Oprah tears Frey a MILLION new ones
James Frey made a return appearance to Oprah’s show yesterday in an attempt to answer charges claiming his memoir A MILLION LITTLE PIECES is largely fabricated. I was critical of Oprah for her defense of Frey on LARRY KING LIVE, but she redeemed herself at the show’s start, saying her judgment had been “clouded” and that she had sent the message to the nation that truth doesn’t matter.
I’m sure Oprah doesn’t feel she’s wrong very often, so to admit that not once but numerous times throughout the broadcast is brave. But not as brave as Frey, who took such a beating from the host, the other guests and the audience members that I hope he didn’t start using shortly after exiting Harpo Studios. He owned up to some of the charges, but seemed awfully wishy-washy on others.
The best line of the hour went to Washington Post columnist Richard Cohen, who asked about the scene where a bloody, vomitous Frey boards a flight, “How’d this guy get on an airplane? I can’t get on with a third piece of luggage.” I won’t recap the entire show since others already have done so, but I must take offense at publisher Nan Talese for trying to save her own reputation by saying that a memoir is an author’s “remembrance” of events. Which is true, Nan, until they actively create falsehoods; then it’s a novel.
Lessons learned from this ordeal: You can’t trust a drug addict, and you do not make Oprah look like a fool. Who knew?
I only saw bits and pieces of it on TV, but boy did Oprah look pissed. I wish she had been that pissed when all this broke, but I give her credit for making no bones about it being a mistake now.
I wish I had seen the parts with the publisher. They deserve a lot of the blame for all this. At least Frey first tried to sell his book as a novel. They never cared.
[...] Another month, another look at search terms that brings surfers to the world that is BOOKGASM. Amidst all the usual suspects (Mimi Rogers, Uschi Digard … do I sense a trend?) we find not one, not two, but eight differently worded searches for James Frey, the recently/rightfully tarred-and-feathered “memorist” whose credibility has broken into (if you’ll forgive the pun) A MILLION LITTLE PIECES. [...]
Now if we can only hold our elected leaders to the same standard of honesty (WMDs indeed!) then this will be a better country. Eh?
I do agree that lying is not acceptable…but his book is helping people, and he has gone through a lot in his life and overcome some things that i don’t think i could have dealt with…i think that he’s an amazing person and i hope that people continue to read his book and respect him for the wonderful person that he is…i mean think about it..america makes such a big deal about things…i’m not saying it’s right, but how many times have you lied or spun the story? Probably to many times to count…i like James Frey and i highly respect him.
Honesty: Who needs it?