April 30, 2008
Oprah: Blaine, Cruise, Frey
But the real Oprah story this week is getting overshadowed by some skanky-looking Miley Cyrus photos.
This month's Vanity Fair has the first interview with James Frey in ages and ages, and in it, Frey and his publisher Nan Talese say Oprah and her producers tricked them into a nationally televised scolding. Initially, Oprah stuck by Frey after his memoir, A Million Little Pieces, turned out to be bullshit. But then she decided she wanted Frey and Talese to come on her show so she could lay the smack down.
As Talese recounted at a televised publishing conference last July, the show invited her and Frey together. Talese initially resisted. Then they were approached with a new pitch. The topic was going to be “Truth in America,” and they wanted Talese on a panel with columnists Frank Rich, of The New York Times, and Richard Cohen, from The Washington Post. Given this scenario, Talese agreed. But when she and Frey arrived at Harpo Studios, in Chicago, they were told that the program was not, in fact, about Truth in America; it was about the James Frey controversy. Winfrey told Frey it would be rough, but said there would be redemption in the end. There was no redemption. From beginning to end, it was, according to Talese, “a public scourge.”...
“He felt trapped and cornered,” recalls Talese today. A spokesperson for Oprah claims that “Truth in America” was always the topic for the show and that Talese had been informed of the full range of questions in the pre-interview. Talese maintained (as she still does) that memoirs have always been personal impressions, and didn’t seem to realize that, for better or for worse, the game was now up. She was disgusted at the spectacle Oprah was making, appalled at her manners and at what she allegedly told Frey after the show was over: “I know it was rough, but it’s just business.” Winfrey denies ever making such a comment. “Once again, the truth is not being served here,” she says in a statement to Vanity Fair. “In 22 years of doing this show, I have never said to anyone, ‘I know it was rough, but it’s just business.’ This was beyond business. This was about the trust I share with the audience who faithfully supports the Book Club and buys the books I recommend; and based on that trust, I thought we were owed an explanation about the truth of this memoir."
Truth, justice and the Opramerican way. [Photo via Oprah's site]
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Nan Talese's reputation is still in the toilet and it is her own fault. And she is still a crybaby about it.
Frey was a phony and Talese either knew it all along or intentionally did not fact-check.
I am no Oprah-fan, but it was very good to read about her ripping into James Frey.
The rest of this story talks about how Frey shopped his book as a novel; and his editors presssured him to make rewrites and then published as a memoir.
Oprah had a real opportunity to talk about the state of the novel in the current publishing environment and why the public's hunger for redemption stories can sometimes incent authors to lie (J.T. LeRoy, Burroughs).
Instead she went on a witch hunt because someone had sullied her book club.
I freaking hate Oprah.
When signing on with Oprah, you can't tell me it didn't occur to Frey and Talese that rule #1 is "Don't fuck Oprah." And now she's whining in public about being held accountable? Enough. Go away. It's spun.
Maybe Oprah should have better vetted that novel before slapping her ubiquitous name all over it.
The one great thing about the Oprah/Frey situation is that it resulted in one of the best episodes of South Park I have seen in a long time. If Oprah would have paid attention to her "minge" a little more often, none of this would have happened.
More people need to call Oprah on her shit, and Talese should have done it a long time ago.
Keep in mind that when the story broke, Frey went on Larry King, and Oprah called in to defend him for the sole purpose of publicly executing him on her own show.
i think they filled blaine's lungs with oxygen before this stunt. if that's the case, this record is a total sham
If you are relying on Oprah for anything even resembling "truth" I'm sure that being cheated on a memoir is the least of your problems.
This is the woman who inflicted Phil on us. I will not call that fraud a doctor, even in passing.
@magilla-
He set the record for the longest pure oxygen breath hold, a different category from a room air breath hold.
Article in the NYT on Tuesday about this attempt and some of the physiology behind it. Fascinating reading even for Blaine haters.