James Frey
Burnham Banked on Frey, Expands Office, Revives Rep
Some time before it became crystal clear that, despite all laws of nature, James Frey’s Bright Shiny Morning would be an unqualified hit, there was a moment when agents and editors wondered if the man who’d agreed to publish it might have reason to worry for his job. Back in September, Harper publisher Jonathan Burnham had stunned colleagues and rivals by forking over a seven-figure advance for the privilege of putting out Mr. read more »
Janet Maslin Channels James Frey In Rave Review Of Bright Shiny Morning
Janet Maslin loved Bright Shiny Morning. The teaser text on the New York Times books portal is "James Frey stepped up to the plate and hit one out of the park with his new book." Ms. Maslin's review, published today, is not only an unequivocal rave, but a tribute to Mr. Frey's choppy trademark style: "His publisher called it a dazzling tour de force. read more »
Lineup for May 7, 2008
Leon Neyfakh wonders who'll replace departing Random House CEO Peter Olson. "Regardless of whom Bertelsmann CEO Hartmut Ostrowski and his 15-person supervisory board appoint to replace Mr. Olson, it is all but certain that Random House will undergo some radical changes." Plus: James Frey. read more »
Frey: No Lies!
Editors at MSNBC.com removed and retracted a story about James Frey last Thursday afternoon after receiving some angry phone calls from members of Mr. Frey’s publicity team. In the story “Frey Still Having Trouble Keeping Facts Straight,” which ran in the Scoop gossip column, reporter Courtney Hazlett suggested that Mr. Frey, the disgraced memoirist whose debut novel will be published by HarperCollins next Tuesday, had been caught in a fresh tangle of lies.
First, Ms. Hazlett questioned a story about meeting Norman Mailer that Mr. read more »
Morning Memo: All Our 'Heroes' Went to Anna's Little Party Last Night ...
Dina Lohan will be honored as a "Top Mom"--no, really!--on Long Island by an organization called Mingling Moms, alongside Rae Stern (Howard Stern's mom), Betty Seinfeld (Jerry's mom), and Shelley Stevens Herschlag (Natalie Portman's mom). Check back here tomorrow for lots more ... [P6] read more »
Lineup for April 30, 2008
If you remember this year's White House Correspondent's Dinner, you weren't there. Felix Gillette, John Koblin, and Choire Sicha flood the zone in D.C..
Janet Silver is moving from Houghton Mifflin to Nan Talese's imprint at Doubleday. Leon Neyfakh checks in with with Ms. Talese who says, "I called Janet and she sent us a list of the authors she had worked with and the ones who’d said they wanted to come with her, if not immediately then eventually." That list may include Philip Roth and Jonathan Safran Foer. Plus: Islam observers on Wieseltier's Amis review; James Frey's PR Dream Team; Spitzer's bio; Nabokov's unfinished novel. read more »
James Frey's PR Squad Is Batting 1.000
James Frey’s novel Bright Shiny Morning is coming out in two weeks, which means the publicity department at HarperCollins is in the thick of what has to be an unusually challenging public-relations campaign.
With director of publicity Tina Andreadis in charge, the team has done a knockout job so far. The biggest coup is the softball profile of Mr. Frey that will appear in this month’s Vanity Fair, which paints Mr. Frey as a wounded victim of market forces. read more »
Famed Faker Frey Buys Soho Condo for $985K (For Reals)
According to city records, fabulist James Frey has a fabulous new unit to add to his three-bedroom apartment at 505 Greenwich Street. This month, Mr. read more »
Advance Galley for James Frey's New Novel Bright Shiny Morning Spotted on Q Train!
Coming off the Q train at Union Square this morning, The Media Mob spotted a woman on the stairs carrying a paperback copy of James Frey's forthcoming novel Bright Shiny Morning. The book-- Mr. Frey's first unequivocally fictional work and his first attempt to restore his reputation since his memoirs were revealed in late 2005 to be largely embellished-- won't be out until May. read more »
1,700 Million Little Pieces Readers To Be Reimbursed
The Observer's Leon Neyfakyh told us in September:
If A Million Little Pieces taught us anything, it’s that readers love a good tale of redemption, and now that Mr. [James] Frey is back with a new novel, the people who have agreed to help him sell it are going all out to convince the world that New York has forgiven Mr. Frey his sins. read more »
Reconstructing Frey
Oprah-stomped, ersatz autobiographer James Frey stuns publishing, selling his new novel to HarperCollins. read more »
My Book Deal Ruined My Life
Is James Frey Candyman?
On election night, Mr. Frey was out at Employees Only—the pretty would-be Prohibition-evocative hot-spot on Hudson by Christopher.
As he walked by the bar, he saw some guys he recognized with some other guys he didn't recognize. He slowed. Maybe he would say hello. But then he over-heard that the topic of discussion was, oddly enough, James Frey. And, as it so often is in Manhattan, the discussion of Mr. Frey was not using the nicest of terms. At all. At least one of the men had had a bit of business dealings with Mr. Frey in the now-far past.
He pulled up to the bar and ordered a beverage of unknown contents in a highball glass, to better listen in. He confronted the men. Angry words were exchanged.
Well, no one hit anyone. Mr. Frey, in a fit, did however break his highball glass in at least a dozen pieces on the floor.
The Transom
The Transom
The Transom
Mr. & Mrs. Frey at Fashion Week
"We're just friends with Bill and Cynthia and we've come to support her," Mr. Frey said, referring to the designer and her author-husband, Bill Powers.
"My wife is into fashion," he said. He was a little flustered: "So, I'm what my wife's into."
Across the runway sat Martha Stewart.
"I'm wearing a Lacoste shirt, Hanes t-shirt and Addidas shoes," he said, wearily.
And what are the pants?
"I have no idea," he said. "Those are J Crews," said Ms. Frey.
"Probably J Crew," Mr. Frey agreed.
"Oh, and your glasses are Oliver Peoples," she said to him. A young mother, she was all smiles. "And his earrings are Elsa Peretti Tiffany," she said.
They laughed. "Cheesy!" Mr. Frey said with a groan. Now he was a bit more limbered up.
"My top four fashion books?" he said, with imminent compliance. "'Tall Island' by Bill Powers." What a surprise. He thought for a bit more before appealing to his wife. "Uhm, what other fashion books are there?"
She, too, cocked her head to one side in meditation.
Then Mr. Frey got one: "What was the Ellis book about models who are terrorists?" he said, the title just on the tip of his tongue.
"The one that just came out?" Ms. Frey asked. Could she be more of a reader than he?
"No, a few back," Mr. Frey said with haste. "Modelrama, or something."
"Glamorama!" Ms. Frey shouted, caught up in the moment. They made a good team. All around, editors and celebrities were getting seated. Jaime King blathered to a television reporter.
"There's gotta be some McInerney book about fashion...." Mr. Frey said. He was still two books short of the prize. "How about my wife's monthly edition of Vogue?" he said. The game wasn't fun for him anymore. "That's one of my top four fashion books," he said firmly. "Yah, I flip through it. The pictures are beautiful. I don't know what I'm looking at, but...."
"We've never been to a fashion show. Never!" said Ms. Frey. "I just love beautiful clothes—I love to look at beautiful people. That's what's so great about living in New York, too, unlike any other place. We live downtown"—in February, 2003, the Observer's Joe Hagan visited their apartment in TriBeCa and found two Picassos, two Matisses, and a Dali—"And you just go out on the street and you feel inspired! You think, 'Oh, I sort of have that in my closet. I can put that together!"
Ms. Frey used to work as a copywriter in advertising, but not anymore. She stays home to take care of the couple's daughter, Maren, who turns two in December. She is said to have been the prototype for a character in Josh Kilmer-Purcell's book, "I Am Not Myself These Days: A Memoir," about the author's life and times as a drag queen.
And what was Ms. Frey wearing?
She pointed to items on her person in succession: "Prada, Hermes, Hermes, J Crew," she said. "And Penguin."
—Nicholas BostonThe Packager and the Plagiarist, Continued
The anchor did a good, sophisticated job. While the "writer"'s tough performance (and the media's fawning backstory to the comedown) only upped the ante. When Visnawathan said she wanted to talk to McCafferty to apologize—for what, unconsciously unintentionally lifting?—she seemed to be jumping about 10 steps ahead in the James Frey playbook. It was bogus and unearned, and will only sharpen the swords of envy.
Compare Visnawathan's heartfelt debt to McCafferty to this from the CrimsonBut when The Star-Ledger in Newark, N.J. asked Viswanathan about the inspiration for her book last week--before the similar passages were reported--she responded, "Nothing I read gave me the inspiration."
Letters
Why Oprah Spurned Me: I Am the Un-Frey
Freyed Tomato
Fact, Fiction and the Theater: Truth Is, We Prefer Lies
Fact, Fiction and the Theater: Truth Is, We Prefer Lies
Hilary Swank: Marriage Expert
Photo: Nicole Brydson.
Better or worse than being blurbed by James Frey? read more »
Toning Up, Toning Down: Tracking a Publishing Term of Art
"I suppose I could have done that book... It would have been shocking and I could have gotten all kinds of attention, and I could have toned things up and toned things down." - Martha Sherrill, quoted by Edward Wyatt, in Memoir Becomes Novel, Secret Remains Secret, The New York Times, January 30, 2006.
—Matt HaberRemember Sept. 11, 2001? Here’s the Romantic Version
Remember Sept. 11, 2001? Here's the Romantic Version
Letters
Letters
To the Editor: read more »
Oprah on Frey: "I Was Wrong"
"I apologize, I was wrong," Ms. Winfrey said, about her support of author James Frey. The Smoking Gun released an investigation of disputed facts in Mr. Frey's memoir, A Million Little Pieces, earlier this month. She also said, "I regret my phone call to Larry King," referring to her live phone call to the talk show host, in which she blamed the publishing industry for not disclaiming the memoir. "The truth matters," Ms. Winfrey said, and: "My judgement was clouded."
Mr. Frey's publisher, Nan Talese, said on the show that she found the whole experience sad. "It's not sad for me," said Ms. Winfrey. "It is embarrassing."
After a number of disclosures, including his inability to recall whether he had actually experienced the infamous root canal without pain medication that he recounted in his memoir, Mr. Frey said that "there were no other major issues." No questions were asked about the title character of Mr. Frey's second memoir, My Friend Leonard. read more »
--Choire SichaOprah to Host Frey, Talese, Rich
A source at Doubleday said that Frey, publisher Nan Talese and Frank Rich will be appearing on the show, which is being taped tomorrow morning for airing at 4 p.m. read more »
--Sheelah KolhatkarThe Awful Untruth
Meet the New Staggering Genius
The Awful Untruth
The Awful Untruth
In Frey Fabrication, Publishers Only Care If Mt. Oprah Blows
