That somebody would select James Frey’s new book Bright Shiny Morning as a must-read this summer shouldn’t be all that surprising — the reviews have been generally positive. That the somebody would be Gayle King, special friend to Oprah, is. When Good Morning America’s Diane Sawyer asked her to recommend some sunshine-y reading material, King plugged two books: Scott McClellan’s What Happened, and Frey’s Morning, adding that she even liked A Million Little Pieces.
Frey spectators would be right to question King’s motives.
It’s almost impossible she would recommend the scandal-plagued author without first consulting Oprah; even more likely, King was acting as Oprah’s agent, following direct orders to bring some appeasement, now that the Frey storyline – a demarcation in book publishing lore – has reversed itself to a degree, painting Oprah as the villain, and Frey as a complicit bystander.
This was not a casual, throwaway recommendation. Almost certainly, it was a calculated move from Oprah’s camp to smooth some stones.
What else left is there to say about James Frey? He lied to Oprah, fabricated his way into America’s homes and hands, lost the trust of his publisher, and turned it all around into another book deal that produced a fiction manuscript critics actually like. So after all of these ups and downs and bouts with fame and notoriety, what else can we learn about the guy? For starters, he’s cheap. And lavish. AT THE SAME TIME. CONTINUED »
“News” today, from the Post or WWD, that former MSNBC editorial director Davidson Goldin, and sometime New York Sun columnist and former NY1 anchor, is advising author James Frey on his media strategy won’t be a surprise to Jossip’s readers; we were the first to report the news back in February. Frey’s wife, Maya, is a college friend of Goldin’s from their days at Cornell, which is how the pair teamed up.
Now Goldin has formally signed on with former Star editor-in-chief Joe Dolce, to form DolceGoldin, a media strategy firm that, among other things, takes meetings at Soho House and hopes to generate a client list by word of mouth (how novel!). Dolce’s life partner, Jonathan Burnham, runs HarperCollins, which published Frey’s book — and thanks to HarperCollins and the New York Post both being owned by News Corp., it explains why the Post is so adept at delivering favorable coverage of Frey. Goldin’s experience in television news and Dolce’s experience fending off personal attacks on blogs are their selling points to clients.
After James Frey’s bodyguards escorted him on stage Tuesday night for a Bright Shiny Morning reading, the author sat down with CNN’s Lola Ogunnaike, who asked him difficult questions like, “You could’ve easily written a memoir, a post-scandal memoir, but instead you chose to write a novel. Why?”
Um, because “nobody would believe me.” CONTINUED »
The take away from this Page Six item about James Frey reading from Bright Shiny Morning at the Blender Theater two nights ago: The author now travels “flanked by two huge body-builders.” [P6]
James Frey’s new book Bright Shiny Morning, which hits this week, is the much-talked-about follow-up to A Million Little Pieces, a book that got him in all sorts of trouble with Oprah, the book-reading public, and the publishing industry.
Originally, Frey touted Pieces, in the press, as a memoir, though he was soon exposed as a fraud.
Then Jossip heard some rumors that began creeping out of Doubleday, the publisher of Pieces, and were finally solidified in Vanity Fair, where reporter Evgenia Peretz, in a mostly friendly article, reported that on an internal “author’s questionnaire”, Frey had originally wrote, months prior to the book’s release, “I think of this book more a work of art or literature than I do a work of memoir or autobiography.”
A novel, then. And that’s been Frey’s excuse since being exposed: He never intended the book to be labeled a memoir, but was taken down that path by the marketing department. Subsequent copies of Pieces have thus carried a disclaimer.
Funny, then, that Frey’s Morning, from publisher Harper, went to press with this printed on the inside cover flap of the dust jacket, effectively making it the first sentence the book’s readers will see:
“One of the most celebrated and controversial authors in America delivers his first novel — a sweeping chronicle of contemporary Los Angeles that is bold, exhilarating, and utterly original.”
Ahem. His first novel?
James Frey told Vanity Fair that he wasn’t going to do much press for his new book Bright Shiny Morning, which hits this week. Then he blogged on Amazon.com that he would be doing “some press.” So, that’s one new lie.
How about another?
Three weeks ago, Frey and his handler Lisa Kussell at PR firm BWR told ABC News Now, the broadcast network’s digital 24/7 news channel, that he would do a sit-down interview, scheduled for today. Now, Jossip hears, with just an hour before he’s supposed to shoot the live taped segment, he canceled. The excuse? “He doesn’t look good. […] He’s drenched and not shaven.”
So how about a phoner, then?
Nope, Kussel took that off the table too. Perhaps James doesn’t even have a face for radio?
Actually, that’s not true either. Frey will be doing a spot with ABC News Radio.
James Frey stated, in Vanity Fair, that he “doesn’t plan to speak to the press again” regarding his new not-a-big-fat-lie of a book Bright Shiny Morning. But perhaps the little road tour isn’t enough to assuage publisher Harper that they’ll move enough copies to recoup the advance? Blogging on Amazon.com, Frey says, “I’ll be doing some press” while on the book tour. And also, synergy: Tour stops will feature live music from a “band in LA is called Black Tide, and they’re one of the best metal bands in the country, they played t[h]e main stage on OzzFest last summer.”
Oprah would do well to lavish herself in Tom Cruise publicity, since this month’s Vanity Fair paints a scathing picture of her. No longer is she the innocent victim of the James Frey scandal, but rather a punch puller, duping publisher Nan Talese and the author into appearing on her show to call them out on the falsified memoir.
As Talese herself argued last year, and the Evgenia Peretz’s VF article confirms, Talese originally agreed to appear on Oprah’s show to take part in a “Truth in America” panel; she’d deliver the publishing industry’s expertise. But when she and Frey arrived at the studio, the show’s focus was switched on them, and that they’d be discussing the Frey scandal. According to one source we spoke with, they were alerted to the change as they were walking on to the studio stage, with no advance notice.
Meanwhile, as Jossip relayed last week, Frey never pitched his publisher, Talese/Doubleday, as a memoirist. CONTINUED »
For someone who should be scraping the bottom of the publishing barrel, author and news-article-re-poster James Frey certainly seems to have crawled his way to the top. Over Nan Talese’s body.
Not only has his “switch” to fiction – one rumor we continue to hear from publishing insiders is James always imagined himself a novelist, but publishers knew they could better market a memoir, so he, stupidly, made the jump – been nicely swept under the rug (with A Million Little Pieces continuing to move copies), but his new effort, Bright Shiny Morning, on bookshelves May 13, is being feted with a May 8 Sotheby’s party with a limited edition of the novel, in collaboration with photogs Terry Richardson and Richard Prince, to be released. He’ll then head off to Anaheim to speak at the American Library Association convention.
Having ditched Random House imprint Double Day, Frey is now at HarperColilns. Which might explain why today’s Page Six carries the flattering news; HarperCollins, like the Post, is owned by News Corp. That, and former MSNBC programming whiz Davidson Goldin, who is counseling Frey on all things media relations, appears to be damn good at his job.
Over the weekend, the NYT caught up with history’s most recent faker memoirists. (Have you heard? It’s all the rage this month.)
Clifford Irving, who sold a fake tome about Howard R. Hughes that spawned the movie Hoax, is having his book released as a novel this month. Laura Albert, aka JT LeRoy, was in Paris attending a party when she was reached; she’s feels for the newly outed hoaxers. Oprah deceiver James Frey is about to launch an eight-city book tour.
The next article we’d like to see in this series? Updates on fake reporters. Is Jayson Blair still resuscitating his reputation as a rally boy for mental health awareness? What cabin is Pulitzer Prize winning Janet Cooke hiding out in since she was outed as a fabricator for the Washington Post? And has Stephen Glass been admitted to the New York bar yet, and is he still doing that whole comedy scene in Los Angeles?
Art enthusiasts will be able to buy paintings that may or may not be fakes, now that fairytale author James Frey is backing a Lower East Side gallery. (Maybe this Observer illustration will be for sale?) Partnering with designer Andy Spade and Bill Powers, their 350-square-foot space will focus on “emerging artists.” Sort of like Oprah tried to do with Frey, only to get her reputation shat on. So think twice before one of those red dots on the wall is yours. [WWD]
James Frey has big plans with new new novel Bright Shiny Morning. To generate buzz for the May HarperCollins release, Frey is planning a nationwide tour that “sounded more like a concert tour,” says Page Six, which discussed the details over dinner at Le Bernardin — perhaps at the request of his publisher, a News Corp. corporate cousin to P6’s New York Post?
“We’re talking about having bands, other authors reading their work. We may try to include some pyrotechnics,” Frey says.
And who might have given him that idea, or others? Quite possibly, it was Davidson Goldin, the recently removed MSNBC daytime programming chief.
We’re told Goldin has signed on to provide media consultancy to Frey, a move that makes sense given the other rumors we’ve heard: that Goldin wants to make himself into a media strategist.
We called Goldin to confirm the details, and while he remained mum on specifics, he told us, “James’ wife [Maya] has been a friend of mine since we were in college together, and I’ve been happy to give him guidance.”
We also called Le Bernardin to confirm what the Sixers ate. They said even less.
Look, everyone likes Oprah. She’s smart, she’s fun, she’s relatable and – aside from that awkward James Frey kerfuffle – she even has good taste in books. So the only way for Hillary Clinton to combat Oprah on the pulpit is with the only other pseudo-political figure everyone can agree on: Chelsea Clinton.
In addition to possessing a relatively benign personality coupled with moderately hot Jewess appeal, Chelsea appeals to everyone who’s ever endured a prolonged “awkward” phase.
Despite hurting Oprah’s feelings, only 1,729 readers actually mind that James Frey lied to them. That’s the number of people who filed suit against Random House for publishing A Million Little Pieces as non-fiction.
A federal judge settled their suits and Random House will reimburse readers who bought A Million Little Pieces under false pretenses. Random House will pay $27,348 to disgruntled readers, plus $1.2 million in legal fees and $180,000 to the American Red Cross, the Hazelden treatment center, and First Book, a reading non-profit. CONTINUED »
If A Million Little Pieces taught us anything, it’s that readers love a good tale of redemption, and now that Mr. Frey is back with a new novel, the people who have agreed to help him sell it are going all out to convince the world that New York has forgiven Mr. Frey his sins…
And at least one publishing executive who believes himself to be one of the eight or nine Mr. Simonoff [Frey’s new agent, Eric Simonoff of Janklow & Nesbit] has been referring to in interviews suggests that his interest in the book was significantly more passive than Mr. Simonoff has represented.
“It’s a bit of a fig leaf,” he went on, referring to Mr. Simonoff’s efforts to suggest that all is forgiven with Mr. Frey. Still, “it may have the virtue of being true, which is not a bad thing. This is publishing. We hire the handicapped.”
–Excerpted from Leon Neyfakh’s piece in this week’s New York Observer, “Reconstructing Frey”
At a panel discussion on race and modeling, Naomi Campbell said “I’ve never been on the cover of British Vogue and I’ve asked a million times and they’ve always refused me.”
Except she has. Eight times.
Maybe Campbell was inspired by James Frey who told the New York Times last week that he had never written a short story in his life despite having published a short story last fall.
This is an earnest request to media types everywhere: If you’re going to lie, pick a topic that a single Google search won’t catch.
In the wake of James Frey recreating some sort of literary career, it’s easy to doubt Oprah’s power. But yesterday, she reminded the Goldmans that she’s nobody’s media fool.
Oprah didn’t attack Fred Goldman’s ridiculous moustache, but she did question the ethics of publishing a book describing his son’s murder, questioning if he was making “blood money” off the book.
After Denise Brown dropped out of the live tapping with the Goldmans, Oprah didn’t want to hold interview at all, but she felt obligated to keep her word to the Goldmans. Like everyone else except the Goldmans, Oprah feels a little awkward about the book, and said, “I don’t want to be in the position to promote this book, because I, too, think it’s despicable.”
CONTINUED »
After Oprah castrated James Frey on national television early last year, the non-fiction fiction writer seemed done for. But if A Million Little Pieces taught us anything, it’s that we should never underestimate the fictionalized will power of James Frey.
The author has sold a new book, this time really fiction, to HarperCollins to be released next summer.
Frey’s agent, Eric Simonoff denied that the whole lying about his memoir thing was an issue. “When word began trickling out that I had a novel from James Frey … every publisher in town contacted me.”
Every publisher in town probably excludes Random House, since they had to refund readers for A Million Little Pieces and their senior editor was disgraced on national TV.
At a literary event last weekend, James Frey publisher Nan Talese picked at old wounds. Old Oprah wounds.
Talese had apparently come to the Mayborn Literary Nonfiction Writers Conference of the Southwest in Grapevine, Texas, ready to rumble. In an afternoon discussion on Saturday, Talese brought up the issue of Frey’s memoir. Saying she was unapologetic about publishing the book, Talese said in her genteel, mid-Atlantic accent that it was Oprah who needed to apologize for her behavior in the affair. Talese argued that Frey, in the gripping manuscript he submitted, had described himself as a liar, a cheater and an addict, and under those circumstances she did not believe she was reading “the New Testament,” where every word was avowed truth. She described Oprah as exhibiting “fiercely bad manners.”
Oh, it gets better. CONTINUED »
Editorial Director
