Richard Johnson: Writing a book may be Rittenhouse’s only option to make money

NEW YORK — Kyle Rittenhouse could get more than $3 million for a book about how he shot dead two men and wounded a third during riots in Wisconsin last August, people in the know tell me.

While many Democrats believe Rittenhouse, 18, belongs in jail, most Republicans are treating him like a hero.

He’s being offered jobs by GOP Congress members and he met with former President Donald Trump at Mar-a-Lago.

But sources say his easiest way to make money is a book deal.

“Tucker Carlson is encouraging him and will help promote it,” a source told me. “The goal is to hire a well-known conservative ghost writer and get it out fast for a summer release.”

Rittenhouse’s mother and sister will also be part of the book, I’m told.

“His family feels Kyle will forever have trouble getting jobs and making money,” said my source, “so the book is their golden parachute.”

Rittenhouse’s lawyer did not get back to me with a comment.

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Charlie Ehrlich, the manager of a strip club, is suing the Miami New Times for libel for accusing him of helping O.J. Simpson murder his wife Nicole and her boyfriend Ron Goldman.

The story by Bob Norman was inspired by a script titled “Juiced” written by Erik Laibe, “who is in an ongoing business dispute with Mr. Ehrlich,” the suit says.

Norman states that Ehrlich is “an ex-drug trafficker and longtime manager at Dean’s Gold, a glitzy strip club” in North Miami Beach.

The story says: “If fiction is the lie through which we tell the truth, then the script, titled ‘Juiced,’ after Simpson’s nickname, may shed new light on the events of that gruesome night” in 1994.

The story shakily asks, “But even if someone was with Simpson that night, which is certainly plausible, was it Charlie Ehrlich?”

Ehrlich’s lawyer Robert Hantman immediately demanded a retraction in an Oct. 1 letter to the editor.

“Defendant portrayed Mr. Ehrlich as an accomplice to murder,” Hantman states, “and ignored that he was in Miami at the time of the unfortunate event, all of which was easily discoverable.”

Ehrlich told me, “I didn’t meet O.J. until he moved to Miami in 1998. This story caused me a lot of grief and death threats. It’s disgusting.”

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Ralph Lauren is telling friends he’s going to open a string of chic hotels. He was planning to start pre-COVID, but had to stop because of the pandemic. Now that things are normalizing, the designer is back to planning his new venture to complement such ventures as the Polo Bar.

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Here’s a Broadway opening that helps feed the actors. A new bakery called Angelina at 52nd St. and Broadway opens this week and part of its profits go to The Actors Fund, whose president Joe Benincasa calls the new pastry proceeds “a sweet treat.”

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“Empire” star Taraji P. Henson talked about “the mental and physical health” of people in the Black community at a dinner co-hosted by WW CEO Mindy Grossman and Harlem Eat Up co-founders chef Marcus Samuelsson and marketer Herb Karlitz. “The View” star Sunny Hostin, the Apollo Theater CEO Jonelle Procope and Thelma Golden, director of the Studio Museum in Harlem, led the applause at Vinatería in Harlem.

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DJ Steve Aoki — who has collaborated with both the Backstreet Boys and BTS on their mega-hit “Mic Drop” — will headline E-Rock Entertainment’s show at the American Dream in New Jersey on Dec. 11. Aoki, heir to the Benihana restaurant fortune, has ordered 12 enormous wedding cakes for his signature cake-throwing antics at the crowd of 6,000. The DJ can afford it; he’s getting a cool $200,000 for the gig.

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Susan and David Rockefeller are among the VIPs attending Andy Sabin’s 75th birthday party at the Museum of Natural History on Dec. 4. Sabin, known as “Salamander Commander” for protecting the species, will match all the guests’ charitable donations (to any charity) for up to $5,000.

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Chef Andrew Molen, who cooked at the Maidstone Inn for fans like Ramona Singer and Luann de Lesseps, will be found this winter manning the stoves at Calcuttas in Ludlow, Vermont, and Union and Post in Windham, New York.

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