Michael Viner, publisher of tell-all tabloid books and audio book entrepreneur, dead at 65

Tabloid book publisher Michael Viner dies

BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. — Michael Viner (VEE’-nuhr), who helped popularize audio books and published a line of tabloid tell-all books that included O.J. Simpson trial figure Faye Resnick and disgraced former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich, has died. He was 65.

Viner died of cancer Saturday at his home, his assistant at Phoenix Books in Beverly Hills, Kimberly Miletta, said Tuesday.

Viner was head of Dove Entertainment Inc., which produced audio versions of everything from business guides to Bibles and rose to prominence with Resnick’s book, “Nicole Brown Simpson: The Diary of a Life Interrupted.”

In 2005, Viner founded Phoenix Books and stayed on after it was sold in 2007.

Phoenix’s current list includes a book about Bernard Madoff, a Larry Flynt autobiography and “a historical and personal perspective” of prostitution by Kiss singer Gene Simmons.