Yesterday (Thursday, Jan. 26, 2006), James Frey
appeared on Oprah to admit that most of his best-selling non-fiction book
A Million Little Pieces was, in fact, fiction. This comes as no surprise to anyone with an internet connection - TheSmokingGun.com
reported in detail about the fabrications in the book more than two weeks ago. It's not news that James Frey is a total liar (a total liar who has sold more than two million copies of his first book).
My question is this:
why would Frey agree to appear again on
Oprah, when he would have to know that Winfrey will use the show to berate him and call him a liar on national television for an entire hour? This makes no sense. A normal person goes to great lengths to avoid being publicly shamed. Does one sign a contract when one appears on
Oprah that stipulates that the guest must also agree to come back to the show to be hung out to dry if Winfrey so chooses? Or is Frey laughing all the way to the bank, having been paid a large fee by Winfrey to appear on the show again? Or is Frey a liar
and an idiot?