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?
Editorial Director
I just don't understand how you can compare someone who's entire book is a fabrication to James Frey. His book isn't filled with lies. He exaggurated his jail time. He didn't lie throughout his book, or pretend to be an addict. He WAS and addict, or IS rather. Anyone who thinks that Oprah's word is gospel probably reads the newspapers for election advice. She used him to grind her own axe, bottom line!