AN anticipated showdown be tween Fred Goldman and Den ise Brown over the radioactive O.J. Simpson book on “Oprah” fizzled yesterday.

The show had been billed for weeks as a confrontation between the two families of the O.J. murder victims in the wake of “If I Did It,” Simpson’s supposedly fictional account of the murders of Nicole Brown and her friend, Ron Goldman.

But Brown refused at the last minute to go on the air with Goldman after she learned that the publication of the controversial Simpson book was moved up to yesterday, to take advantage of the publicity generated by Oprah’s show.

Brown agreed to be interviewed separately.