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.
(Other than making Random House look better, what do those charities have to do with the James Frey’s scandal at all? -Ed.)
In the seven months following the Smoking Gun report revealed lies in the memoir, A Million Little Piece went on to sell almost 94,000 more copies. And even after Oprah, the most powerful woman in publishing trashed him, James Frey sold a novel to HarperCollins in September.
The takeaways from the James Frey episode: honesty is overrated and people hate filling out forms.
Editorial Director
Also by now many people realize that Oprah is full of shit.
c'mon elle…don't b a hater..it's not cute
Oprah can't win for all the haters. At first when she backed Frey, the media and some of you chastised her for doing so. You accused her of supporting a liar.
Then when she realized her mistake, and instead stood up for truth, you same people were upset with her for that as well. I think the idea of a successful, powerful black woman reprimanding a white male on national television for all to see, didn't sit well with many of you. Who knew that would be possible someday in racist U.S.A.
Go deal with your issues!