!]
• Birthday party for Cruise and Holmes' two-year-old: $100,000. Flowers alone cost $17,000. Plus the stress tests and thetan cleansing were probably also in the five-figure range. [LA Rag Mag]
• Donald Trump "was big on the idea" of having OJ Simpson on his Celebrity Apprentice show "for a few minutes" until NBC executives nixed the idea. That's kind of the opposite of what happened to Norm MacDonald, if I recall correctly. [P6]
• Police incorrectly answered a question from Uma Thurman's stalker about whether he was allowed to have a lawyer present, so now they have to throw out his confession. Wait, you can "confess" to stalking? Well, why not. [P6]
• The solution to Owen Wilson and Kate Hudson's many emotional problems? A child, of course. Owen's idea. [Star]
• Cynthia Nixon is getting married to her partner. [JJ's Dirt]
• Someone invited Jerry Springer to give the commencement address at Northwestern's law school, so of course the students are up in arms. But is the best response they can come up with really just to shout "You suck?" [P6]
• Laugh all you want at Amy Winehouse, she's worth $20 million, according to the Sunday Times. [Showbiz Spy]

• Paris Hilton was banned from at least one Hyatt, in Moscow, for scribbling her name on the wall in black marker. But it was for a very important picture of Paris looking hot (at left, via the Sun), so it was totally worth the $9,000 fine. [Sun]
• OJ Simpson would like to appear on Donald Trump's Celebrity Apprentice to create the least appealing television imaginable. [P6]
• Tom Cruise's 13-year-old son Connor will appear in a movie in a bit, non-speaking part with Cruise's Scientology-friendly buddy Will Smith. [AP]
• Heather Mills, former wife of former Beatle Paul McCartney, was allegedly a $20,000 per-night prostitute who acted out lesbian scenes for clients. [Daily Star via Gaunabee]
• Amy Winehouse and her husband were offered $2 million to recount whatever they can actually remember of their drug-adled marriage. [Sun]
• There's official confirmation of the Beyonce/Jay-Z wedding, in case you had been delaying your celebration. [OK!]
• There's supposedly a sex tape of the fiancée of Opie from the radio show Opie & Anthony. The fiancée is said to be shown with Bam Margera of MTV, from before she met Opie. [P6]

[NY Post]

"I don't know, Mr Simpson, what the heck you were thinking," Glass told him. "I don't know if it's just arrogance or ignorance .... or both."

Prosecutors asked for Simpson to be held behind bars until his trial or for new bail of at least $1 million.

But Simpson's lawyer, Yale Galanter, said Simpson was neither a danger to the community nor a flight risk, noting that he "cannot even walk out of his front door without TV cameras following him."

"Mr. Simpson is truly contrite about what has occurred," Galanter told the judge.

Simpson's bail was doubled to $250,000, a sum he could manage to quickly recover by auctioning off a series of personal, in-home readings of best-selling confessional If I Did It on eBay. He was then whisked away in a white Mercedes, free to work on his golf game or chat up strangers on airplanes, until April, when he faces the real music: 12 charges, including kidnapping and armed robbery, that could put him away for the rest of his life.

[Photo: The Insider]

• O.J. Simpson leaves jail after judge's lecture [Reuters]

"[S]uddenly, the boisterous voice of a man aroused me from my almost-sleep. It was OJ Simpson, and he was sitting right behind me. He was beyond chatty, to the point of being manic. He would talk to anyone that listened to him."

First, the double-murder acquitee yammered on about his latest brush with the law - being charged with kidnapping and robbery for allegedly sticking up two sports dealers he claims ripped off his memorabilia. "He said he knew this guy, the guy had helped him move out and put a lot of his stuff in warehouses, and he stole the stuff. Claims there were pictures of his family, etc., etc. Claimed the gun part was '[bleep]ing bull[bleep]' - but he didn't sound all that convincing," our spy said.

Then it was on to his knowledge of brewing. "He was talking to two Mexican guys and he claimed that Dos Equis is really a German beer, made in Mexico." [...]

Later, at the baggage claim, the disgraced athlete "noticed a kid in a Bills jersey and was like, 'Yeah, Buffalo Bills, baby.' "

If Simpson's cheerful volunteering of the time he "very nearly strangled an airport bartender to death for serving a Tecate when I specifically ordered a Beck's—ha ha!" seems unusual for a man who was days away from standing before a judge on kidnapping charges, you've obviously not walked a mile in his Bruno Maglis, for, as his lawyer explained, this is a man who has no reason but to put his every faith in the American judicial system's ability to take him at his word when he insists he is innocent of the charges for which he is extremely guilty.

• OJ'S WACKY IN-FLIGHT SEMINAR [NY Post]
• Simpson will stand trial again [LAT]

• Though everyone who went to Brown with her would beg to differ, early-00s 'it' girl Leelee Sobieski says she's not a lesbian. [NYO]
  
• O.J. Simpson got chatty on a red eye flight after his sleeping pill failed to kick in. [Page Six]
  
• Nicole Richie and Joel Madden are asking for donations to their new charity foundation, which supports mothers in need, in lieu of baby gifts. [Us Weekly]