The Associated Press reports that The Justice Department has approved Sirius Satellite Radio's plan to buy its rival, XM Satellite Radio, for $5 billion.

Sirius, which is home to Howard Stern, Martha Stewart, Judith Regan, The Rolling Stones, and others, will incorporate XM's programming which includes Oprah Winfrey, E!, and Fox News.  read more »

Just over a month after ex-publisher Judith Regan settled a spectacular $100 million lawsuit against her old employers at News Corporation and its book division HarperCollins, the volatile grand dame of 21st century book publishing has been hit with a side suit from the New York lawyers at Dreier LLP whom she hired back in November and fired in January.

According to Dreier's suit, reported this morning in the AP and-- with a surprisingly sober tone-- on Page Six, Ms. Regan owes them money for 1200 hours of legal work. As they have it, Ms. Regan deliberately used them until she didn't need them anymore, at which point she reverted to her old standby, L.A. lawyer Bertram Fields, to carry out the lay-up at the end of the game and collect the winnings.

When asked in late January why Ms. Regan had dismissed Dreier, Mr. Fields did not give any details, saying only that the advantage Ms. Regan thought they would give her by being based in Manhattan rather than California had not panned out.  read more »

Less than three months after publisher Judith Regan filed a $100 million lawsuit against her former employer HarperCollins and its parent company News Corp., a check has been cut and the suit has been killed before it even started.

No word yet on how much News Corp. is paying Ms. Regan, but according to a press release News Corp. issued around 2pm., a settlement has been reached. "The parties are pleased that they have reached an equitable, confidential settlement, with no admission of liability by any party" the statement reads.

In her spectacular 70-page suit (read all about it here), which also named HarperCollins CEO Jane Friedman, Ms. Regan alleged that she had been fired and stripped of her eponymous imprint under false pretenses and then strategically defamed in the press by News Corp.

A source close to Ms. Regan and familiar with the negotiations told The Observer at the time of the filing that Ms. Regan was offered a $6.5 million settlement in August but turned it down. Bert Fields, Ms. Regan's lawyer, said at the time: "We told them their number was unacceptable. They were warned in advance that she was going to file if they didn't increase the settlement offer they'd made and they responded that they were not going to increase it by one dime. And as a result she filed."

According to another source familiar with the case, Mr. Fields-- an entertainment lawyer based in Los Angeles-- was the driving force behind the negotiations that led to today's settlement.

Reached by phone today, Mr. Fields said he could not comment on the sum News Corp. had agreed to pay Ms. Regan. "I gave my word that I wouldn’t comment on the settlement beyond what’s in the statement and I’m going to keep it," Mr. Fields said. He would not say whom he gave his word to.

In addition to Mr. Fields, Ms. Regan has always been working with Bay Area attorney Joe Cotchett of Cotchett, Pitre & McCarthy. When Ms. Regan filed her lawsuit in November, she was to be represented in litigation by Brian Kerr of the Manhattan firm Dreier LLP, but she dismissed him and hired Mr. Cotchett instead sometime around New Year's. Mr. Fields confirmed that he'd been working with Mr. Cotchett. A call to Mr. Cotchett's office was not returned.

The official reason given for Ms. Regan's December 2006 firing from HarperCollins was that she'd made some anti-Semitic remarks to a company lawyer-- something she denied at the time and has continued to ever since. News Corp. is now backing off of the notion that Ms. Regan made any anti-Semitic remarks: "After carefully considering the matter, we accept Ms. Regan's position that she did not say anything that was anti-Semitic in nature, and further believe that Ms. Regan is not anti-Semitic."  read more »

Newsweek reports that Judith Regan, the outspoken publisher who used to have her own imprint at HarperCollins, is in "conversations" with News Corp. about settling out of court the $100 million dollar lawsuit she filed against the company last month. Citing unnamed media executives, Newsweek reports that "Regan has a tape recording that presumably helps to buttress her allegations in her suit."

None of the people who spoke to Newsweek could say what exactly might be on the tape or where it came from, but four sources said top-level executives were aware of it.    read more »

Judith Regan, the book publisher who was fired from HarperCollins last December amidst controversy over her acquisition of O.J. Simpson’s If I Did It, was scheduled to file a libel and breach of contract lawsuit today against HarperCollins, its CEO Jane Friedman, and its parent company News Corporation, according to Ms. Regan’s lawyer Bertram Fields.

Mr. Fields, who is based in Los Angeles, said he is not representing Ms. Regan in the suit. He did work on the case "in the beginning," but has since handed the reins over to Brian Kerr of New York-based firm Dreier LLP. (Gawker posted an anonymous letter earlier this afternoon incorrectly stating that the firm Milberg Weiss is handling the case.)

Mr. Fields said Ms. Regan’s suit “was to be filed today” but could not confirm that it actually was.

News Corp. spokesman Andrew Butcher said News Corp. was not aware of the suit.

“We don’t have it,” he said. “We haven’t seen any suit.”  read more »

Rebecca Dana has a story about the O.J. Simpson interview with Judith Regan and ensuing controversy.

Steve Kornacki explains the (theoretical!) possibility of a coup against incoming House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.