Gawker
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on the books
James Frey Finds a Publisher, Mark Sanford Does Not
There are book deals happening today! Bloggers will publish, governors will not, and a peculiar, and speculative, sci-fi series lands a publisher. More »
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Comment by ithabeleng metesunyane: "James Frey" and "science fiction" in the same sentence is redundant no? 2 Responses | Other threads
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success stories
Jimmy Frey, Our Former Intern Boy, Makes It Big in Hollywood
Hey, look! Being a Gawker Intern pays off. One of our most famous non-paid workers, James Frey, is shopping a young adult series that just got preemptively optioned by DreamWorks. Estimates say the deal was in the high six figures. More »
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Comment by iplaudius: I would love to intern for Gawker, but I fear that Richard Lawson would just make me his bitch, force... 3 Responses | Other threads
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when memes collide
Arthur and Anna and Me
Last night, James Frey met Philly fameball Arthur Kade, a character so committed to perfectly attaining the state of "douchebag" (as originally defined) that some suspect he's a performance-art hoax. Frey investigated — and earned his Gawker special correspondent wings. More »
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By james freyComment by The Cajun Boy: Anna is so going to do Arthur Kade. 8 Responses | Other threads
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when memes collide
You Got James Frey in My Arthur Kade
Last night, James Frey went down to Philadelphia to give a reading with Anna David. Curious to meet the phenomenon of online-self-humiliation that is Arthur Kade, they invited him. Kade was, of course, thrilled for the attention. More »
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Comment by Mount_Prion: So Kade is serious? He's not an Ali G type character? 3 Responses | Other threads
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books
Holocaust Love Liar Gets His (Fake) Story Told
Herman Rosenblat's touching story about reuniting with a holocaust survivor years after the war ended was a sham. Among the conned: the NY Post, Oprah, publishers. Now alchemized into fiction, the tale's finally going public. More »
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By Foster KamerComment by cdmunch: Thank god, when I saw the photo I thought this was going to be another piece on elder sex. 2 Responses | Other threads
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Alleged Scandals
In Which We Ask James Frey About His Secret Oprah Tapes
Fiction author and former Gawker intern James Frey knows a scandalous secret about Oprah, allegedly. It's on tape, allegedly! We journalistically went to Frey's book reading last night to hear him tell the whole story:
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Comment by Trulymadlyme: Ugh, did he tape his phone call with the big O without her knowing? Because, um, that's a wee bit... 11 Responses | Other threads
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Oprah's Guilt
Oprah, Taking a Timeout From Plotting Chicken Riots, Apologizes to James Frey
Well here's one story of lust, lies and betrayal that has a happy ending! Oprah, noted American fast food terrorist, has apologized to former Gawker intern James Frey for de-balling him on national television. More »
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Comment by eleusiswalks: Surely this doesn't have anything to do with your earlier story about how he knows her deep, dark, potentially Sapphic... 5 Responses | Other threads
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publicity stunts
James Frey Implies He Knows Oprah's Big Secret
He was once a national pariah, a fraud. Then James Frey scored a $1.5 million advance for his first novel, which sold briskly. Now Frey wants another mint, off the paperback, so he's targeting Oprah.
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By Ryan TateComment by stanhalen: So thats all it takes in our Country to be labeled a "National Pariah"? Offend Oprah's Sensibilities? All the Guy... 14 Responses | Other threads
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books
Lying Holocaust Author To Turn Novelist
Capitalizing on Herman Rosenblat's infamy, a small upstate publisher eagerly trumpeted its "serious discussion" to publish Rosenblat's fake memoir as fiction. Or "to pull a Frey," in industry lingo. More »
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By Ryan TateComment by EddieTheDane: ...and then Gawker can bring him on as an intern for one day, and we can all laugh about how... 6 Responses | Other threads
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fake books
Oprah Winfrey's Liars Club
What's the one thing nearly every fake memoir scandal seems to have in common? From James Frey to Angel at the Fence, if a story is bullshit, chances are Oprah was there first. More »
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Comment by Baroness: I hesitate to say this, as she might send her Dark Helicopters (of Empathy!) to bedevil my tower, but it's... 13 Responses | Other threads
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books
In James Frey's Next Book, Jesus Loves Abortion and Gay Marriage
Having pissed off Oprah, the book industry, and us, former Gawker intern James Frey's working on a book, his own "theoretical third book of the Bible," that will now piss off Christians. -
videuhoh
Farewell, Intern James Frey
James Frey's internship has ended, and we're happy to report that he did a decent job and took the work very seriously. Watch as James goes on a beer run for the ad sales team, buys the writers coffee, and reflects on his internship experience. (Yeah, I look weird in this video and I don't want to hear another word about it.) On his way home, he took my package to the post office. [Video by Richard Blakeley]
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By SheilaComment by Urbania: and seriously? i think that place was designed, but it looks awful, like a west elm shipping facility from... 10 Responses | Other threads
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books
James Frey Answers Your Gawker Internship Questions
Yes, the Million Little Pieces and Bright Shiny Morning author really is here interning for the morning! Earlier, we prompted you to ask him questions. In the comments, I'll moderate by asking him the best ones, and he'll answer. [Photo by Terry Richardson] Read on... BTW, his handle is bigjimdorito in the first few answers, and then James Frey later on.
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By SheilaComment by Sheila: "James, did you ever want to say to Oprah, "hey, I'm a writer, what the fuck does it matter if... 11 Responses | Other threads
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interns
Our New Factchecker: James Frey
So far, intern James Frey has brought us doughnuts (some with sprinkles!), fetched coffee and is now out on a beer run. But he completed his first assigned task: a factchecking report on this morning's Gawker posts. While we applaud our intern's effort, James Frey is surprisingly not the most reliable factchecker. More »
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By james freyComment by Mary Mouse: You spelled "Shelia" wrong. Send him to the bathrooms with a toothbrush. 6 Responses | Other threads
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interns
Meet Today's Intern: James Frey!
A while ago, in an attempt to get Ryan Adams as my intern instead of him interning at Blackbook (nice catch, Mohney!), I received a one-line e-mail from somebody calling himself James Frey. "I'll come intern for a day," it read. He thought it would be interesting to intern for people who "hated" him (a strong word!) and was especially eager to do menial tasks. So Vogue gets celebrity intern Sean Avery, Blackbook gets Adams, and we get James Frey. He has written books such as A Million Little Pieces, Bright Shiny Morning, and once he went on Oprah and she yelled at him! He'll be helping me pack my things into boxes for my imminent departure and factchecking, among other things. He's out on a coffee run right now, but after the jump, let's play "Ask the Intern," in which you can ask James about what it's like to intern for Gawker. You can find James' answers over here.
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By SheilaComment by drunkexpatwriter: And on the discussion we are supposed to be having: James, did you ever want to say to Oprah, "hey, I'm... 23 Responses | Other threads
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books
James Frey F's the Bulls—t, It's Time to Cash Out
Fake memoirist and most self-important author of our time James Frey is selling his Manhattan apartment. It was listed for $5 mil originally, but he recently took $500,000 off the asking price. (When times are hard, we all have to make sacrifices.) From a Curbed commenter: "He needs to up his meds and hold his ground on the price." Also: "make sure the square footage is right, he may be lying about that too." As Frey's tattoo says, "Fuck the bullshit, it's time to throw down." [Curbed; art by Karen Caldicott]
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By SheilaComment by Baroness: Cannot. Cannot. Describe what this piece of shit's "success" as a writer has done to devalue and fuck up the... 2 Responses | Other threads
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books
James Frey Says He'll Keep "Twisting The Lines Of Fact"
Apparently we're now at the stage in the James Frey career trajectory where the once-disgraced writer can stop pretending he's sorry for lying in his memoir and on Oprah, because he's a bestselling author again now, and in case you forgot Norman Mailer once had his back, that's right God damned Norman Mailer. "He is beyond unrepentant," the Times of London writes. That's actually putting it mildly. In an interview with the paper, Frey basically promises to lie some more, punch everyone in the face and finish the bible like the second, ballsier coming of Moses. More » -
joe dolce
Flack Pimps Business Via Huffington Post Column
Oh, hey, look who got a blog or column or whatever on the Huffington Post — Joe Dolce! How convenient that is for the thoroughly obnoxious former Star editor, because it turns out his new PR business, shepherded into existence by patron and fellow sometime slimeball James Frey, is promising clients it can "guide you through the new media landscape — ensuring that the attention you receive is the attention you want." The HuffPo slot will surely prove useful in that regard! Or at least it will once Dolce and business partner Davidson Goldin scare up some clients. For now, Dolce appears to be using his column to do some ambitious prospecting. He suggests a "summit" between celebrities and paparazzi, which will never work, especially given who Dolce suggests might host it: More » -
books
"Bad on Purpose": the NYT's Divergent Views on James Frey
The first review that the New York Times wrote of fabricating memoirist James Frey's new novel, Bright Shiny Morning, was gushy to the point that it was written in the style of his novel. (It ran in the Arts section and was written by Janet Maslin.) But the NYT's Book Review takes it on this week—this time, the results are the literary equivalent of dropping a piano on an author's head. "Stupefying" and "Wikipedian" are some of the kinder words issued. At one point, it is actually suggested that maybe Frey is being bad on purpose. More » -
james frey
"James Frey might be a surprising choice, but I liked A Million Little Pieces." [Post]
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In Brief
Not that James Frey. Some other guy named James Frey. Still: name curse? [NYP]
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celebrity science
James Frey Rewards His Saviors
Fabricating memoirist James Frey earned a $1.5 million advance for his novel Bright Shiny Morning, and sales are strong. Now Frey is paying forward his riches from the book, and the money seems to be making a circle back toward the people who staged his comeback in the first place. Frey, the Post reported today, hired his wife's friend Davidson Goldin, former editorial director at MSNBC, to help with publicity on Bright Shiny Morning. Now flush, it would seem, with surplus cash, Goldin is starting a "media-strategy and branding consulting firm." And who did Frey steer to Goldin as a partner in this endeavor? Joe Dolce, the former Star magazine editor-in-chief famous for his poor management and communication skills. But there's a very relevant detail about Dolce and his relationship to Frey the Post omitted: More » -
books
James Frey's Lies Are Bestsellers Again
Good news for fabricating memoirist James Frey and his once-embattled publisher: His first novel, Bright Shiny Morning, just debuted at number 9 on the Times bestseller list, with 14,000 copies sold. "We hear HarperCollins is pleased," reports the Observer's Leon Neyfakh. Among the many, many people not sharing the publisher's glee are certain proud citizens of Los Angeles, who have begun to notice false statements in the book about their city and its history. "New York reviewers adore the book because they think it nails L.A.," wrote LA Observed. But get this: It doesn't! The book is filled with awful, awful LIES! More » -
books
James Frey on the Picket Line: A Short Scene
Now that James Frey is shilling his new novel, a screenwriter who walked the picket line during last fall's strike wrote in to share his experience with Frey, who "showed up to carry a sign and (I suspect) generally be seen. A female writer saw him and truly didn't recognize him at all. Here was the exchange that happened..." More »
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By SheilaComment by BowlingAlleyLawyer: @gawkimo: Congrats. You just called a literature teacher "semi-literate". That would be me. And that whole three-years-in-law-school-thing... begs to differ as well. But... more » | Other threads
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In Brief
That Explains It
James Frey on his writing style: "I also never really read my own writing, so I try to make it perfect the first time through." [WP]
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Comment by louisev: James Frey is the kind of published novelist that makes those of us who edit, rewrite, re-edit and rewrite our... more » | Other threads
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Lying Hacks
James Frey Can't Fool Everyone
James Frey—the whining, lying-ass, horrible writer who was probably never seriously addicted to anything in his whole sad, pampered, no-talent life—may have duped The New York Times into giving his new novel a drooling rave. But he received much saner treatment from David L. Ulin at The Los Angeles Times. "'Bright Shiny Morning' is a terrible book. One of the worst I've ever read [...] Two and a half years after he was eviscerated by Oprah Winfrey for exaggerating many of the incidents in his now-discredited memoir 'A Million Little Pieces,' he's back with this book, which aims to be the big novel about Los Angeles, a panoramic look at the city that seeks to tell us who we are and how we live." More »
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Comment by Clectus: I read "My Stroke of Insight" in one sitting - I couldn't put it down. I laughed. I cried. It... more » | Other threads
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struggling writers
Professor Confesses To Lifetime Of Plagiarism
Kevin Kopelson's insanely complete confessional in the London Review of Books is probably going to destroy his academic career, but at least the University of Iowa English professor will have lent some (im)moral support to fellow plagiarists, from fake Harvard novelist Kaavya Viswanathan to Lonely Planet hack Thomas Kohnstamm to college students everywhere. Kopelson seems to take a certain glee in confessing his many acts of intellectual theft. They've been weighing him down for a while: Kopelson's plagiarism started in the fourth grade and continued through college, graduate school and beyond. More » -
book tours
James Frey Challenges Writer's Block To A Fight
The James Frey Super Badass Killer book tour hit the Blender Theater this week, and the sleepy burg called New York is still reeling from the overpowering awesomeness. This tour, you'll recall, is not just some punk ass reading at Borders; no, it's a heavy metal-blasting punch of literary skill right in the face. Fiction writer Frey "walked through his adoring fans flanked by two huge body-builders," then read while hardcore Terry Richardson photos of guns flashed on a screen behind him. Someone asked Frey about writer's block. "Writer's block is for chumps," he replied. Step back, abstract psychological concept! At least Frey is bringing some energy to his book tour, as terrible as they usually are. But where was all that overpowering machismo when he was taping this Barnes & Noble promo earlier this week?: More »
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Comment by famousauthor: James Frey: knock him down and he pops right back up. I can't wait to see his next... more » | Other threads
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books
Will James Frey Get a Second Act From the Media?
Doesn't anyone feel just the teensiest bit sorry for James Frey? Personal feelings about his writing and the fact that he interviews like Forrest Gump aside, during the current media blitz surrounding Bright Shiny Morning (the one he told Vanity Fair he wouldn't be doing!), the dude is practically hog-tied at every opportunity and forced to talk about his past sins. The constant rehashing makes for a really boring interview. How many times must a man be forced to apologize? Was F. Scott Fitzgerald right? Are there truly no second acts in American lives?
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By SheilaComment by backseat_driver10023: Oprah hates him. So I like him. more » | Other threads
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books
The NYT Loves James Frey's New Book
We haven't read it yet (somebody please send!), but the NYT has totally fallen in love with reformed lying-memoirst James Frey's Bright Shiny Morning, set in Los Angeles. Times critic Janet Maslin writes, "His publisher called it a dazzling tour de force. (Look, somebody had to, if only to create a comeback drama)... But that wasn't so far off the mark..." It's the "captivating urban kaleidoscope that, most recently, Charles Bock's 'Beautiful Children' was supposed to be." And what else? More »
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By SheilaComment by backseat_driver10023: @Awestruck: I loved Liar's Club. I also love personal redemption / getting a 2nd wind. more » | Other threads
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In Brief
From the Mailbag
"James Frey's Bright Shiny Morning is at #666 on Amazon. I just had to tell someone." [Amazon] -
gawker book club
Here's the Part of James Frey's New Novel That's Based on Perez Hilton
James Frey's upcoming novel, Bright Shiny Morning, features interwoven narratives from the city of Los Angeles. One of his characters, a gay Cuban internet-based gossip, is based on—you guessed it, Perez Hilton! Aww. (Although, Frey does write that "between six and eight million people a day come to his website," which seems a little high.) Read the excerpt for trajectory of a young Perez Hilton. More » -
struggling writers
James Frey Lies A Couple More Times, Because Who's Still Counting?
Disgraced fabricating memoirist James Frey is planning to redeem himself in two weeks with a new book, Bright Shiny Morning, clearly labeled as fiction. But there's some spadework to be done first, in terms of publicity and whatnot, and it seems Frey hasn't been too careful about, you know, "the truth" or whatever, in the run-up to his literary rebirth. He granted Vanity Fair an "exclusive" interview and got in return a "softball profile... which paints Mr. Frey as a wounded victim of market forces," in the words of the Observer's Leon Neyfakh. But it turns out Frey also talked to a UK trade publication called The Bookseller, which posted its interview to the Web just a few hours after Vanity Fair. Then there's Frey's worn claim that he first submitted his memoir A Million Little Pieces as a novel but was convinced to relabel it as a memoir. Pieces publisher Nan Talese was not pleased, to say the least, to hear that Frey has resumed saying this: More » -
books
James Frey Didn't Even Want To Publish A Million Little Pieces as Nonfiction
James Frey is doing just one interview for his new novel, Bright Shiny Morning, and it's with Vanity Fair. Writer Evgenia Peretz tries to get to the bottom of what exactly happened with that whole fake-memoir scandal of his last book, which caused him to be ritually flensed on Oprah. "During the publishing process, Frey, it seems, still had some misgivings about putting the book out there as a memoir." Is there usually so much sturm und drang about putting out a memoir? If it's true it's a memoir and if not it's fiction, right? We're sort of tired of debating the mechanics of it at this point, but apparently it's just not that simple. More »
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By SheilaComment by FracturedAcetabulum: @ObtuseIntolerant: I think we all fit that description. Some more than others. more » | Other threads
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marketing
James Frey Is Trying Too Hard
If just buying James Frey's new novel isn't enough for you, you can purchase the "companion volume" called Wives, Wheels, and Weapons for just $150, hardcover. But it has a bunch of Terry Richardson photos of MILFs, gangsters, and rad cars. The three things that symbolize L.A.! I don't really understand the market for any of this. Particularly for Frey's heavy metal/ Hell's Angels book promotional tour, which gets a prize for Most Apparent Conscious Contrivance Of Coolness: More »
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Comment by nedzo: hee, the guy with the unreadable book that was a lie, who was bitch-slapped on afternoon tv in front of... more » | Other threads
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bringing down the house
Shameless Publishers Lied For Profit
Fabricating author Ben Mezrich isn't another Margaret Seltzer or James Frey, instead he's part of a far more serious deception. It has emerged that Mezrich invented most of the card-sharking characters in his supposed "real-life" biography, Bringing Down The House, the basis for the hit movie 21. He also appears to have manufactured the bloody beating of a gambler, the smuggling of cash at the airport using hollow crutches, the theft of a safe and the very existence of an MIT instructor. The thing is, his editors knew all about it. But they decided to market his book as a true story, and label it that way on the cover. More »
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By Ryan TateComment by Oh No I Di'n't.: Mezrich's other books suck just as much and the writing is just as bad (if not worse). All of his... more » | Other threads
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losing battles
Malcolm Gladwell 1, Me 0
When I was at Jossip, I wrote about an anecdote Malcolm Gladwell told at the Moth Gala last November, which was later rebroadcasted on This American Life. In the story, Gladwell boasts about getting absurd phrases like "raises new and troubling questions" and "perverse and often baffling" into the Washington Post. At the time, being self-serious and high-minded &mdash I do after all listen to This American Life &mdash I wondered whether there wasn't something "perverse and often baffling" about one of the most successful journalists of our time making lite deception sound so endearing . Some people agreed with me, or at least wondered how a Canuck like Gladwell ended up on This American Life. Gladwell is back, not to defend himself for the charges of being Canadian, but to explain the story on his own blog: More »
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By rebeccaComment by the_coast_guard: A girl from my high school hooked up with Malcolm Gladwell at a party. She was still in high school,... more » | Other threads
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exes
Dumping James Frey
James Frey is like my ex-boyfriend of the literary world. Yeah, sure, I enjoyed A Million Little Pieces as a memoir, but after I found out he'd lied to me about the whole dental surgery without Novocaine thing, I wanted him gone. I didn't want him dead, but he was dead to me. He keeps on calling me with new works of fiction, and it's like, enough already. We're over. I was willing to look past the fact that A Million Little Pieces was overwritten and self-aggrandizing when it was a memoir, but as fiction, he could have at least written himself into a likable character. And now he has a blog, which would normally be totally annoying, but just confirms why I dumped him in the first place. More »
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By rebeccaComment by TheBigDoggy: Jimmy Frey looks like a loser-guy I knew who used to hang around the dog track. Always losing, he assured... more » | Other threads
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margaret seltzer
Fake Memoirist Already Exploited By James Frey
Lying writer James Frey will be damned if he is going to miss an opportunity to milk literary deception for all it's worth, so he's already launched a new publicity campaign, less than 48 hours after newb lying writer Margaret Seltzer got the whole country talking about fake autobiographers again. Of course it's probably just a total coincidence that Frey chose now to launch the new blog where most of the text is copied from other sites, where Frey posts a purported lesbian fantasy video (so not worth it) and where he of course promotes his million-dollar-plus novel the name of which is not important. After the jump, the email Frey just sent out to his adoring fans. Watch and learn BG Seltzer: More »
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By Ryan TateComment by WaltonEgonon: james is the hottest guy ive ever seen ufff james come to poland! more » | Other threads
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news you can use
Those Divisive Fact-Checkers
Hey, reporters out there: here's a good line you can use when those pesky fact-checkers mess with your most colorful and fabricated quotes. Nan Talese, who published James Frey's bogus A Million Little Pieces, has weighed in on the latest literary scandal: "I don’t think there is any way you can fact-check every single book. It would be very insulting and divisive in the author-editor relationship.”
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By Nick DentonComment by annasballs: @TheGintheCity: well, I know it's a radical idea, but maybe, just maybe, fewer but better books might not be a... more » | Other threads
james frey
New York, 12:19 PM
Sat Jul 11
36 posts in the last 24 hours
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