please stand up … please stand up ….
If you at all follow literary events, then you have heard of JT Leroy: the child prostitute and drug addict become major hot novelist. There was such a buzz about Leroy about 5 years back that you would have thought Hemingway was reincarnated. An exciting new voice, a great life-story to work from – someone who was gritty, real, came from the outside, not a pampered writer’s workshop talent ….
I haven’t read of Leroy’s work, but I still thought the story was kind of cool. Also, Leroy was YOUNG – barely out of adolescence, when this huge literary success came on him.
Read this article in the Times about the latest in the life of JT Leroy. Wow. It’s all been a hoax – or – it hasn’t been proven yet conclusively that there is no JT Leroy, but that article is pretty convincing. It looks like a woman named Laura Albert and her husband (who supposedly “adopted” JT Leroy and saved him from a life of prostitution) cooked up this character as a way to get theh attention of the literary world and get a book deal.
Here was the first inkling that Leroy might not be “real”.
JT Leroy is famously “reclusive”. He makes few appearances. I remember seeing pictures of him, at this or that event – sunglasses, head down … very cute and androgynous. Turns out, that it’s a woman who basically – is PRETENDING to be JT Leroy. A hired hand, basically, in this huge hoax.
FASCINATING.
It’s pretty awful, too – because Leroy was given a lot of financial support by writers (heavy-hitters like Mary Gaitskill, Mary Karr) – who wanted to support this new voice. Again, I haven’t read his novels – but the hype was all over the place. This wasn’t just the popular best-selling novelists singing his praises – Leroy had serious literary appeal – and serious writers were saying: “This is a very important new writer”, and that gave Leroy even MORE cache. In my book, anyway. If Mary Gaitskill says, “This guy can write!” then I am way more apt to believe her than, say, Nicholas Sparks. Just the sad and blunt truth. We’re talking about serious literary circles here – the people who have stories in The New Yorker, and stuff like that. This is where Leroy made his buzz. That’s how I took notice. This group of writers (and, actually, musicians, artists in general) wanted to make sure that Leroy continued to be able to write – that he was financially viable – so they would contribute money to him, as a way of support.
So back to the bad part of the story: These people have been duped (it looks like) by this Albert woman – who made sure (somehow) that all checks to JT Leroy were made out to her (because she was – in her fictional story – JT Leroy’s “legal guardian”) … Leroy also said (or – not Leroy – because it appears there IS no Leroy) – Leroy came out a couple of years ago and said he was HIV positive. More money just POURED into the coffers. I find this despicable. Whoever was the wizard behind the curtain in this hoax (but again – weirdly – the books got fantastic reviews, so SOMEONE is able to write in this scenario) – decided that the fictional author JT Leroy needed to have AIDS to make him … even more sympathetic? To have even more people donate money to support his literary career? Disgusting and cynical. To use a terrible disease in that way.
A lot of people are very angry right now. And rightly so.
But still: I’ll say this: it was a DAMN GOOD hoax. It has had people fooled for 6 years now. What a performance art piece! I’ve always had a little dream of doing something like that – hopefully without cheating people out of thousands of dollars – but I think hoaxes like this (and there are many, throughout history) are really really interesting. I think it could be quite freeing to write under an assumed identity – But to hoax the entire world, and hire someone to PLAY the fictional author? Now THAT is ballsy.
THERE IS NO JT LEROY. Amazing. I still can’t get over it!
That article gives great background to this whole hoax.
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: Nothin’ I love more than a big ol’ literary-world dustup!!
My jaw is still basically on the floor after reading that article! I was duped too! Warren St. John who wrote the article in The Times was duped. It was a damn fine performance art piece. It fooled everybody.
Another S. Morgenstern, huh?
The only issue I have with this is that people sent money. Was it kept? If so that’s fraud. If not I’ve no problem with a fictional author writing fiction. It’s been done before. (I do have a problem with a fictional author writing non-fiction, satire exluded.)
I have no problem with someone making up an identity either. The fact that he (or she or whoever) got away with it is fascinating.
Here is the section about the money paid:
And I’m not sure about the personal donations – I don’t think the article mentions how those were handled.
Disregarding the fraud and AIDS aspect, this is really cool. I mean, it’s always interesting, I think, to see the “intellectually elite” get duped. But I agree that the AIDS aspect is morally reprehensible.
This was totally under my radar, thanks for the information.
Hmmm… on a similar thread:
James Frey
Elite? Uhm – how about good writers? That’s what those people are. I’m tired of the whole anti-elitist rhetoric in this country anyway.
But the hoax aspect of it – and the identity-theft aspect of this is FASCINATING to me. Especially because the entire THING was made up.
Similar to Barbra Streisand’s first bio in the playbill for Funny Girl – her Broadway debut. She was 19 years old or whatever. I can’t remember what it said, but something like: “Born in Calcutta, she was raised surrounded by wolverines” – or something. Hysterical. Mitchell will remember the exact quote probably. She decided to create herself from scratch – and not give too much away, biographically.
This was more like what Andy Dufresne does in Shawshank Redemption – to screw the warden he makes up a human being. Creates a human being.
JT Leroy existed. There were radio interviews, press interviews, he showed up on the red carpet. He was an actual human being out in the world. I heard him talk on the radio. Incredible!!
From what I understand, it wasn’t only the intellectual elite anyway. I’ve read a few articles here and there speculating about Leroy being a fake, but only within the last year or so. It looks like pretty much everybody believed this guy was real.
JFH – I am SO not surprised by that. I bitched my head off about Frey here a while ago. hahahaha
But Leroy – now THAT surprises me, for some reason. From what I heard, he was very genuine – (but – er – now we find out – he was a she!! ARGH! Duped!!) I heard his voice on the radio – I mean: he was THERE.
Frey always struck me as an opportunist. There was this infamous article about him in the NY Post where he trashed every writer working today except for himself – “I am so much better because I’ve actually fucking LIVED, okay?” – you know, that kind of crap – and that was my introduction to Frey and I was like: wow … this dude is so full of it …
But EVERYWHERE I look I see people reading his first book – the million little pieces book. It’s everywhere.
Emily – I sure believed it. I mean … he was there … he existed … he did book readings … etc. I saw him!
Really wild.
Another person who was instrumental in Leroy’s success was Sharon Olds – one of my favorite poets – who recently came to the show I was in. She apparently read some of the early manuscripts.
Didn’t mean to ruffle feathers, Sheila. Again, the scope of this was outside my grasp — I think the latter comments helped solidify just how BIG it is.
I don’t mean to say that I’m anti-elitist. But I am anti those how are in elite places without any merit.
That said, and from further explanation it doesn’t seem to be the case, and I retract my comment. Except that it’s still movie-of-the-week amazing.
No wonder I didn’t see that book on your “wish list” (even my wife, who rarely reads non-fiction read this book) ; )
So who’s SHOULD generate the greater outrage, a couple getting their original fiction by using a fictional person… Or someone that has duped millions in a fake self-help book
Cullen –
I guess it’s one of those shorthand terms that people use – which, for obvious reasons, since it seems aimed at my lifestyle, my friends, and my region of the country, does ruffle my feathers.
I can’t stand people in power who don’t belong there, either – but that happens in ALL professions – not just literary.
Oh, and here’s a wild thing: See the second link in my post? Click on that – it’s a reaaaaallly long article so obviously only read it if you feel like it – but if you click to the second page, you will see all the different disguises JT Leroy used over the years.
hahahaha It still blows me away. I was completely fooled by this dude.
JFH – I think that second one is worse – because those self-help gurus can actually hurt people. Also – since Mr. L. Ron Hub-wad is in that category – then DEFINITELY that second one is worse!!
What’s the harm in creating an identity and writing books under that identity? This Leroy story is a bit different because people were donating to him personally because of his “disease” etc.
But I think it’s fine to write under an assumed name – even to make up a personality to write under – either those authors don’t want to hurt their families, or they find it freeing to write under an assumed identity – Didn’t Anne Rice write her pornographic Sleeping Beauty series under another name? Or did I make that up?
Didn’t she eventually “come out” and say “Yes. Those are mine.”?
Anyone know?
There’s a difference between fake authors and fake identities. There really WAS a George Sands; the identity was assumed to overcome the then-bias against women authors. The same could be said for Victor Appleton II, who was also a woman, cranking out the Tom Swift stories for a generation of 10-15 year-olds. Hell, even Ellery Queen was two real people (and maybe more, as time went on and the work got more composite). The difference is that the work itself was what sold. JTL’s personal history is what sold the novel in this case, so it moves from psuedonym to outright fraud. It’s really barely removed from a person who falsifies a resume to win a job.
I once wrote a short story for college called “It Speaks For Itself,” somewhat of a take-off on the Emperor’s New Clothes, where a reclusive author pulls off a faulous fraud by convincing the literary world that 23 blank pages are the most important short story of the year. “It speaks for itself,” he replies to the dubious magazine editor. “It doesn’t need any words at all.” The editor shrugs and decides, as a gag, to run the story in his about-to-fail little start-up, and it becomes a runaway success as critics wonder what it could all mean.
In this case, we have the reverse: all clothes, no emperor.
Nightfly –
I don’t know. The books got fantastic reviews – so obviously whoever wrote them did have SOME “there there”. I guess I really don’t care. I think it’s kind of a cool thing and I would love to attempt something like that myself.
Not the fraud part – but to pull off creating another human being. To send out into the world as some kind of alter ego.
I am sure that that’s one of the attractions that acting has always held for me. I get to completely not be me, and be somebody else.
Nightfly –
People like James Frey piss me off more than some elaborate hoax created by a couple of writers. I don’t know what it is about that Frey guy, but he just rubs me the wrong way. He’s too pleased with himself, and too unself-aware. “I’m the real thing, man … I’m REAL.”
Yeah, well, if you were really real – then you wouldn’t have to keep SAYING “I’m the real thing”, would you?
He just gets to me for some reason.
The Sleeping Beauty books are listed as hers in “Other books by Anne Rice” section of her books, so I guess she admitted to it. She wrote them as A.N. Roquelaure.
Oh yeah – I remember when she admitted it, actually! hahaha I owned all those books – and I had bought them when I thought they were Rocquelaire books – so the whole thing was really strange – and kind of cool.
I think she wanted to make her name with her “real” books – but the Sleeping Beauty books were these really therapeutic projects for her – I can’t remember what had happened in her life – divorce? widowed? Miscarriage? Something really bad had happened – and her way of dealing and getting through it – was writing these sado-masochistic Sleeping Beauty stories. Fascinating – about her writing process – and how it works differently for different people.
But I don’t know why she decided to “come out”. Maybe the success she had gained was so big she felt she could risk being known as the woman who wrote those S&M books about a fairy tale.
Here’s a bit from that New York Metro magazine – kind of interesting: Like Emily said, people have been questioning the reality of JT Leroy from almost the beginning, apparently:
Sorry, and here’s a cool quote from Mary Gaitskill – truly an astonishing writer – one of my favorites – (she’s the one who wrote the story that that movie Secretary was based on – I LOVE her stuff) – Anyway, here is her comment (and she was a big supporter of this Leroy person):
Nightfly, while I agree with Sheila on the aspect of what is worse, I’ve got to admit your analogy to faking a resume IS apropos.
A bigger question: how does one in the entertainment /arts industry judge who is deserving of a book deal, a part in a play or movie,or a gallery opening. If you have to “lie” to get a foot in the door, the system seems much more unfair than it is in the business world (Like THAT was a huge epiphany to most of you in that other world)
I’ve been fascinated by such hoaxes ever since my pal Odin Soli was shown (partly, inadvertently by me) to be “Plain Layne” a couple of years ago. The mob mentality that’s involved in taking a hoaxer from nowhere to somewhere, sure – but also the talent required to carry it off. My pal Odin is a VERY talented writer – and it took Layne to get him noticed…
JFH – of course one lies and makes shit up!! Sometimes there’s no other way.
Also: writers are in the business of making shit up ANYWAY. They’re really really good at it. They have to be.
If someone said to me, “Hey, we have an audition for you next week for the starring role in a new Ron Howard movie – you would play the first woman hockey player in the NHL – First of all – do you play hockey?”
I would answer immediately, “Yes”, even though I do not play hockey, and I have never have played hockey in my life – and then I would spend the next 8 days on an ice skating rink, with a hockey coach.
But the important thing to realize is that I would lie. IMMEDIATELY.
Julia Roberts got cast in her first movie (the abysmal Satisfaction) by saying, blithely, “Oh yeah, I’m a drummer – I’ve played in a ton of bands – I LOVE DRUMMING” – Meanwhile, she had never drummed in her life. She got the part – and quickly learned enough drumming so that she could at least “pass” in the film. A professional musician might have scoffed watching her, but who gives a crap. That’s not the point. She got the part. And that part led to Mystic Pizza. And Mystic Pizza led to Pretty Woman. And the rest is history.
If she hadn’t lied – maybe none of that would have happened. I’m sure many people who hate Julia Robertswish she WOULDN’T have lied – so that nobody would ever have to see one of her films again!!! hahaha But I’m just tellin’ ya what happened.
Guys – this is art. Not a computer job or whatever. This isn’t a typing test – where you better type at the speed you say you do. This has to do with something more amorphous: talent. Star quality. What have you. But when you’re unknown – how on earth do you get people to look at you?? Faking parts of your resume is all a part of the game.
You cannot go too overboard though. For instance: It would probably be best to not lie and say you went to Yale Drama School when you didn’t – because you would probably be caught (it’s the best program in the country).
But to “lie” and say on your resume that college productions were actually “regional” productions – to make it look like you’ve done more professional theatre – when you haven’t really done all that much? Everyone does stuff like that in the beginning.
There are little lies – like the Julia Roberts lies, and there are big lies, like the “yeah, I wrote this script all by myself” lies.
Then there are what I call “the Tori Spelling lies,” which are ones where you may be telling the truth, but everyone knows it’s BS. When the 90210 show first came out and she did press for it, she would tell everyone that she auditioned under another name, so it’s not like she got the part because of Daddy or anything. The thing is, Aaron Spelling’s the kind of guy who likes to work with the same people over and over and has been for years. The people responsible for casting were probably at her bap mitzvah, for goodness sake. She may have called herself “Tori Notspelling” or whatever, but everyone knew who she was.
red, have you actually read any of “JT’s” work? I haven’t, and I frankly wouldn’t be much of a judge of it even had I, but I’d be curious to see what you thought of it, because frankly it seems to me that people wanted to believe in him, the literary elite wanted to believe in him. Sorry, I know that pisses you off, but too much of his story fits into the coastal elites’ view of ‘fly over’ territory:
JT, or Jeremy, LeRoy, or Terminator (as he was first known), was a teenage hustler whod been pimped out as a cross-dressed prostitute by his mother at truck stops throughout the South, until he landed on the streets of San Francisco in the early-to-mid-nineties.
Those hypocritical backwoods bible-thumping southerners selling out their kids for gay sex.
And it seems the author of the New York piece realized it as well:
In the early days, the mid-nineties, LeRoy built a core of literary supportersCooper and Benderson and Olds, Mary Karr and Mary Gaitskill, among othersengaging in lengthy, intimate phone conversations and correspondence with them. His biography seemed tailor-made for their interests.
and later
Said Gaitskill in one interview, Its occurred to me that the whole thing with Jeremy is a hoax, but I felt that even if it turned out to be a hoax, its a very enjoyable one. And a hoax that exposes things about people, the confusion between love and art and publicity.
Does “fake but accurate” ring a bell?
mitch –
Right. Sometimes creating that alter ego really sets somebody free, in terms of their talent – or being a success – funny, isn’t it?
Bah. I’ve never heard of any of the people y’all have mentioned, so the fact that somebody made up a JT Leroy with the AIDS is no skin off my nose, but Satisfaction? Abysmal? I weep.
Here’s my take on Julia Roberts: When she’s good, she’s very very good; when she’s bad, she’s Mary Reilly.
Bingley –
I already mentioned that quote by Gaitskill. I think it’s terrific, very funny.
Yes – the guy had a good “story”. Regardless of the fact that it was a hoax – plenty of people have good stories and get huge book deals out of them. That’s what literature is all about. James Frey has a good story – although the truth of that is up for debate now as well,.
David Foster Wallace, and his experience with substance abuse and AA … Uhm, let’s see. Dave Eggers. Frank McCourt. Actually, the entire memoir craze right now is based on people’s actual LIVES being interesting. Whether or not you agree wiht that is immaterial. That’s the trend right now.
Actually, it’s always been the case.
Bukowski had a crazy life. Paul Bowles had a crazy life. Henry Miller. Anais Nin. All of these people are real-life people – with crazy bohemian “tailor-made” lives – “tailor-made” for literature, and for the interset of those people in power, like the folks at the New Yorker, who want to make a buck off of it. Uhm – that’s called business.
And I’m serious. Don’t throw around generalized words like “elite” on my blog – and a biased fisking of an article – especially when you haven’t read a word this guy wrote, and are already hostile to the whole thing, obviously. Why even bother?
When I hear words like “intellectual elite” red flags go off in my mind. I don’t trust it. I just don’t. It’s too biased and too generally hostile. Your enraged tone, Bingley, just confirms this for me.
“When she’s good, she’s very very good; when she’s bad, she’s Mary Reilly.”
That, ladies and gentlemen, is why I love Lisa.
Tori Spelling’s story how she got on 90210 might be a fabrication?? SAY IT’S NOT SO! Tori Spelling talent reminds me of a young Meryl Streep…
Lisa –
Oh man. Yup. You are so right. She was terrible in that movie!!
Meryl Streep’s daughter actually just made her New York debut at the Roundabout Theatre – and she kept it under wraps who she was – her last name is not Streep – until, finally, obviously – the theatre wanted more publicity for their show, and the Times did a big article about her. She seemed very humble, and inexperienced – she still does extra work on movies – hahaha – and her mother had so protected her from the “business” that she didn’t know what “hit her marks” meant or anything – she had to learn on the job.
I thought that was pretty cool.
So JT is sort of like the Milli Vanilli of the literary world?
I think Spelling did fine as an actress. You don’t have to be Meryl Streep to play a pampered teen-ager on a vacuous show. And I don’t care that she got the part because of her father as long as she could play it okay. I get bothered by people who think there’s something wrong with someone getting a leg up from their family to break into show business. If they suck, if they’re unrealiable or difficult to work with, they just won’t get a lot of good jobs in the long run, same as everyone else. If they’re good, the deserve success, no matter who their parents are. It’s not like anyone goes apeshit when they find out their plumber got into the local union ahead of some other guys because their dad and their dad’s dad were plumbers before them.
Uhm … hahahaha Hm. Maybe more like Jessica Rabbit.
Oops. MY last comment was to Patrick.
Also – in the long run – you really have got to have SOMETHING to keep people interested in you, or it won’t matter that your father is famous, or helped you out. That might be enough to get you started – but not to keep you going.
Tori Spelling is still here!! People obviously have a fascination with her, and she publicizes herself very well. She’s very savvy about that stuff. Her stardom has been going on for … 15 years now? When was 90210 on? – if it had only been about her father “making her a success” she would have been long forgotten.
wow..lively chat…yeah Sheil…Babs said she was born in Zanzibar and reared in Rangoon…and pointed out that she was NOT a memeber of the actor’s studio…funny…Ive been following this J.T. story for a bit..i thought that it was revealed as a hoax a couple of years ago? Im with u..the money and the aids..bad..the whole idea of a hoax..kinda brilliant…disturbing but brilliant.
Emily – Now we’re back to the discussion of ethical behavior and lying… Claiming you didn’t get a “leg up” on others and that it was your talent over others that auditioned strikes me as, at a minimum, disingenuous
mitchell – bwahahahahahahahah I KNEW you would remember Babs’ bio! That is feckin’ hysterical.
I guess people have been speculating on who the real JT Leroy is for a while now – more so people on the “inside” than people on the outside (like myself). Like – those who kept up correspondences wiht him, but never met him … they often wonderred: “Hmmmm, who is this person?”
have you read any of the books, mitchell? Seems like something you might have been interested in?
That’s an interesting observation: that in show biz, one must lie in order to level the playing field – or at least, tilt it a little more favorably to oneself. “High school with money,” as the quip goes, where everyone is posing as something in the search for their real self.
In a sense, that means I’m not mentally out of high school, since I thought that writing well didn’t require a dramatic backstory for the author, just his characters.
So the question becomes, I suppose, why? Did “JTL” bring off the hoax to get notice for a work otherwise lost in the pile; to tweak the patrons and admirers by having behind-the-scenes laughs at their gullibility; maybe just to prove it could be done? I mean, it would never occur to me to just lie that fantastically about myself or my qualifications. (I’d never get the drumming role, because I’d say plainly – no, I don’t drum, but in a month you won’t be able to tell. I think that would show a commitment to hard work for a role, and in the long run it would pay, because sooner or later you’ll want the credit for having learned, but in the case of the liar, you’ll be exposing yourself.)
But to come back to the original point – part of me, in spite of myself, does admire the completeness and success of the illusion. I mean, I know David Copperfield can’t make the Statue of Liberty vanish, but that doesn’t mean that it isn’t pretty wild to witness the trick.
Look guys, I don’t want to be perceived as a Tori Spelling basher.. and I AM fascinated on how she’s engagedary is again already, per last week’s People (this week’s if you buy it at a newstand), which I just started reading today because because I was at an Orlando biz conference all last week… Holy crap, not only do I know the whole story about Tori’s new whirlwind romance, but I also know it was in “last week’s People!!…
umm, where was I… oh, yeah, far be it for me to judge her talent, but I would think that there were a number of actresses going for that part that MIGHT have won the part had it not been for her connections.
Nightfly –
hahaha Yes, but here’s the deal with the whole “Yes I can drum” analogy:
People who cast movies are notoriously UNIMAGINATIVE. Believe it or not.
I have walked into auditions with long hair – and the picture on my photo has short hair – and the people there are literally discombobulated. It doesn’t matter that MY HAIR WILL GROW IF THEY WANT IT BE LONG … You have to show up and BE the part.
Like – if you have a mustache in your actor photo – then you had better show up at your auditions with a mustache. Because they just can’t imagine you differently.
They are not looking for potential, remember. They are looking for IT. They are looking for somebody who ALREADY IS IT. (Sorry – don’t mean to shout – I’m just trying to be emphatic).
So someone who already IS a drummer has FAR more of a chance to get in the film than someone who says, “No – but I’ll work really hard.” etc.
Authenticity is the key.
And I think this was part of the allure of this JT character. Plenty of people WRITE about low-lifes – but this person appeared to have actually LIVED it.
Now of course it’s all a lie – but authenticity is worth its weight in gold in this world of art and artists. There are so many open phonies, and liars, and sycophants in the art world … NOBODY is who they seem to be – so when someone comes along and actually seems to have down and dirty life experience – it is extremely compelling.
That’s the main reason for James Frey’s big success right now as well. He is not just sitting at his desk “making shit up” – he actually LIVED it. Now I’m all for “making shit up” – I love fiction, and I love storytellers – and I love people who use their imagination – but I think that’s part of the fascination with this JT person: his story was REAL and he didn’t have to make shit up. People WANT to believe in the authentic. Especially in the NYC world of art where everyone lies. People WANT to believe that there could be a diamond in the rough – a prostitute who could write like that …. Etc. Etc.
It’s a good story, you have to admit. I wanted to believe it too. It was quite interesting.
JFH –
There’s a certain brand of actor – (ALL of them are unsuccessful, by the way) – who rail at two things:
1. People who have trust funds (by that I mean: actors who are fortunate enough to have been born in a welathy family – so that these actors don’t have to take waitering jobs, or worry about money)
2. People who have connections in the biz and who use those connections
I am friends with some of these people. I am unable to talk about acting with them, because they have completely lost their love for it. They are BITTER. They are unable to be happy for someone else’s success.
ALSO: If, by any chance, any personal connection helped you to get a job – they discount it. It’s hard to explain. I told one of my friends like this that the director who cast me in the last play I did had also cast me in a show in Chicago – and my friend actually said to me, “Oh … so you knew him before …” and I could see that that suddenly meant that I hadn’t REALLY triumphed … I had been “given” the part – as opposed to ‘earned’ the part.
As though success is supposed to happen ONLY on your pure and untouched talent. LIke you, as an actor, are supposed to sit in your apartment, purely, and NEVER use ANY of your connections …
The ONLY valid job for bitter actors who hold these vioews is if you are hired by a complete stranger who has never seen you before. Or if you are “discovered” like Lana Turner. That is the ONLY time they will congratulate you on getting a job. And how often does THAT happen? If you say, “Yeah – member I met that guy last week? And he’s Robert Altman’s assistant? Well, Altman called me in this week to read for him …” If you say that, they will NOT be happy for you. They will get BITTER about it because – well, to them, it’s all about luck. Some people are lucky (people who have trust funds, and people who have connections) and some people are NOT (people with none of these things).
I am not explaining this well. It’s a very common phenomenon here in NYC and I have noticed it ONLY in very unsuccessful actors. They cannot deal with the fact that maybe their terrible attitude and their bitterness has played a part in their lack of success – so they focus all their anger on actors who have trust funds, who don’t have to have day jobs – and people who cultivate their connections in the business.
One MUST cultivate your connections. Network!!
I want to know more about the woman who’s been impersonating JT Leroy all this time – I want HER to write a book now!
What was that LIKE for her?
Heheheheh. “Authenticity is the key – so go out there and LIE!” I love it. Along the lines of, “Sincerity is everything. Once you can fake that you’ve got it made.”
Sheila, I’m with you as far as people who are bitter about someone else “knowing someone.” You earned that part in Chicago with that director by doing well in your prior connection. Not hard to understand unless you’re forever trapped outside looking in. It’s like looking at a marginal pro athlete. You can laugh and say, oh yeah, the backup shortstop for the Devil Rays, hahaha, loser. I laugh at stuff like that, myself. But would about DIE if I were good enough to do that – you kidding? Fifty at-bats a year at the highest level? Sign me up.
You earned that part in Chicago with that director by doing well in your prior connection.
Ooop. Strike that; reverse it. Thank you.
Sheila, I can relate, albeit barely. In high school, a had a bunch of “friends” that didn’t get into their school of choice (e.g. Harvard, Yale, UVA, Duke etc.) When I got appointed to the Naval Academy, quite late in the process, they said, “Well, of course you got in, YOUR Dad is in the military!” I responded, acidly “Yeah, I guess the 1400 SAT score, my top 5% academic ranking along with my sports and extracuricular activities had NOTHING to do with my acceptance”
That said, I’m sure my father’s profession DID influence their decision in some small OR big way. After all, I did understand the military and military life much more than a HS student that was just interested in the academies as a “free ride”… Maybe some of that thinking goes into other nepotism decision in other fields
Willy Wonka!
Yeah – it’s a weird thing – the bitterness …
My friend negated the fact that I was cast because I had worked with the director before. WHAT??? I mean … in case my firend hasn’t noticed … actors work with the same directors ALL THE TIME. DeNiro and Scorsese. Tom Hanks in Spielberg movies. You know. It happens all. the. time. The acting business is all about relationships – cultivating relationships, forming them, keeping them going …
It was so STRANGE – to have an actor completely not get that, and to totally blow off the fact that I had been cast. To be like: “Oh, so it’s not a REAL job”. So so weird. Hurtful, too, but whatever, I’m used to it with this particular person.
JFH
Yes! That’s it, exactly!! A great example – I was having a hard time expressing what I mean – but that’s it perfectly.
Nightfly – actually, this is kind of funny:
In the documentary about Metallica (Some Kind of Monster) it becomes so apparent that these guys are absolute gazillionaires – which isn’t a problem – but the one scene that Lars Ulrich really wanted to have cut out of the scene, the one that embarrassed him the most, was the scene at Christie’s when he sold his multi-million dollar art collection. He is an art collector.
And – to me – it was a very “authentic” scene – it was part of who he was – he loved his art – but he wanted to get rid of it – But in terms of Metallica fans – Ulrich was afraid it would make him look “inauthentic” – in terms of being a big heavy-metal badass.
Very interesting.
Because he still IS a heavy-metal badass – but … he also has this huge art collection, and sips wine as his pieces are sold off.
Authenticity is definitely a big deal with people who have a huge fan base – who expect them to be a certain way!
What I’m saying is: authenticity, again, is really important if you are selling YOURSELF … so a lot of people blur the edges of truth, skate over certain things, or out and out lie … because they want their credibility to be impeccable.
I don’t know. It makes perfect sense to me, but that’s just me.
There are good and bad sides to this. member the whole Micah Wright thing??? Now THAT was a hoax. And he just got so busted. I wonder what ever happened to him. He wanted to seem more authentic and more credible, so he created this whole story about having been a Ranger, I believe – all bullshit. He lost his book deal once the truth came out, if I recall correctly.
JFH – it’s always the case that someone else might get the part. The only time it bothers me when friends or family of famous people get parts is when they suck. The first time I saw Almost Famous, I thought Zooey Deschanel SUCKED. And I mean REALLY, REALLY BAD. She’s a very beautiful woman, and I’ve seen her in other stuff since then that didn’t make me wince, but all I was thinking the entire time I watched her in that movie was that she must be related to/good friends with/sleeping with somebody famous or involved with the production of the movie. Then when I read the credits and saw her name, I wondered if she was related to Caleb Deschanel. She’s his daughter. It turns out that she also went to school with Kate Hudson.
Sofia Coppolla in The Godfather That Won’t Be Named is another example.
THAT kind of thing gets on my nerves. If Zooey blossoms into a better actress, good for her. I wish her the best of success. But if she continues to suck ass and STILL gets parts while other actresses that are qualified are passed up? Phooey on her.
Yes. The Godfather That Must Not Be Named was a crime.
There are those terrible stories of Andy Garcia and Talia Shire pulling Coppola aside and murmuring to him, “We know you love her, Francis … we love her too … but she’s just not ready for this … this is not right … she can’t handle it …”
I actually felt bad for Andy Garcia in those love scenes with her. Like: oh man, you poor man, trying to act all by yourself!!!
I’m glad she gave up acting.
I never heard those stories! Man, oh man! Hahaha. We have documented proof that a father’s love is not just blind, it is also deaf and obtuse.
And yes, perhaps it is true that people wanted to believe in this JT Leroy character – this all goes back to the question of authenticity. The memoir craze started it – I’m kind of sick of the memoir craze – In my opinion, only a couple of people have lives interesting enough to warrant a memoir – but it sounded like this Leroy person did. His life really WAS interesting enough. Give that boy a memoir!!
People in Ireland can’t stand Frank McCourt’s work – they think he exaggerated for effect, made shit up, and basically is a big fat phony. It’s the Irish-Americans who love him – because he seems “authentically” Irish to them. But the real irish hate him. Espeically the people from Limerick!
I love Frank McCourt myself – but I can see where the Irish are coming from.
It’s that yearning for REALITY – we have such an instantly pre-packaged world right now – everything corporatized, and spoon-fed to us – it’s hard to know what is real, and what is earned … Ashlee Simpson lip-synchs on SNL and gets booed at the Orange Bowl and still … somehow … survives … she is still here, still singing… what?? Talk about un-earned success.
All of this makes people really sensitive, and really open for someone who seems REAL. I heard this JT Leroy dude on radio shows. He was riveting.
Emily – totally! Obtuse indeed.
At one point, Talia started crying – begging Francis to cast someone else who had some acting chops … Boy oh boy. What a nightmare!
Okay – all you Internet-savvy people – wasn’t there some kind of big hoax where a blogger pretended to be a little girl, or a teenager who had cancer? And … what was the story there? This was before I really got online – but … wasn’t there someone who made up a fake identity, gave her cancer, and then reaped in the glory of being sick for months until she was somehow revealed?
Anyway – here’s a sentence from one of those articles above (the second one):
“I was interested in the ways that stories of suffering might be used to mask other, less marketable stories of suffering.”
FASCINATING. Yes. To me, that has quite the ring of truth to it.
If you just come onto the Internet and say, “I have a broken heart” or “I’m really lonely” or “I am sad all the time” people are more likely to tell you to get over it. Even if they have never met you before. I have experienced this personally.
But if you come onto the Internet and say, “I have 2 months to live” – people are more likely to be sympathetic, and to tell you how brave you are, and get on your side, and get all helpful and stuff.
Of course, the flipside of this is my friend Alex – she has had people write to her on occasion all offended and nuts that she actually, HORRORS, writes about her disease! One asswipe wrote to her and said, “HOnestly, I am so sick of you people whining about a disease that you brought on yourself.”
Aha. “YOu people”. Right. Gotcha.
But in general – if you say you have a disease – you are far more likely to get people all sympathetic and cheerleadery with you.
Messed UP!
Kaycee? Was that the name of the fictional dying little girl?
No. I’ll wait. I KNOW one of you all will know it.
http://www.museumofhoaxes.com/kaycee.html
Don’t remember her to be honest
I DO, however, remember this disgusting anti-military hoax:
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/specials/chi-0508260251aug26,1,6798335.story?coll=chi-newsspecials-hed
(sorry for the non-HTML links, their not working for me tonight for some reason)
Total sickos, man. That is just awful.
Sheila, I love your blog, and congratulations on being a Best Literary Blog finalist. I don’t know if I’m late and have missed out on the JT Leroy discussion, but the whole JT Leroy hoax reminds me the Anthony Godby-Johnson hoax, do you know about that one? He wrote a memoir in 1993 called “A Rock and a Hard place,” about the emotional and physical abuse he endured from his parents, and being raped as a child, and how he was suicidal until he fled home and was then adopted by this loving couple, and then he learned that he had AIDS. The book became a bit of a sensation and all of these famous people wanted to support Tony, and he started up a phone friendship with many celebrities, including Armistead Maupin, who never met him in person because he said that he was always too ill. Anyway, this hoax went on for years, and after awhile people realized that no one had actually ever met the boy in person, and it turns out he never existed, the woman who was pretending to be his adopted mother and who would answer the phone when people called–she would then pretend to be Tony and have these long phone conversations. I might be getting some of this wrong, it’s been awhile since I read about it–there was a fascinating in-depth article about the whole thing in The New Yorker a couple of years ago (which I tried to find online to give you a link, but I couldn’t), and then Maupin wrote a novel that was somewhat based on the experience. Anyway, fascinating stuff.
Also, on a completely unrelated note, Zooey Deschanel totally makes me cry in Almost Famous–when she tells William to listen to her record collection, that the music will set him free, I don’t know, maybe I’m a softy, but it kills me. So maybe she did get the job because her dad’s a famous cinematographer and her mom played Donna’s mom on Twin Peaks, I still think she deserved the part, and that’s my two cents on that! (I don’t know why I felt compelled to defend her, but wanted to respond to the comment above.)
Erik – I actually do have a vague memory of that hoax you describe – just incredible!
Thanks for coming to visit my blog. :)
After reading this:
http://www.thesmokinggun.com/archive/0104061jamesfrey1.html
I think your impression of Frey was correct. He’s the drunk frat boy everyone knew who bought his essays from the smart kids and otherwise skated through college with a useless major like Communications, just so his executive father could tell his big shot friends that his kid wasn’t a total wastoid HS graduate. Any trouble he got into daddy bailed him out of, and to make up for a life devoid of unique experiences, or indeed any redeeming qualities, he began to make up stories. He’s just like my sister-in-law’s ex husband – I know the type up close and personal.
How much harm he’s doing with his phony self help business, I don’t know, but the punishment for that ought to be taken out of Oprah’s hide.
Yeah – the guy just struck me as a big ol’ phony – now this was merely from interviews -especially one in the NY Observer in 2003 – I haven’t read the book.
I do have to point out, though, that his book was successful long before Oprah promoted it. It got a lot of press back then as well. She certainly has the power tomake it become a best-seller – which is what happened – but it was being pushed along on the public way before she promoted it.
Here’s a really interesting piece in Salon about the inconsistencies and also – fabrications – in Frey’s book:
http://www.salon.com/books/feature/2006/01/10/frey/
Amazing – that these revelations would come out on the same day as the JT Leroy thing – what an incredible thing!!