Oprah_ A Biography - Kitty Kelley [160]
Oprah’s producers, especially Ellen Rakieten, Sheri Salata, and Jill Adams, stayed in close touch with Frey, calling him every day and sending emails. “We love the book, James. We don’t care what they say. It’s irrelevant. Really.” But the continual drubbing so unsettled Oprah that she finally insisted Frey go on Larry King Live to defend himself. She made the arrangements for his appearance herself and promised to call in at the end of the show with a statement. She had two prepared—one for him and one against him—and her decision of which she would read depended on how he did. “Go on with your mother,” she told him. “You’ll look more sympathetic.”
So, on January 11, 2006, accompanied by his mom and two publicists from Anchor, James Frey appeared on CNN to discuss the controversy surrounding his book, now described as a “fraud” and “a scandal.” Polite and low-key, he said he was a flawed person with a troubled past. He pleaded “a very subjective memory” due to his drug addiction and acknowledged that he had “changed some things” in the book but that it was “the essential truth” of his life. He would not admit to any lies or distortions. King pointed out that while Frey had the support of his publisher, he had yet to hear from Oprah. One of his callers asked, “Do you think [she] will support you?”
By the end of the hour there was still no call from Oprah, and Frey looked like a whipped dog, with his mother close to tears. Just as Larry was to turn the next hour over to Anderson Cooper, he announced, “I’m going to hold the show a little longer because I understand we have Oprah on the phone. Let’s see what she has to say. Are you there, my friend?” The host leaned forward, straining his suspenders to hear whether Frey would live another day.
“I wanted to say because everyone’s been asking me to release a statement,” said Oprah. “I first wanted to hear what James had to say.… He’s had many conversations with my producers, who do fully support him and obviously we support the book because we recognize that there have been thousands and hundreds of thousands of people whose lives have been changed by this book.… I feel about A Million Little Pieces that although some of the facts have been questioned … that the underlying message of redemption in James Frey’s memoir still resonates with me.… Whether or not … he hit the police officer or didn’t hit the police officer is irrelevant to me.…” She added, “To me, it seems to be much ado about nothing.… It’s irrelevant discussing, you know, what happened or did not happen to the police.”
“It’s still an Oprah recommend, right?” said Larry King.
“Well, I certainly do recommend it for all.”
The book remained number one on The New York Times bestseller list but not in the paper’s newsroom, which was still reeling from the journalistic fraud of Jayson Blair, whose widespread fabrications and plagiarisms represented a profound betrayal of trust for the readers of the nation’s most prestigious newspaper. Maureen Dowd struck first, with a column titled “Oprah! How Could Ya?” in which she compared the talk show host to George W. Bush’s press secretary, Scott McClellan, who had told lies on behalf of the president about Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction. “She should have said: ‘Had I known that many parts were fake, I wouldn’t have recommended the book to millions of loyal viewers. I wouldn’t have made this liar a lot of money.”
Three days later came a blast from The Washington Post, in a column by Richard Cohen titled “Oprah’s Grand Delusion”: “[F]ame and wealth has lulled her into believing that she possesses something akin to papal infallibility. She finds herself incapable of seeing that she has been twice fooled—once by Frey, a second time by herself.”
The deathblow was delivered by Frank