*Judith Regan gets the ax

HarperCollins announced the dismissal of the wild-and-crazy editor, who created quite a stir with her plans for a book and TV interview with O.J. Simpson. The firing is "effective immediately" and was announced at 7 p.m. New York time (did they really expect this to go unnoticed?) NYT reports that HarperCollins CEO Jane Friedman, who announced the news in a statement, "has long had a strained relationship with Ms. Regan." The statement said that Regan publishing, which had moved to L.A. earlier this year, will remain part of HarperCollins. No details on how that will work. HarperCollins is part of Rupert Murdoch's News Corp.

*WSJ reports that Regan's imprint has come under fire regarding an upcoming novelization of the life of Mickey Mantle. (It apparently takes more than a few liberties, including suggestions that Mantle and Marilyn Monroe had an affair.) While Regan makes a lot of noise, her imprint generates revenue of only around $50 million, according to a Journal source. That's out of HarperCollins' total revenues of $1.3 billion. Perhaps Regan was finally considered more trouble than she was worth. It is curious that when the plug was pulled last month on the O.J. book and TV interview, a News Corp. source said no one would be fired over the incident. Oops. Variety