Wednesday, January 25, 2006

James Frey To Appear On Oprah?

Publishers Weekly reports that the liar James Frey is apparently going to be in Oprah's studio on Thursday, though it's unclear whether he'll be taping a segment for the future or appear on TV right away. That makes me wrong: I thought Winfrey's comments on "Larry King" were politic but made clear she thought the book was powerful but was disappointed in Frey's lies. I believed she would never have him on the show again. What questions should Oprah ask?

Frey's own people have made a huge mistake. His publisher is providing people to try and back up Frey's claims about his treatment at Hazelden, instead of letting Frey blandly claim no one expects a memoir to be true. One is a state judge convicted of mail fraud and could be sentenced next month for up to 20 years. A roommate of Frey's, he failed to confirm brawls between patients, the hole in Frey's cheek or the resetting of Frey's nose by attendants. Anyone needing medical attention would have been taken to a hospital, he admitted. The other witness also admitted he'd never seen any brawls and also admitted Frey lied when describing card playing and gambling by patients during group lectures. And these are people trying to DEFEND him.

1 comment:

Michael in New York said...

Hey, your second one was right on the money. Though of course she wasn't a moron -- the publisher is for knowingly taking a book that had failed to sell as fiction and lying to their readers by calling it a memoir because that would make it more commercial.