Oprah on James Frey: "I Feel Duped"- Page 5

[PalJoey]

Posted: 1/27/06 at 2:01pm

Okay, comic relief. Absolutely HYSTERICAL phot-recap of the show from gawker.com at the link below
Do Not Piss Off the Oprah

[Jane2]

Posted: 1/27/06 at 3:26pm

"Asking Oprah and her audiences to engage in critical thinking would probably result in the same reaction should Oprah ever cancel her "MY Favorite Things" show. Riots of fat women overturning shopping carts in the K-Mart parking lot and eating one too many White Castle burgers to drown their pain."

Why say riots of FAT women? You got a problem with fat? Oprah's audience has just as many thin ones going out of their minds and crying their guts out when they hear "free gifts". So, Di2, you're back? good we need some more laughs.

[PalJoey]

Posted: 2/3/06 at 10:58am

Update from an industry newletter:

Frey’s memoir—-proven recently to be grossly fabricated—-is seeing a drop in sales for the third week in a row. According to Nielsen BookScan, A Million Little Pieces sold 145,000 units the week (ending Jan. before The Smoking Gun investigative website released its damning findings from extensive research into the author’s life, and 122,000 units the week after (ending Jan. 15). For the week ending Jan. 22, Pieces sold 80,000 units. This week (ending Jan. 29), the book dropped 27.5 percent, to 58,000 units sold.

[PalJoey]

Posted: 2/3/06 at 11:03am

Poor guy made only $65,000 in royalties this week, as opposed to $89,700 the week before and $163,000 the week before that. That's in addition to the $10-15 million he's made so far. Poor guy.

[Sing a Song With Me]

Posted: 2/3/06 at 12:14pm

Jane2, it was only a joke. Lighten up. Sheesh, you probably think Paris Hilton is too skinny or ugly or something.

[Borstalboy]

Posted: 2/3/06 at 12:27pm

Apparently, Talese and Frey had no idea they were going to be barbequed. They thought they were going on an Oprah show to discuss the topic "Truth In America". And then...

Oprah LOVES surprises, no?

[Sing a Song With Me]

Posted: 2/3/06 at 12:28pm

They'd have to be really, really foolish to think that going on a show with THAT topic on Oprah after what was going on with Frey's book wasn't going to turn into a grilling session about his falsehoods or fabrications or whatever you want to call it.

[robbiej]

Posted: 2/3/06 at 12:35pm

I never read the book. However, I watched one of the interviews Oprah did with him. It involved him 'counseling' a woman who is a drug addict and going through treatment. "Hold on!" he kept telling her. And she did...because of what he went through, she was able to "Hold on".

Turns out...he didn't go through alot of it. And so, this man who was counseling this desperate woman turns out to be a liar. So her image of this man who had gone through hell and back but managed to 'hold on' turns out to be false. What does that do to her? Maybe she deludes herself just so she can stay sober. Or perhaps she feels emotionally raped and starts using again. I don't know.

But the fact that this is even a possibility makes these lies insidious.

[popcultureboy]

Posted: 2/3/06 at 12:42pm

And that is my problem with his lies too. I think it's why I'm SO pissed about him lying more than I will be if Augusten Burroughs is exposed as someone whose pants are unmistakably on fire.

One of my dearest closest friends is a recovering alcoholic. She is in AA and I recommended she read Frey's book as a possible alternative to explore. And I am pissed about that.

[robbiej]

Posted: 2/3/06 at 12:54pm

Ya know...Roz Russell's memoir is apparently 'enhanced' and 'remembered differently'.

But who cares if she came up with some dialogue or not. It does not affect anyone's life.

This book as been used as a tool in recovery...based not only on the fact that Frey was in recovery, but that he was such a 'bad guy' who did 'bad things' and went through some amazingly 'bad SH*T'. Turns out he's some lispy guy who isn't as macho as he wished.

Probably hung like a raisin.

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 2/3/06 at 5:17pm

The lispy guy thing is key, I think.

His whole "Big Jim" persona, grappling with cops and fighting and tattooing initials for butch pseudo-affirmations on his body are just, in my opinion, one big wish fulfilment fantasy.

[MasterLcZ]

Posted: 2/4/06 at 2:37pm

Once again, Jon Stewart explains what kind of lies, are really, really important: "Oprah World" vs. "Our World"!
Click on Jon

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 2/4/06 at 3:16pm

God, that was satisfying.

[PalJoey]

Posted: 2/4/06 at 3:21pm

yes, it was--thanks, Mast

[PalJoey]

Posted: 2/6/06 at 11:41am

James Frey will never eat lunch in Hollywood again.

snippet:
-----

Frey's own story line is rooted in Hollywood. He is listed at the Internet Movie Database website as the director and writer of a small 1998 film called "Sugar: The Fall of the West," and he has a writing and story credit on the 1998 David Schwimmer movie "Kissing a Fool." He's also listed as a co-producer of 2001's "See Jane Run" and as a producer of the 2000 Luke Wilson film "Preston Tylk," which was also released as "Bad Seed."

And when he decided to shop his memoir around to agents, he settled on Kassie Evashevski, the respected literary manager of Brillstein-Grey Entertainment. Unlike a traditional literary agent, Evashevski represents both book and film projects. Some believe this hybrid approach creates a built-in temptation to see a book as a steppingstone to a film deal.

Does Frey have trouble in Hollywood?