T H U R S D AY, J A N U A RY 1 2 , 2 0 0 6At The Watercooler: James Frey on Larry KingThe most entertaining show on TV last night was surely James Frey onLarry King, the writer that Smoking Gun revealed had simply made upmany of the key incidents in his memoir "A Million Little Pieces." Inthe book, Frey claims to have been in jail, brawled with cops, andbeaten an Italian priest.</p><p> His defense? He made some stuff up.</p><p> So what?No one expects a memoir to be true."I never expected the book to come under this sort of scrutiny," Freytold Larry.</p><p> I'll bet.</p><p> He also said "only about 18 pages" have beenquestioned in the 448 page book.</p><p> That seemed a pretty good average tohim.</p><p> Frey ignores the fact that most of the factual incidents of his life --arrests, assaults on police officers, being the focus of a druginvestigation, jail time, etc. - in other words, the only details that couldbe independently checked have proven false.As for the specific lies he peddled, Frey never said "I made that up" or"No, that really happened." He just compared himself to Hemingway,Kerouac, and Jerzy Kozinski. "And he killed himself," interjected Larry,who quickly added he wasn't suggesting anything about Frey.For the grand finale, Oprah called in and said she stood by her personalconnection with the book, that it could make a difference in peoplestruggling with addiction, that she was disappointed in the controversy,but that she mainly blamed the publisher if the book was marketedinaccurately.</p><p> Please note that Oprah stood by the book, not the author.Everyone's reporting she stood by the author, but Oprah is a smartwoman and she chose her words carefully.</p><p> I wouldn't wait for Frey tocome back on her show anytime soon.Oh, and to top it off, Frey admitted he shopped the book as fiction, butit didn't sell so he started to call it a memoir.</p><p> Ah well, as long as it's"true." Not true, mind you.</p><p> But "true."POSTED BY MICHAEL IN NEW YORK AT 9:18 AM 2 C O M M E N T S :Next Blog»sal1mineo@hotmail.comSEARCH BLOG FLAG BLOGFOLLOW BLOGP O P S U R F I N G .</p><p> C O MS U R F I N G T H E WAV E S O F P O P U L A R C U LT U R EB Y M I C H A E L G I LT Z & F R I E N D SPOPSURFING.COM: At The Watercooler: James Frey on Larr...http://popsurfing.blogspot.com/2006/01/at-watercooler-james-fr... 1 of 37/29/09 4:30 AMFAV O R I T E L I N K SAmericablogFive O'Clock Lightning baseball blogDeep Pop -- Lori Lakin's BlogThe Back Page -- Jason Page on ESPNRadioCine-Blog -- George Robinson's BlogDocuments On Art & Cinema - DarylChin's BlogBrucie G's Wondrous Blog OfAdventure and Mystery -- BruceGreenspan's BlogB L O G A R C H I V E▼ 2009 (17)▼ July (3)1939 -- The Greatest Year ForMoviesSwimming Bans Those Hi-TechSuits!Best Movies Of The Year -- TheMaster List► June (3)► May (1)► March (2)► February (1)► January (7)► 2008 (86)► 2007 (781)► 2006 (2412)► 2005 (5)C O N T R I B U TO R SMichael in New YorkAaronBiboy POPSURFING.COM: At The Watercooler: James Frey on Larr...http://popsurfing.blogspot.com/2006/01/at-watercooler-james-fr... 2 of 37/29/09 4:30 AMPOPSURFING.COM: At The Watercooler: James Frey on Larr...http://popsurfing.blogspot.com/2006/01/at-watercooler-james-fr... 3 of 37/29/09 4:30 AM
