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JAMES FREY
James Frey, the disgraced author whose literary career was supplanted by turns as a reality W star, ad pitchman, and philanthropist, was found dead of a heart attack in his Los Angeles mansion. He was 61 years old.
Frey became a household name in 2005, when his best-selling memoir of addiction and recovery, A Million Little Pieces, was debunked as fiction. A second volume, My Friend Leonard, was later discredited.
Oprah Winfrey, who selected Pieces for her influential book club, excoriated Frey for his deception, and he quickly became a whipping boy within the publishing world. A lucrative two-book contract evaporated, along with a Hollywood deal.
Frey did later produce a film version of Pieces, using his personal fortune. But the movie, starring former child star Corey Feldman, never saw theatrical release.
A short time later, ReganBooks published Prey's debut novel, Destiny's Homeboy, which press materials described as "an effort to recast War & Peace in the hip-hop milieu."
Critics were less generous. Jonathan Yardley dubbed the 756-page saga, "a homoerotic blaxploitation fantasia that is spellbinding only as a testament to the author's racial naivete."
REALITY TO THE RESCUE
Demoralized by disappointing sales, Mr. Frey faded from view. Rumors of his fate circulated among his loyal fans. He was variously said to have been disfigured in a car crash, to have overdosed on Percocet, or to have faked his own death and joined a Buddhist monastery. It was with a certain inevitable hoopla, therefore, that the author reemerged, five years later, in a new role: as the star of the hit series James Frey: Suicide Watch.
The program, produced by reality TV wunderkind Mark Burnett, documented Prey's struggle over whether to take his own life. It featured angry confrontations with family members, former fans, and several women who claimed to have given birth to children by Frey.
Mental health advocates complained that the show was a crass exploitation of Frey, who appeared disoriented during many of the segments. But viewers turned out in droves. Suicide Watch replaced Mafia Gladiator as the most watched series in America. The highlight of each episode was the socalled Moment of Truth, during which Frey was sequestered alone in a room and provided the means to stage his...