Oprah's Scolding of James Frey: Must See TV

I'm an Oprah fan. I admit it. Most weeks I check oprah.com to see what the topics are for the upcoming week's shows. This past week I was very disappointed. Most of the topics were depressing. Monday: terrorists and suicide bombers, Tuesday: the bird flu, Wednesday: a bankrobbing father. Stuff I would rather not think about.

I like Fun Oprah. You know, the decorating segments with Nate Berkus, the celebrity interviews, the shows about entertaining and food and fashion.

Well, Oprah made certainly trumped Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday of this week with her show on Thursday. I wasn't expecting what I saw when she invited author James Frey back on her show. I didn't even know Mr. Frey was scheduled to be on, because the oprah.com site said TBA (To Be Announced) when I checked about Thursday's show earlier in the week.

Oprah gave the guy quite a tongue lashing. She was Pissed Off Oprah. And also a very Disappointed Oprah. I've never seen her like this. Frey looked like a kid who had been sent to the principal's office. By the end of the interview, he had his head down-- truly, truly ashamed. He didn't mind lying to Larry King, but when he talked to Oprah it was like going to confession. He confessed his sins.

Now I know the haters out there will say that Oprah only changed her tune about Frey because of the backlash she received when she called into King's show to support him. But I truly believe that she believed in this guy, believed in his book, and only thought he had changed a few minor points in the book for clarity's sake, or to protect the innocent.

When Frey admitted that Lily, one of the "characters" in A Million Little Pieces (Oprah also questioned why he referred to the people in his book as characters) didn't actually hang herself, Oprah looked as though she were about to cry. She had been touched by that scene in the book, had actually called friends to mourn over it, and now Frey tells her that things didn't actually happen that way.

I'm glad Oprah confronted James Frey. He may want to climb under a rock for a little while and that's okay. He should come out of this fine, once he tells the whole truth. Yes, he'll be okay and he'll probably go on to write another book and someone will publish it and this will be old news. People have survived worse scandals than this and have come out smelling like roses. And no one can dipsute that Frey is a talented (and imaginative) writer, so that will get him through this. We'll see James Frey again.

What I don't ever want to see again is Crushed Oprah. No, I'm ready for a week-long marathon of Nate Berkus decorating episodes...

The James Frey Hoopla: Why We Care

OK, so last fall Oprah resurrected her book club to introduce a new book: James Frey's A Million Little Pieces. Oprah raved about this book and I liked the look of the cover (yes, I do judge a book by its cover, the cover is important), but after reading a quick excerpt on Amazon, I determined that the book seemed too damn depressing for me. So no, I haven't read the book.

But I sure have been following this week's events. In case you're living under a rock, Mr. Frey was busted by The Smoking Gun website for alleged "inaccuaracies" (OK, let's call it what it is: lies) in his book. Apparently ol' Jimmy is a major embellisher. His people and Oprah and everyone else involved have been doing damage control all week.

Why do I care about this? Simply stated, A Million Little Pieces was touted as a memoir. Mr. Frey is a now a very rich man, thanks to Oprah (whom I adore, by the way--she's not my problem here), but his memoir was apparently filled with untruths.

Now any aspiring writer knows that it is much easier to get a nonfiction book published than a fiction book. And I read that Mr. Frey first tried to sell the book as fiction, but no one wanted it. It seemed much more "interesting" marketed as memoir, I suppose. So how much of it is even true? Is it a memoir or is it fiction? Maybe a little of both. Either way, I feel that the readers of this book were duped. Big time. It doesn't matter if you paid money for this book, borrowed it from a friend or from the library,   you were still duped into thinking that what you read all really happened.

We may never know how much of this book was truth or fiction. Either way, James Frey made out like a bandit.

A Tribute to Charles Lane

One of my favorite character actors, Charles Lane, will be celebrating his 101st birthday later this month. That's right, you heard me: 101st. As in, he was born in the year 1905.

If you've watched any classic TV in the last 50 years, you know who Charles Lane is. If you've ever watched old movies like "It's a Wonderful Life" or "It's a Mad Mad Mad Mad World," you've seen him, too.

Lane's IMBD bio lists him in hundreds of movie and television roles. This great actor has appeared on just about every classic TV series, from "I Love Lucy" to "Soap." He is probably best known for his role as Homer Bledsoe in "Petticoat Junction," but I like him best when he just unexpectedly pops up on a show I'm watching. "Little House on the Prairie." "The Odd Couple." "The Beverly Hillbillies."

My favorite is a 1967 "Bewitched" appearance, when he played cranky old Mr. Mortimer in an episode called "Humbug Not to be Spoken Here." I also liked his stint as banker, Mr. Barnsdahl, in "The Lucy Show." (Pop culture alert: This was before Gale Gordon came on board as Mr. Mooney).

Anyway, let's join in in celebrating the 101st birthday of one of my favorite actors of all time. He's had a prolific career, one that deserves a nod.

Happy 101st, Mr. Lane!