Oprah: Blaine, Cruise, Frey

By Margaret Lyons in News on Apr 30, 2008 5:56PM

It's busy being Oprah. Today she hosted international attention addict David Blaine as he held his breath for over 17 minutes, earning himself his first Guinness World Record. We thought for sure he already had one for his truly staggering ability to generate useless ideas, but apparently not. Blaine held his breath for 17 minutes and 4 seconds, besting the previous record, 16 minutes and 32 seconds, set in February. Tomorrow, brace your ovaries: The cast of Sex and the City, including Chris Noth, will be getting Oprahfied. And then Friday, the day we've all been waiting for, it's another Tom Cruise episode. Hm, wonder if anyone will blog anything about it.

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.

From VF:

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]