Friday, January 27, 2006 6:53 AM
Oprah is on the rampage. She feels “embarrassed” that she promoted the memoir “A Million Little Pieces” after auther, James Frey, was found to have altered facts about his life in the book (most notably about the amount of time he spent in jail).
At issue is Oprah defending him on Larry King Live after the revelation was made on The Smoking Gun website. After calling in to Larry King to defend the book, her website was blasted by angry viewers who felt betrayed that a book that was supposed to be a truthful retelling was marred with lies, and that Oprah obviously didn't think truth was important.
In an attempt to do damage control, Oprah brought the author onto her show yesterday to confront him. She grilled him on many aspects of the book, and the audience was totally feeding off of her melodrama.
Oprah: “Was there a Lily?”
James: “Yes”
Oprah: “And did she commit suicide?”
James: “Yes”
Oprah: “By hanging?”
James: “No”
Oprah looks like one of her dogs just died and the audience gasps in unison
Oprah: “How did she die?”
James: “She slit her wrists”
Obviously if I was writing a memoir, I'd change some details to protect the identity of people. So of course some details are going to be different, yet Oprah and her cult thought this was the equivalent of saying he put one of the nails through Christ's hand personally!
My wife has read A Million Little Pieces, and she was very moved by it. Does it matter that he only spent hours instead of months in jail? No. Does it matter that Lily slit her wrists instead of hanging herself? No. What does matter, and what seems to have been lost in this whole experience, is that there is an epidemic of addition in our world, and the events of this book paint a picture of reality, even if its not the author's.
Oprah and her viewers should be ashamed that instead of focussing on the positives of this book (addicts praise it for offering a glimmer of hope), and allowing it to move them to action within their communities to help those with addictions, they've made it about saving Oprah's image thinly veiled as an attack on “truth”.
D