Oprah on James Frey: "I Feel Duped"- Page 3

[RachLaura]

Posted: 1/26/06 at 10:24pm

I think the funniest thing is through all of this publicity, if that's what you can call it, Frey is probably going to make another million or so...

Go Oprah!

[emo_geek]

Posted: 1/27/06 at 1:34am

I think this has more coverage then the clinton scandal.

[Plum]

Posted: 1/27/06 at 1:39am

I think you don't remember the Clinton Administration very well.

[smartpenguin78]

Posted: 1/27/06 at 1:40am

More coverage than the Clinton scandal?
I have never heard such blatant hyperbole in my life.

[BSoBW3]

Posted: 1/27/06 at 1:48am

What Clinton Scandal?

I don't remember that one...

But remember that time when Oprah...

[EvelynNesbit1906]

Posted: 1/27/06 at 2:09am

As someone who actually works in publishing and has also been burned by dishonest people in this industry, I have strong feelings on this issue and sympathize with Oprah, Nan and James Frey.

Just a few months ago, I was hired to be the editor of a free press entertainment magazine that circulated around the city a few years ago before (according to my boss/publisher) funding issues ushered its decline. Because the publisher was able to show me back issues of the magazine and a close friend could attest to having seen it in its last incarnation, I was convinced that this would be a stepping stone for me in magazine editorial. I immediately began making contacts with film studios, theaters, galleries and museums; posted ads for advertising directors, webmasters, freelance artists and photographers, assistant editors and staff writers; and developed content for an inaugural/revival issue (really inaugural because there was little sense in just continuing a magazine that "died" right from where it left off). Gradually, skeletons started falling out of the closet: The first was that the publisher was an alcoholic and - too often - belligerently drunk on the job. A bit later I found out that - contrary to his statement during my interview that he had pursued a PhD in Anthropology at Berkeley, before deciding to pursue work in the magazine industry instead - he actually hadn't finished high school and was living (at age 50) off his parents' trust funds. Finally, after encouraging me to review over 400 applications for staff writers, webmasters and advertising directors, he decided to skip town [without telling me in advance] at the height of the interview process. I was actually on the fifteenth interview in a week and didn't know how to contact him. A staff was never hired. The magazine never circulated. Basically, I did a ton of work for it (including writing all of the articles for an inaugural issue) only to end up interviewing at another magazine and explaining why I had no choice but to resign my last post.
I thought about my own experience as Oprah mentioned reading hundreds of E-mails expressing such enthusiasm about Frey's book. Her statement that most people were viewing this from the "outside" and therefore couldn't understand her experience as Frey's greatest advocate registered with me. Yeah, it's a huge blow when something ostensibly beautiful turns ugly. Now I've been at the other magazine for weeks, but I'm still receiving E-mails from job candidates for the old magazine asking whether they will be hired and other people requesting meetings and publication. People have told me that I "need to get over it" but, unfortunately, I'm still taking the heat in E-mails when my intentions were 100% good. I would think Oprah is in a similar situation. The negative feelings associated with being "duped" are difficult to communicate to those who haven't been duped.

I do, however, know quite a bit about how difficult it is to make a good living in publishing. Maybe if my publishers thought more in terms of profit like Nan, I wouldn't be living in a studio now and worrying that the money I save between now and August still won't be enough for me to take a short vacation. I think the greatest tragedy here is that Frey was chosen for Oprah's book club and pulled a fast one on her. Now they're both embarrassed and upset, whereas without Oprah's stamp, A Million Little Pieces would have just been one of many dubious memoirs and Frey might have had the relative anonymity that many authors privilege (I'm too cynical to buy most memoirs as straight truth but I think in most cases - notably Mommie Dearest, A Child Called It and Prodigal Days - I prefer to believe that what I'm reading is true).

I did like this statement by Frey during the broadcast: "All the way through the book I altered details about the characters to render them unidentifiable." This sounds like a damn good explanation to me. (And for the record, it's not an exact quote, but close enough.)

Another thought: Oprah remained calm? Not my reading. She featured a prerecorded interview with a journalist saying that she should kick the author's "phony butt out of the kingdom of Oprah." Then she smiled and said "thank you" for that, while Frey and Nan were still sitting beside her. If only I knew how to work the recorder on my VCR. This episode is an instant classic.
Updated On: 1/27/06 at 02:09 AM

[Fantabulous428]

Posted: 1/27/06 at 2:17am

Also, of course Oprah is going to feature journalists on her show that support her cause, which is exactly what she did. I also agree with whoever said it before that her audience is like a group of trained monkeys - ready to gasp and applaud on cue. Who's to say that the whole audience even read the book (I mean, maybe they did, but who knows?). She also seemed to not mind at all the "pity" she received for coming out on this show to speak of her mistake (defending Frey on Larry King).

Updated On: 1/27/06 at 02:17 AM

[Type_A_Tiff]

Posted: 1/27/06 at 2:24am

Evelyn, I agree with a lot of what you said - I think this is unfortunate for everyone involved (probably more so for some than for others, but nonetheless...) -

These are the biggest problems I have with Frey's arguments, as per what he's on record as saying on Oprah today.

I did like this statement by Frey during the broadcast: "All the way through the book I altered details about the characters to render them unidentifiable." This sounds like a damn good explanation to me. (And for the record, it's not an exact quote, but close enough.)

I remember him saying that too, within the context of why he changed the method Lily used to kill herself. Now, it's one thing to change a name or a prominent trait to hide someone's identity. I think this was a weak excuse for him to pull here - we're not talking about him changing her hair colour or occupation. Would her slashing her wrists make her more identifiable? I'd think not. Appears to be used for heightened dramatic effect.

My second biggest beef with Frey is that he still maintains (unless this changed in the ending of the broadcast - I just watched the middle 20 minutes but will watch the rerun tomorrow) that his memoir is truthful in that he is describing events *as he remembers them* and leaves it open to some inaccuracies. If that were merely the case - as I'm sure most memoirs are - it would be understandable. But the difference between mere hours in a cell and 87 days? (And according to what I just saw on Larry King, he wasn't even incarcerated but held at a police jail cell until he made bail.) Taking novocaine vs. not? These are not things you just forget - especially when he's suddenly able to recall them so clearly NOW. And worst of all, to go on record on his first Oprah show to say that he'd kept hundreds of pages of documents that prove what he say is true, only now to say he doesn't - either way, he's a liar, liar, pants on fire. It's just a matter of where and to what extent.

This was an uncomfortable interview to sit through because Frey kept stuttering and contradicting himself. All he had to do was say, "I had an inspiring story to tell. Maybe I should've said it was just 'based by true events', but I didn't. Nevertheless, the core of my message is the same." But he didn't do that.

[EvelynNesbit1906]

Posted: 1/27/06 at 2:38am

Good points all around, Tiff... Frey read Oprah's animosity and responded accordingly. He was seeing something else we didn't see (per Oprah), which was an impassioned studio audience. He wanted to preserve his less shreds of dignity at any cost, but his efforts were precluded by the combination of live television (think fast!) and an episode that was clearly intended to humiliate him. He must have been contractually obligated to appear on the show - or not specifically this show, but perhaps whatever publicity the Book Club contract and DD demanded of him.
Updated On: 1/27/06 at 02:38 AM

[Type_A_Tiff]

Posted: 1/27/06 at 2:43am

What was with this "live television" thing? Are they always live in Chicago or just for this interview? I wonder whether he agreed to come back to the show, knowing that Oprah had changed her stance. Does anyone know this? I'd be curious to find out, because he didn't seem as caught off-guard on Larry King, but he was downright unwatchable here.

[EvelynNesbit1906]

Posted: 1/27/06 at 2:49am

>>Are they always live in Chicago or just for this interview?<<

No, the episodes are usually prerecorded (which explains why it's rare to hear the microphones go out as Nan's did yesterday).

>>What was with this "live television" thing?<<

Revenge.

[Type_A_Tiff]

Posted: 1/27/06 at 2:52am

Do you think it was live so they could catch Frey off-guard with her attack and not give him time to prepare or walk off?

I'll have to see when Nan's mic went out. I only watched up to the part where she was stumbling around Double Day's procedure for finishing a book, which suspiciously included doing fact checks upon accurancy - something she admits they didn't do. (Unless I'm totally misquoting that, correct me if I'm wrong.)

As someone in the publishing industry, do your find what she said reasonable?

[EvelynNesbit1906]

Posted: 1/27/06 at 3:08am

"Do you think it was live so they could catch Frey off-guard with her attack and not give him time to prepare or walk off?"

Yes and no.
The controversy had been brewing long before yesterday's episode. As you probably noticed from the Larry King footage or will when you're able to see the episode in full, Frey was growing... increasingly aware.... that he wasn't going to get away clean. It seemed to me that he felt uncomfortable even listening to Oprah defend the book via telephone with Larry King. Anyway, yesterday's episode was about honesty. What's more honest than live television? (live television without five-second feedback a-yuk a-yuk a-yuk!)

"As someone in the publishing industry, do your find what she said reasonable?"

I felt the most pity for her. She saw a goldmine in "A Million Little Pieces," and I think that's what most of us are looking for whether we're printing books or taking a preexisting publication in a new direction... (and I speak from the perspective of someone who has ONLY worked for free press magazines but personally knows a few people at major publishing companies such as Random House, which I almost joined last summer.) It's easy not to be cynical about something that has great potential - especially when you have the text to show to colleagues, including market analysts, as evidence that it will sell well. To my ears, her description of the difference between memoir and autobiography was sound, and her choice not to grill Frey about the accuracy of his book was understandable. After all, it wasn't as though she was the only person capable of editing his book; he could've left her for an equally talented editor and then she'd still be kicking herself.

[Type_A_Tiff]

Posted: 1/27/06 at 3:12am

To my ears, her description of the difference between memoir and autobiography was sound, and her choice not to grill Frey about the accuracy of his book was understandable.

I think I missed the part about the distinction between a memoir and autobiography. Is it that a memoir is more based on personal recount and perspective, while an autobiography is a personal recount that also forces someone to look at something objectively and thus, requires a greater amount of factual accuracy? I'm just assuming.

I did feel the most pity for Nan and the addicts who were inspired by this under the assumption that this was a true recount.

[EvelynNesbit1906]

Posted: 1/27/06 at 3:17am

Most of my pity for Nan can probably be attributed to the fact that it could have been me instead of her on yesterday's show (that is, if I had chosen to keep pursuing a book publishing career instead of a career in magazines).

Your reading of the memoir/autobiography delineation is pretty spot on. And cheers to you for sneaking "addicts" in there. LOL. Bed time now.
Updated On: 1/27/06 at 03:17 AM

[Type_A_Tiff]

Posted: 1/27/06 at 3:19am

I figured "junkie" sounded judgmental and condescending.

Have a good night. Oprah re-airs at 9amPST here - if there's anything new that changes my perspective, I'll mention it on this thread.



ETA: I forgot to ask - in light of this, has "My Friend Leonard" been placed under the same scrutiny, and if so, what's amounted from it?

Updated On: 1/27/06 at 03:19 AM

[NYC4Life]

Posted: 1/27/06 at 5:29am

If i had a show that millions of people watched around the WORLD, I was getting mail from angry people i would bring the topic back to the show. Actually Oprah had on the journalist from the Washington Post on they bashed her in his paper so for the person that said she had on journalist that supported her is just bull, plus no smart journalist would support fry in the situation. I have taken classes in journalism and the truth is the most important thing. You cant lie. He lied and that is not acceptable.

[jimmirae]

Posted: 1/27/06 at 7:31am

I gotta admit, I loved watching O give him the reading he deserved. He backed down like a dog with his tail between his legs. Too bad lots of "Sheep" are buying his sequel. He's such a slimeball.

[NYadgal]

Posted: 1/27/06 at 7:36am

And she also showed that truth counts, and admitting that one made a mistake is something sorely missing in today's society...

[Auggie27]

Posted: 1/27/06 at 8:38am

I agree with Namo, the show's power was extraordinary until the last 90 seconds, when we were served the obligatory "growth" moment. I actually felt the big O was squirming then, however.

But already there's a backlash (even in this thread) painting Frey as the victim of Oprah's unchecked wrath . Beyond silly. But of course, totally in keeping with a society that can't get enough of "growth" and "redemption."

And butch bravado from swaggering men who bend the truth.

The NY Times TV critic says Oprah "emasculated" Frey. Leaving out the fact that Frey created a faux impression of his own butch stoicism, the mean druggie dude a new stereotype that I personally hope loses its romantic glow immediately.

Puleeze. Deballed by Oprah? Armed with the simple truth, his "masculinity" could've been skewered by Dakota Fanning. A scene I'd pay to see, by the way.

[PalJoey]

Posted: 1/27/06 at 8:40am

"Something that is sorely missing in today's society..."

Amen, sister.

[TheQuibbler]

Posted: 1/27/06 at 9:05am

While I see both sides of this argument, I couldn't help but feel this episode was an exercise in ego-boosting for Oprah, something that she does not need.

[Borstalboy]

Posted: 1/27/06 at 9:21am

I swear, Oprah should open her own monarchy.....in Jonestown maybe.

As for Frey, I almost felt sorry for the lispy little worm. The insinuation that books should have ratings REALLY pissed me off...and of course Oprah's Soccer Moms lapped it up like cream. SCARY!!

[JerseyGirl2]

Posted: 1/27/06 at 9:39am

My friends that have written books are quick to ask friends and family to read drafts for basic pre-editing. Did none of his friends or family question the lies in pre-release or even once the book was released? Hell, if I didn't read a friends' book immediately, I would be in so much trouble. Did his mother never say, "Now James, you were NOT in prison for 3 months. You were in the drunk tank for three hours! Stop being so damn exaggeratory! (James' mother may have just made up a word.)"

[DottieD'Luscia]

Posted: 1/27/06 at 10:09am

I'm curious; during the Larry King clip that was played repeatedly there was a woman sitting next to Frey, who was that? I might also say that she appears foolish as well because at that moment she was applauding Oprah's vindication of Frey.