James Frey

16 Stories

A Million Little Pieces: Infamous Fake Memoir, Upcoming Film

Sam Taylor-Johnson set to direct movie version of James Frey book

(Newser) - Filmmakers often struggle to decide what details from a true story they can change in the name of watchability. Something tells us that's not going to be a problem this time around. Variety reports a film version of James Frey's infamous memoir, A Million Little Pieces, is in...

James Frey to Oprah: That Interview Was a 'Car Crash'

Author says he was 'ambushed' in 2006 interview

(Newser) - Oprah Winfrey is using two of The Oprah Winfrey Show's final eight episodes to revisit what she says is the biggest controversy of the show's 25-year history. Author James Frey was back on the show yesterday, five years after Oprah gave him a very public dressing-down for having...

James Frey Returning to Oprah
 James Frey Returning to Oprah 
Apr 21, 2011 9:04 AM CDT

James Frey Returning to Oprah

Talk show queen eviscerated him for faking memoir

(Newser) - Oprah Winfrey eviscerated him on her talk show (and later apologized for it ), but James Frey is ready to return to the scene of the crime. The author, who famously found himself the recipient of Oprah's wrath when it was revealed he fabricated portions of his so-called memoir,...

Greg Mortenson Scandal May Be 'Tragedy' for Girls
Greg Mortenson Scandal
May Be 'Tragedy' for Girls
OPINION
Apr 19, 2011 12:46 PM CDT

Greg Mortenson Scandal May Be 'Tragedy' for Girls

Could hurt effort to educate females in poor countries: Michelle Goldberg

(Newser) - The allegations that author Greg Mortenson isn't quite the humanitarian he claims to be smacks of the James Frey memoir scandal , with one all-important difference, writes Michelle Goldberg at the Daily Beast . Frey damaged only his own reputation, but Mortenson could do far worse. He is, after all, "...

Inside James Frey's Sweatshop-Like Novel Factory

Controversial author hires writers to churn out novels on the cheap

(Newser) - James Frey, infamous for angering Oprah with his "fake memoir" A Million Little Pieces, idolizes Vonnegut, Hemingway, and Henry Miller. He's the kind of writer who talks about wanting to "change the game" and "move the paradigm." Yet he's also the head of Full Fathom Five,...

Top 9 Oprah Moments
  Top 9 Oprah Moments 
Nov 20, 2009 9:42 AM CST

Top 9 Oprah Moments

'You get a car! You get a car! You get a car!'

(Newser) - After 23 years of The Oprah Winfrey Show, the queen of talk has racked up quite a few memorable moments. In the wake of news that she's going to end the show in 2011, E! runs down the top nine, including Tom Cruise’s crazy couch dance, her car giveaway,...

James Frey's Latest Creation: Pro-Choice, Pro-Gay Jesus

Once Oprah's enemy, now Christians'?

(Newser) - James Frey pissed off a lot of people—including Oprah—when his “memoir” A Million Little Pieces was exposed as fictional—but his new book might spark even more ire. Illumination: The Final Testament of the Holy Bible features a Messiah who marries gays, impregnates a teen, and later...

Oprah to Fake Memoirist: Sorry!

Moment of reflection leads talk show queen to apologize

(Newser) - In a moment worthy of, well, Oprah, talk-show queen Winfrey herself had an epiphany while meditating—and called memoir faker James Frey to apologize for publicly eviscerating him on her show. “When I heard her say, ‘I felt I owe you an apology,’ I was very grateful,...

Fake Memoirist Frey Implies Dirt on Oprah

Excerpt from new book seems to be based on Frey's experience

(Newser) - Does James Frey—who achieved infamy when Oprah Winfrey denounced his fake addiction memoir A Million Little Pieces—have dirt on the talk-show queen? That’s what he seems to imply in new novel Bright Shiny Morning, the New York Post reports. The paperback edition, out May 12, includes an...

Fake Holocaust Memoir May See Light as Novel

Henry Rosenblatt working to find outlet for disgraced story

(Newser) - Herman Rosenblat’s Holocaust memoir was exposed as fake, but that doesn’t mean no one can profit off it: A small New York press is considering publishing the work as fiction, Gawker reports. Rosenblat, who even fooled Oprah a la James Frey, spun a touching but debunked story about...

Shiny Morning No New Dawn for Frey
Shiny Morning No New Dawn for Frey
BOOK REVIEW
May 13, 2008 7:23 AM CDT

Shiny Morning No New Dawn for Frey

Critic lashes fake memorist's 'execrable' new novel

(Newser) - The flap over James Frey's memoir-that-really-wasn't was bound to cast some clouds over his new novel Bright Shiny Morning. But lack of believability continues to be a key issue for the author with his "execrable" new book of two-dimensional characters in a city that bears little resemblance to LA,...

James Frey Returns, Like It or Not

Nonfiction fantasist's new novel will be on sale soon

(Newser) - James Frey regrets nothing. In an interview with Vanity Fair to promote his new novel, Bright Shiny Morning, the author discusses the 2006 controversy regarding his "memoir," A Million Little Pieces, and how he was vilified by the media and humiliated by Oprah Winfrey. "I've said all...

With Big Give , Oprah Shows Smaller Side
With Big Give, Oprah Shows Smaller Side
TV REVIEW
Mar 21, 2008 6:26 PM CDT

With Big Give, Oprah Shows Smaller Side

Reality charity show provokes sniffles, but writer calls it vain

(Newser) - The new ABC show Oprah’s Big Give might be exactly what it claims—an epically scaled, nurturing-obsessed cult of personality—but the format is old and unsuitable, Nancy Franklin writes in the New Yorker, and the star is self-obsessed. The competition charity program sometimes reduced to her tears, Franklin...

How to Fake a Memoir
 How to Fake a Memoir 
Mar 12, 2008 4:03 PM CDT

How to Fake a Memoir

Embellish the story without getting caught, Slate scribe suggests

(Newser) - Misha Defonseca's memoir left a sticky trail of lies about escaping Nazis and living with wolves. (It turns out wolf saliva isn't an antiseptic.) Tired of careless fabricators, Slate writes a how-to for aspiring fakers:
  • Keep it vague. Dates are verifiable—"awhile" is not.
  • Watch out for tattling
...

Fake Memoir Author Pens Debut Novel
Fake Memoir Author Pens Debut Novel
Sep 13, 2007 2:51 AM CDT

Fake Memoir Author Pens Debut Novel

'A Million Little Pieces' writer James Frey calls it fiction this time

(Newser) - Disgraced author James Frey, whose memoir "A Million Little Pieces" was revealed as fiction last year, will publish a debut novel, "Bright Shiny Morning," with HarperCollins, the Wall Street Journal reports. Frey's fabricated memoir about losing his life to drug addiction sold some 3 million copies and...

Literati Rejoin the Fray Over Frey
Literati Rejoin the Fray
Over Frey
Jul 31, 2007 12:00 PM CDT

Literati Rejoin the Fray Over Frey

Publisher Nan Talese assaults Oprah, a year later, in absentia

(Newser) - 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 "...

16 Stories