Monday, November 14, 2005

After LeRoy hoax revealed, work shrivels

Prompted by speculation (including a major article in New York magazine) that the 24-year-old male author J.T. LeRoy does not exist but is actually a hoax initiated by a forty-something female, the NY Times -- which doesn't need any more credibility problems -- killed a travel piece they had commissioned "LeRoy" to do. The piece was not only ready to be printed in an upcoming travel supplement, but a whole photo layout had been shot. Courtesy GalleyCat.

Previously: Reality comes crashing down on J.T. LeRoy hoax

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

JT is real & did write those books.

This blog says it well:
http://www.rakemag.com/today/rakesprogress/

Anonymous said...

That blog says less than zip. There is a difference between pseudonym and fraud. There is a difference between publishing fact and fiction. Laura Albert's (AKA LeRoy) previous piece for the NYT, presented as factual, is anything but, replete with imaginary antics of the fictional mother of the fictional LeRoy. Albert's claim in WWD that the Times "knew exactly what they were getting" is laughable, and the paper's action when they finally found out what they were getting—a middle-aged woman with a hard hustle who found an angle to work—is laudable.