Yesterday we received the following email:

From: [redacted]
Date: Tue 3/21/2006 10:57 AM
Subject: Fake Writer James Frey Flees Country ...

Last week Fake Writer James Frey quietly slipped off to the south of France "for a few months." It seems he's starting to crack; unable to meet the stares and steady murmur of "oprahoprahoprah" that follow him EVERYWHERE in New York. His SoHo apartment sits empty. His Amagansett beach house sits empty. let's just hope that there is a church basement with hot coffee and an AA meeting over there for when things get really bad.

Unable to confirm anything, we put it on the backburner. Today in Page Six:

Has mendacious memoirist James Frey shattered into "A Million Little Pieces?" Despite selling millions of copies of his book, the faux tough-guy writer who made up much of his supposedly nonfiction story has quietly slipped off to the South of France for "a few months," tattles our gleeful spy. "It seems he's starting to crack - unable to meet the stares and steady murmur of 'Oprah, Oprah, Oprah' that follow him everywhere in New York. His SoHo apartment sits empty. His Amagansett beach house sits empty. Let's just hope that there is a church basement with hot coffee and an AA meeting over there for when things get really bad."

And that, everyone, is how a newspaper does its reporting.

Riviera Refuge [Page Six]

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