oprah
08/02/2007
Nan Talese Calls Oprah Out!
Nan Talese, editor/publisher of James Frey's famously not-entirely-truthful memoir A Million Little Pieces, has apparently been hopping mad at Oprah for a while now. And at this weekend's Mayborn Literary Nonfiction Writers Conference, she let 'er rip.
Talese had already said in an earlier discussion that she didn't regret publishing the memoir, and that it was Oprah who should be doing the apologizing. But later that evening, keynote speaker Joyce Carol Oates took a subtle swipe at Oprah's qualifications to judge what constitutes "truth" in literature. This prompted an Oprah fan in the audience to launch into a tirade attacking Frey. And that's when Talese took the podium.
From Talese's account of how the famous Frey-roasting Oprah epsiode unfolded, it's clear they were set up and ambushed in a fashion better suited to Jerry Springer than the Queen of all Media. Still, the accusation that Oprah is just a self-serving businesswoman who never cared about the controversy until her fans did is not exactly a scathing indictment. I mean, who did Talese think Oprah was before -- Mother Teresa?
And here's a truth-in-art question: Why is it artistically acceptable for Frey to manipulate the truth for his creation, but a "lie" for Oprah do the same for hers?
