NEWS: The Writer Who WasnÂ’t There

CULTURE: The Writer Who Wasn’t There

J.T. Leroy should be used to tragedy. Before bursting onto the literary scene in the '90s with a stream of allegedly semi-biographical fiction and reportage, Leroy -- an impoverished Floridian with gender identity issues -- worked as a prostitute, contracted HIV and suffered abuse as a child.

Once away from that tragedy, Leroy became a literary cult figure. Influential journalists and rock stars -- who would read LeroyÂ’s work at public events -- befriended him. Esteemed literary journals and prestigious journalism outlets like Vanity Fair and the New York Times published his stories.

Then the greatest tragedy of LeroyÂ’s young life happened in late 2005 when he was exposed as a fraud. Leroy, it was discovered, was the invention of author Laura Albert. The Leroy who appeared in public was really AlbertÂ’s niece.

The Leroy deception unfolded at the same time as A Thousand Little Pieces author James FreyÂ’s lies unraveled. LeroyÂ’s fakery was more audacious than FreyÂ’s -- Frey exaggerated his addictions and troubles while Leroy was an entirely fictional person -- Leroy never appeared on Oprah, and the story was lost in the undertow.

Except now the Leroy persona has become central in a bizarre court case. Film director Steven ShainbergÂ’s production company Antidotehe has paid Albert $45,000 for the movie rights to the Leroy novel Sarah, and is now suing to get the money back, saying that false author identity has rendered the rights to the books worthless.

The filmmakers claim they planned to portray LeroyÂ’s alleged real life story in the movie, a plan they kyboshed once the truth about Leroy was made public.

There was already a fairly faithful movie adaptation of another Leroy book, The Heart is Deceitful Above All Things. Despite the hotness of director and star Asia Argento, the movie was a mess and failed to register at the box office, an outcome Antidote no doubt wants to avoid. According to AlbertÂ’s legal counsel, thatÂ’s the likeliest thing to happen to the film Antidote is trying to make.

Meanwhile, the real story of Laura Albert and how she hustled the literary world was considered as part of the story. But thatÂ’s apparently not for sale.

then why not portray it as entirely fictional, instead of whining that it's worthless because the person doesn't exist?

What? Nobody cares if the story is real or not. People think the moon landing and 9/11 are fake. People just want the version that sounds most like a bad movie, so this shit should be gold. They probably already invented "fake writer hoax" conspiracy, and will believe Leroy is real no matter the contrary evidence. They should make the movie about THAT!

yeah what the hell..why is everyone so "offended" by the "lie" that was JT Leroy..i find it fascinating and amusing..writing is art, and why does it matter specifically who created the art or what it was based on..if you liked it before knowing the truth, it's still the same work of art even though the truth is out about who the real author is..no one thinks JD Salinger is a "fraud" just because he wants some damn privacy and seclusion

Aww, poor JT. My writing teacher, Stephen Beachy, is the guy that outed him/her in New York magazine

It's sort of lame to say that after the fact. It's not the people who are calling bullshit who care as much as the person who invented the entire persona to market a couple books. The fact is, she (he) scammed a lot of people, going so far as to claim to have contracted AIDS. Sort of a shitty thing to do, gaining sympathy when there are a lot of real people suffering through shit she only lied about going through.

I'm not even sure how those two are even remotely connected or similar. JD didn't concoct a fake tragedy to sell books. JT did.

To be fair, saying you like someones work because of the person who created it is really shallow - if you like the work like it, not it's maker. It's like all those annoying little snots who only listen to Nirvana cuz Kurt gave a gun a bj. It should make NO difference and I mean NO difference to how good the material is. She didn't scam anyone that mattered - the material is what it is no matter who wrote it you fuckwit. I bet you're one of them aren't you? One of those creepy "I love his music because he painted a wall with his brains" type of people.

1) Don't you mean "A MILLION Little Pieces"?

2) I have to agree with the majority of the comments thus far. Although I felt a little cheated by the "outing" of Leroy, I still liked the books ... and the more I thought about it, the more I realized how brilliant the whole bit was. People are obsessed with celebrity and image and tragedy.

Ah well.

I think the problem is that, like with Frey, the books were marketed as non fiction. If they were marketed as fiction I doubt they would have sold anywhere near as well. People like to read about others whose lives are so far removed from their own. They want to read about the kid that was a prostitute but managed to rise above, or the guy that had a horrible addiction then turned it around. It takes them away from their dull lives.
A fictional account of those sorts of lives are interesting stories, but without the human interest part of it, not as appealing to the general public.

The site says that I would have an Northern Accent: You have a Northern accent. That could either be the Chicago/Detroit/Cleveland/Buffalo accent (easily recognizable) or the Western New England accent that news networks go for.

actually, i'm not saying it "after the fact"..the first moment i saw a picture of JT years ago I knew "his" story wasn't quite right, i knew "he" was a female...and i never bought the story about 'his' youth ..and i didn't give a shit..i thought the stories were fascinating and when all the "truth" did come out, it made a lot more sense..i think JT made a legitimate farce out of the whole cult of celebrity, the stories were Laura Albert's creation and she has the right to present them in whatever way she wants

Plus, regardless of the larger issue of whether the truth of an artwork's backstory matters in one's appreciation for it, the specific point at issue here is that the filmmakers ended up purchasing very different source material than they were led to believe. A wholly fictional novel, with no real connection to the invented persona purported to have written it, holds an entirely different set of cinematic, producing, and marketing demands than what the production company had originally bought.

I'm FREAKING OUT!!!

WHOOOOSSHHHHH . . . . .

Rather.

On the other hand, I bought Sarah and The Heart is Deceitful Above All Things without ever so much as noticing the fake JT Leroy melodrama. I liked them both.

I care. We have plenty of genres to choose from. So choose. If you didn't really overcome adversity doing this or that then I don't want to be led to believe you/someone did.

On a related note, I read an article a while back regarding Running With Scissors. Some members of the family claimed Burroughs embelished etc. Anything ever come of that? It really wasn't my cup of tea but I always hear re Frey and nothing re Burroughs.

Ummm...way to miss the point. I didn't say a single word about whether or not the books were good or not. Congratulations on your reading ability.

That's the only thing that seems of any relevance to me. A business contract was entered into under false pretenses by one of the parties.

When I bought Sarah, way back in 2002, I was on a serious Chuck Palahniuk bender and he gave Sarah a great blurb. I enjoyed it a lot. The Heart is Deceitful... not so much. It was the same damn story over and over and over again: "Kid's mom goes out with abusive asshole. Abusive asshole beats kid to a bloody pulp" every single goddamn story. It was sad the first few times, but after a while it started to read like a bizarre parody of itself.

maybe if you actually read an interview with JT Leroy you might have picked up on something too..or maybe if you knew anyone who is transgendered and often passes as a man the pictures would have given it away..sorry to have picked up on something you didn't, how dare i

Whatever you say, princess jumping to conclusions.

you're the one that jumped to the conclusion that i just obviously couldn't have known anything was awry with the whole JT story, hypocrite, oops i mean 'princess'

Really? All I can see I'd said was "". You're the one who thinks she's all up on my personal life.

:marvels: