The literary world mourns the lost of wunderkind novelist Jeremiah “Terminator” LeRoy, who earlier this week died of… complications.
Yes, JT Leroy is of this frequency. We can take solace in the fact that he was never really on this frequency to begin with. Ironically enough it was one of JT’s employers, the New York Times, who exposed him to be not a real person, but the invention of 40 year old writer, musician, and phone sex operator, Laura Albert. After publishing Jayson Blair’s fictitious quotes and Judith Miller’s fictitious facts, the Times has hit the trifecta by going the whole nine and putting a wholly fictitious journalist on the payroll.
To add insult to injury, the Times can’t even claim the scoop, since New York Magazine reported everything but the identity of the stand-in Albert had enlisted to play JT in public appearances, which according to the Times is her sister in law.
oh damn, thats wild!! i heard about this but never really followed. guess its
time for some research. thanx
hope your dad is doing better. prayers go out to him!
I really don’t care too much about the JT thing one way or another. The only thing I condemn is using the whole I’m dying of AIDS angle to get in the door in the first place. You want to lie to people, be fictitious and be a sensation? Fine. Andy Kaufman did it. You want to abuse people’s goodwill? Fine too. Except when they find out the truth, expect the backlash.
Glad you brought that up
I had actually thought about Andy Kaufman with regard to JT. I think the difference is that the fact that Andy Kaufman was joking was part of the performance. If he got caught, the joke was still funny, in fact it was funnier. JT was trying to keep the ruse going as long as possible and when “he” got caught the game was over.
stop it, damnit
1) Love your icon. Wonder where that’s from…
2) Knock off the “failed novelist” garbage. You can write circles around many of my favorite authors (fictitious or no). Most writers take forever to publish their first. Signing up for being a writer is like puposefully planning to be a 35-year-old virgin. But we won’t talk about Jesus, or Steve Carell. To hear you talk, you can only write as good as you can match your socks.
Your assessment of your talent is more fictitious than your stories.
Re: stop it, damnit
Why is it that I feel worse after one of your “pep” talks?
Re: stop it, damnit
Because I don’t DO “pep”
Did we just meet or something?
Sincerely,
A failed Hallmark writer