Frey threatens Smoking Gun with lawsuit
I hate going through long legal briefs, but basically author James Frey has threatened The Smoking
Gun with a multi-million dollar lawsuit
if the site or anyone from the site describes Frey as a "liar" or says that he fabricated events in the
book.
We all knew this was coming, right? The interesting thing is, this letter from his attorneys is dated January 6, almost a week before he was on Larry King Live, and Frey didn't mention a possible lawsuit at all. Of course, King didn't ask Frey if he thought about suing the site, so it's not as if he's just going to give up that information.
For the record, I was underwhelmed by Frey's explanations/defense on King's show. I understand that almost all memoirs have events that are changed, names that are changed, and time that is compressed, but he wrapped he whole defense in this touchy-feely, Oprah-ish, "if this book helps other addicts" emotional cocoon, as if that explains away what the Smoking Gun uncovered. And having his mom and Oprah on at the end was just icing on the cake.
Seth Mnookin gives his take at Slate, while Meghan O'Rourke wonders if it matters if memoirs are true or not.

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