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Once a defender of deceptive memoirist, Winfrey tears into author

ATLANTA — Oprah Winfrey broke "A Million Little Pieces" author James Frey into a million little pieces Thursday.

On her talk show, she offered a public apology to viewers for previously defending his discredited, best-selling memoir of drug and alcohol abuse and recovery. Then she grilled the man she had supported only two weeks earlier.

"It is difficult for me to talk to you because I really feel duped," she told Frey. "But more importantly, I feel that you betrayed millions of readers."

In a chilly, withering tone, she said, "I have been really embarrassed by this," adding, "I feel that you conned us all."

At times, early in the broadcast, she appeared close to tears.

This is the second time Winfrey has spoken publicly on the fact-or-fiction controversy. The first time, she called "Larry King Live" on Jan. 11 to support Frey — even though he admitted he had fabricated or embellished parts of his tale. Frey, a 36-year-old native of Cleveland, Ohio, had earned Winfrey's attention with his tale of addiction and redemption.

But Winfrey's words were harsh Thursday, and Frey suffered an excruciatingly public reversal of fortune in her Chicago studio.

On an episode called "James Frey and the 'A Million Little Pieces' Controversy," Winfrey said she no longer knew what to believe was true in the book, which presented itself as a ruthlessly honest tale of hard-won sobriety. It includes the lines, "Remember the truth. It's all that matters."

Not to the author himself, it seems.

Of her earlier defense of Frey, Winfrey said, "I made a mistake, and I left the impression that the truth did not matter." Winfrey had received angry e-mails on her Web site and intense public criticism after her support of Frey.

After being picked for Winfrey's book club, "Pieces" soared up the best-seller list to become the second-biggest seller in the United States last year, behind only "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince."

But writers for the Smoking Gun Web site, a division of Court TV, investigated Frey's claims in "Pieces," first published in 2003. Among their discoveries: Frey spent only a few hours in jail, not the three months he claimed.

Those revelations didn't hurt sales, and it's too soon to say whether Winfrey's reversal will. On Thursday afternoon, the book sat at No. 5 on Amazon.com's best-seller list.

Frey fessed up on "Oprah" about his jail time and other things. Earning groans from Winfrey's live audience, he admitted that his girlfriend Lilly did kill herself, as the book claims — but by cutting her wrists, not by dramatically hanging herself.

When Winfrey quizzed Frey on claims that he underwent two root canal surgeries with no anesthesia, he said, "I honestly have no idea." Were there in fact two surgeries? Frey replied, "As far as I remember, yes."

Early in the show he referred to the supposedly real-life people in his book, including himself, as fictional constructs. "All the way through the book, I altered details about every one of the characters," he said.

He admitted he also had portrayed himself as a much tougher character than he actually is. Winfrey asked if he had fabricated that persona as a psychological coping mechanism — or because he thought the outrageous, manufactured details would boost his sales.

Frey said, "Probably both."

Winfrey nailed things to a bottom line, saying, "To me, a memoir means it's the truth of your life as you know it to be, and not blatant fictionalization."

Frey's publisher, Nan Talese of Doubleday, appeared on the show and tried to make a distinction between autobiography and memoir. When she first read the manuscript, she said, she believed everything in it, including the root canal incident, having undergone the surgery herself once without anesthesia.

Winfrey was having none of it. She chastised Talese, saying the book should be labeled "based on a true story," rather than marketed as the real thing.

Other guests on the show included New York Times columnist Frank Rich, who has written about Frey and the American culture of "truthiness" — the term coined by Stephen Colbert on Comedy Central's "Colbert Report," alluding to the belief in something someone wishes or believes to be true rather than a verifiable fact.

When Rich complimented Winfrey for admitting her mistake, the media queen replied, "I don't want to be given kudos for it. ... It was the only thing to do."

At the end, she thanked Frey for coming on the show and for owning up "to lying" — and told him, "I do believe that telling the truth can set you free."

Steve Murray writes for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. E-mail: stmurray AT ajc.com