Oprah turns on author

Oprah Winfrey has angrily laid into an author whose drug abuse memoir she promoted, saying revelations that he had made up parts of it had embarrassed and disappointed her.

Writer James Frey, who saw sales of A Million Little Pieces soar after Winfrey recommended it on her bookclub last year, sat meekly as the sometimes tearful talkshow host chastised him live on TV.

When allegations first emerged that he had exaggerated his criminal record, claiming to have spent three months in jail, Winfrey made a surprise call to Larry King’s CNN show to support the author.

But yesterday she made an about-turn, to the delight of viewers.

“I feel duped,” she said. “But more importantly, I feel that you betrayed millions of readers.”

She added: “It’s embarrassing and disappointing for me.”

When Winfrey asked Frey why he “felt the need to lie”, audience members groaned and gasped as the downcast author stuttered that certain facts and characters had been “altered”, booing the author.

Subjected to a rigorous interrogation and mockingly referred to as “Mr Bravado Tough Guy”, he admitted he was jailed for just a few hours, rather than 87 days, and said he had both made mistakes and lied.

He insisted that the essence of his memoir, which deals mainly with his period in rehab, was real.

“I don’t think it is a novel,” Frey said of the book, which was first offered to publishers as fiction.

“I still think it’s a memoir.”

When Winfrey phoned Larry King Live, she said the alleged fabrications were “much ado about nothing.”

“I regret that phone call,” she said yesterday. “I made a mistake. I left the impression that the truth does not matter, and I am deeply sorry about that. That is not what I believe.

She said “email after email” from supporters of the book had clouded her judgment.

“To everyone who has challenged my position, you are absolutely right,” she added.

A Million Little Pieces was the second biggest selling title in America last year after shifting 1.77 million copies.

In October an emotional Winfrey described it as “like nothing you’ve ever read before”, turning it into an overnight literary sensation.

But her apparent indifference to its accuracy earlier this month led to intense criticism, including angry e-mails on her website.

In a statement issued after the show, the book’s publisher, Doubleday, said it had “sadly come to the realisation that a number of facts have been altered and incidents embellished”.

It said an author’s note and a publisher’s note would be sent to booksellers to insert into current editions and that any future printings would be delayed until the notes were included in the actual book.

But no changes in the text are planned and the book will remain classified as a memoir.

Doubleday had initially had said the allegations were not worth looking into.