Oprah Winfrey has apologized to author James Frey for shaming him on her talk show in 2006, after it was revealed that Frey had fabricated details for his best-selling memoir, A Million Little Pieces, Reuters reports. Winfrey had chosen Pieces for her book club in 2005, and had initially stood by Frey after the website The Smoking Gun raised serious doubts about the veracity of details in the book, which chronicled Frey’s battle with drug- and alcohol abuse. But then Winfrey changed her mind, and took Frey to task on her show, telling him on national television that he had lied to her and that she felt "duped." Now, though, she seems to have had a change – or at least a softening — of heart. According to a Vanity Fair report, Winfrey called Frey last fall and told him, "I felt I owe you an apology." About that call, Frey told VF that "it was a nice surprise to hear from her, and I really appreciated the call and the sentiment."
May 14
2009
02:17 AM ET
Oprah apologizes to author James Frey
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This show was the last time I watched Oprah. It’s about time she apologized.
agree, but, why did it take so long?
Don’t forget Oprah was originally of the mindset that Frey’s deceit wasn’t that big of a deal. It was only after she started to get flak from her public that she jumped on the “flay Frey” bandwagon.
Good thing Oprah is learning to be human again. Maybe I can get her to endorse these fun key chains http://www.funwithgina.com/shop.php
AFTER she lamblasted him on national television and he lost his publisher and his agent and his dignity…come ON. the book was AMAZING, fabricated or not, the guy still endured a battle with heroin…and won…i find it odd that augusten burrows is allowed to get away with lying through memoir after memoir and getting a movie deal out of it when frey’s book actually made some impact…
Glad to hear it. Oprah had an opportunity to keep that controversy from completely blowing up, and she chose to get swept up in it instead.
He’s the one that owes an apology to the people he hurt. This college kid with a minor drug problem makes up all this nonsense about what a tough guy he is. I wouldn’t care so much about the lying, but he advised people to quit treatment programs, and just be tough. What a joke, some mama’s boy frat boy does drugs, stop the presses! I wonder how many people he killed with that advice. I hope there’s a special place in hell just for him.
Who cares? A Million Little Pieces is a terrible book anyways. I read it before all the hype. Awful book.
Not buying it…
Too little too late.
She sat him in front of the world and humiliated him.It was a horrible thing to watch.
She built him up and then she quickly and with precision publicly cut him down.
She should have immediately felt regret, the show should have never aired and she should have apologized before he ever left the building.
She looked like nothing more than a bully who wielded more power and ‘used it’ ~!
He was fragile emotionally and she knew it.
She should have worried that she had caused him terrible emotional harm.
I turned her off and have never watched her again.
“Kind people” do not treat anyone like that.. I will never watch her again..
Oprah felt “duped” because when he was originally on the show to talk about the book, he lied. She was so enthusiastic and excited about his writing talent and so impressed with him overcoming struggle that she really gushed on that first show. She asked him questions about subjects that were later found to be greatly exaggerated or completely made up. I don’t take issue with him taking liberties with writing the book; it *is* a memoir but when you talk about it afterwards as if every story is fact, you open yourself up to criticism.
That was disgusting. Oprah sat in judgment of that man and used her show to shame him like a kindergartner. I lost a lot of respect for her during that show. She is one person who is WAAAAAY too big for her britches.
People forget Oprah is human. But what makes her a good person, is she really is trying to do the right thing. I have very close friends I consider close because I know there intentions are for the greater good even though once in a while they make a human error in judgement. Oprah and my close friends are not vicious people, they are humans that are always trying to do the right thing and that I can forgive…can you?
Too late.
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She has nothing to apologize for. James Frey and publisher Nan Talese deserved to get verbally obliteraterd on live TV for selling a book full of lies. I thought it was BRILLIANT the way Oprah publicly flogged him and he deserved every second of it. I gained an enormous amount of respect for Oprah for having the courage and brains to confront this liar face to face, eye to eye, on LIVE TV.
[...] she apparently apologized to Frey several weeks ago, in a weirdly-timed, but ultimately understandable gesture. (Oprah is big on forgiveness, so her [...]