What I found intriguing was the way she gloated about how the doyenne of New York publishing, Nan Talese, reportedly berated Oprah Winfrey (at a literary convention in Texas on Saturday) as a “sanctimonious…mean and self-serving” bitch who doesn’t even know the difference between a memoir and the “New Testament”….Meow!!!
I gathered that this reader wanted me to know about this unprecedented public dissing of Oprah because she thinks the articles I wrote on Oprah’s notorious book club scandal in January 2006 actually goaded the talk-show host into betraying Talese and author James Frey.
Never mind that it was really articles by people like Frank Rich of the New York Times that inspired Oprah’s “betrayal”. But here’s what incited Talese’s cold revenge:
It might be helpful to know that Talese is as revered in publishing as Oprah is envied in television. More to the point, however, she is the indignant publisher of James Frey’s bestselling memoir A Million Little Pieces. And Oprah fans will no doubt recall her incredulous appearance on The Oprah Winfrey Show to defend the literary merit of his book – even after investigators from The Smoking Gun exposed Frey as a craven literary fraud.
But, according to the TIME article on her convention diatribe, which this reader referred me to, Talese assumed that Oprah shared her unshakable faith in Frey’s book. And why not; after all, here’s how I criticized Oprah’s (reflexive) attempt to quiet the crescendo of outrage against Frey for peddling figments of his heroin-chic imagination as the “gut-wrenching facts” of his life:
…This scandal brought out a side in Oprah that none of her devoted fans had ever seen before. After all, given her patented mantra about embracing one’s true self and living a blissful life of open confessions, they reasonably assumed that she would be the most outraged by Frey’s spectacular betrayal. Instead, she not only seemed blithely unbothered by it, but actually blessed Frey’s fatuous plea about taking creative license with the truth to make his memoir more “compelling”. Never mind the emotional toil his lies will have on her millions of fans whose lives were “impacted” by his book.
Oprah gave Frey this curious literary absolution on Wednesday’s edition of CNN’s Larry King Live [i.e. on 11 January 2006], when, as Frey was drowning under a tidal wave of backlash, she threw him a life raft by calling-in to comfort him and assure the millions of fans she exhorted to by this book that The Smoking Gun’s exposé amounts to ‘much ado about nothing’.
Therefore, I am constrained to ask Oprah the following questions:
Why are you still defending this book? Is it not irresponsible for you to counsel your deceived fans to “keep holding on” to the professed inspiration they got from a pack of lies? And why would you – who admonish people almost daily to be true to themselves and to live their own lives – now enable Frey to gloss over the pathological (and mercenary) lies he sold about his life?
Within days, however, Oprah had a miraculous literary conversion. And this is what led to the show on which Talese and Frey appeared. But here’s where it gets interesting:
Talese insisted on Saturday that Oprah completely misled her about the nature of this show; that she gave no indication beforehand about her conversion; and, that she and Frey were completely blindsided when Oprah unleashed her “holier-than-thou” wrath upon Frey.
And, no doubt, Talese intended the following to strike at the heart of Oprah’s saintly public image. Because she claimed that:
After the show, Frey told her Oprah pulled him aside and said, ‘I know it was rough, but it’s just business’.
Now, given the way Oprah converted almost overnight from being Frey’s avenging angel on Larry King Live to serving as his literary executioner on her own show, Talese’s account of this janus-faced Oprah seems credible.
Except, however, that Talese insists to this day that Frey’s book of lies “has great value for anyone who must deal with a loved one who is an addict.” Therefore, her credibility and judgment seem terminally impaired.
Moreover, she’s hopelessly misguided if she thinks the word of a pathological liar, like Frey, will impeach Oprah’s character in the eyes of her devoted audience, which Talese ridiculed as “reminiscent of a Roman circus”.
Therefore, as much as I took Oprah to task for initially defending this book and suffering no apparent consequence for her egregious lapse in judgment, I think Talese’s harangue amounts to little more than a hissy fit, which Oprah would do well to not even dignify with a comment….
NOTE: Enquiring minds would like to know why Talese chose some backwater venue down in Texas to launch this attack? After all, surely she knows better than anyone else that a catfight between her and Oprah is worthy of no less a venue than the media capital of the world, New York City….
Related Articles:
Oprah defends Frey’s book of lies
Apology accepted Oprah, but…
TIME on Nan Talese
Oprah Winfrey, Nan Talese, James Frey
Noel says
Couldn’t agree more.
Perhaps she’s just trying to sell a few more copies of “a Million Little Pieces” or the other fairy tale “My Friend Leonard”. Both of which I bought hook, line, and sinker…..pe
Noel