Literati Rejoin the Fray Over Frey

Publisher Nan Talese assaults Oprah, a year later, in absentia
By Heather McPherson,  Newser User
Posted Jul 31, 2007 12:00 PM CDT
Literati Rejoin the Fray Over Frey
Oprah Winfrey arrives for an awards on May 20, 2007 in New York. Winfrey is in mourning after the sudden death of her 2-year-old golden retriever, Gracie. The talk-show host talked about her loss in the August issue of O, the Oprah Magazine. (AP Photo/ Louis Lanzano)   (Associated Press)

More than a year after Oprah delivered her on-air dressing-down to James Frey for fictionalizing his own memoir, his publisher, Nan Talese, hasn't forgiven or forgotten.  At a literary convention in Texas last weekend, Talese called Oprah's behavior  "mean and self-serving,"  said the confrontation was "fiercely bad manners," and challenged her to apologize.

Talese was backed up by the convention's keynote speaker, Joyce Carol Oates, who  questioned Oprah's judgment of Frey's veracity in her speech. Lest anyone think the outburst was inadvertent, Talese reiterated the charges the next day to a Dallas Morning News book critic, saying she found Winfrey "holier-than-thou" and her talk-show audience a "Roman circus." (More Oprah Winfrey stories.)

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