Oprah_ A Biography Part 18

While Oprah refused to interview O. J. Simpson, she did interview those around him, including Harvard professor Alan Dershowitz, who had been hired as O. J.'s appeals lawyer. He had written a novel, The Advocate's Devil, The Advocate's Devil, focused on a Harvard lawyer who focused on a Harvard lawyer who thinks his client, a professional athlete, might be guilty of a felony, and the dilemma the lawyer faces in representing him. When Warner Books could not book Dershowitz on Oprah, he called the producers himself and insisted they do a show t.i.tled "How to Defend a Criminal."

"He actually bulldozed his way onto the show," said a former Warner Books publicist, "but then he got blindsided because they also booked Ron Goldman's family.

Dershowitz was annoyed and kept mentioning his book over and over again. So much so that Oprah turned to her audience and made fun of him, saying, 'What's the name of the book again?' They all chorused the t.i.tle. He was definitely overdoing it....And if you and your book don't get the love treatment on her show, you lose." Dershowitz's book sank without a trace.

The most controversial O. J. shows Oprah did were her February 20 and 24, 1997, interviews with Mark Fuhrman, who swore in court that he had never used the word n.i.g.g.e.r. Tape recordings and witnesses proved he had lied, and Oprah pressed him on it. Tape recordings and witnesses proved he had lied, and Oprah pressed him on it.

"What do you mean there are no right or wrong answers? What about the truth?"

she said. "Do you think you are a racist?"

Fuhrman said no.

"Why not? If you could use those words, why not? Do you believe you can use the N N word and not be a racist?" word and not be a racist?"

Even as she made clear her disgust with the detective, she was criticized in black newspapers for having had him on the show in the first place, especially during Black History Month. The Chicago Defender The Chicago Defender quoted former Illinois appellate court judge quoted former Illinois appellate court judge Eugene Pincham as saying it was "a slap in the face" to the country's African American community. Oprah admitted that her interview with Fuhrman provoked more viewer response than any other topic in the history of her show. She later interviewed the prosecutors, Marcia Clark and Christopher Darden, when they published their books about losing the case, and she especially empathized with Darden. "He felt that that trial-133 days--was a total waste of his life and time," Oprah said.

As she started her new season in September 1997, Oprah's producers suggested she interview Paula Barbieri, the Playboy Playboy model who had written a book about her model who had written a book about her relations.h.i.+p with O. J. Simpson. "When I heard that I said: 'Let me tell you this: OJ is over. I'm not going to go into another season discussing what should have already been over two years ago,' " Oprah reiterated to the Chicago Sun-Times. Chicago Sun-Times. " 'Paula Barbieri is not " 'Paula Barbieri is not going to run my life. You hear me? It ain't gonna be Paula Barbieri.' I said, 'I didn't come twelve years of doing this show to start off a new season doing Paula Barbieri.' "

Someone suggested that Oprah's indignation might have been tinged by losing exclusivity to Larry King, Diane Sawyer, and Matt Lauer, all of whom had lined up to interview Barbieri. Richard Roeper, who had interviewed her two days before, accused Oprah of utter hypocrisy.

"Barbieri has accepted Jesus Christ as her savior and has abandoned Hollywood for a life of church work," he wrote in the Chicago Sun-Times. Chicago Sun-Times. "Shouldn't Oprah be "Shouldn't Oprah be hugging her on camera and whispering, 'You go, girl!' as the tears flow?"

Weeks after the Barbieri brouhaha, Oprah decided to do a show t.i.tled "What's Black Enough?" During the two-and-a-half-hour taping on September 30, 1997, members of her audience criticized her for coddling white viewers and for having Mark Fuhrman on during Black History Month. She had scheduled the air date for October 8, 1997, but she canceled the show, possibly because she did not want to be publicly vilified and seen as the focus of so much racial dissension.

Reverberations from the O. J. Simpson trial continued for years. Following his acquittal in the criminal trial, he was later found liable in a civil trial for the wrongful deaths, and the families of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ron Goldman were awarded $33.5 million in damages, which the Goldmans sought to collect at every turn. A decade later, Simpson signed a $3.5 million contract with ReganBooks to write If I Did It, If I Did It, purportedly a novel about how he might have committed the murders. The victims'

families protested, and the public outrage prompted Rupert Murdoch to cancel the contract and pulp the book (four hundred thousand copies). Fred Goldman, who had initially opposed publication, gained the rights to the book under the civil court judgment against Simpson and arranged to republish with a cover that reduced the If If to the size of to the size of an insect so that the t.i.tle appeared to read, I Did It: Confessions of the Killer, I Did It: Confessions of the Killer, by O. J. by O. J.

Simpson. Goldman commissioned a new introduction and added an afterword by Dominick Dunne. The book was published in 2007, and once again Oprah waded into the muck.

During her opening show of 2007 she announced yet another show on O. J.

Simpson, saying she had invited the Goldmans and Denise Brown, Nicole's sister, to discuss the confessional novel with the former prosecutors Marcia Clark and Christopher Darden. But Denise Brown was so angry at the Goldmans for proceeding with the book that she refused to appear with them and canceled her appearance. She finally agreed to tape a separate segment in which she could urge people to boycott the book.

Oprah opened that show (September 13, 2007) with Fred Goldman and his daughter, Kim, sitting onstage. "This is a moral and ethical dilemma for me," she said.

"We sell books on this show. We promote books, but I think this book is despicable....I'm all for it being published, because I don't believe in censors.h.i.+p, but I personally wouldn't want to be in a position to encourage people to buy this book."

Immediately thrown on the defensive, Kim Goldman responded, "It's either him or us." Oprah bored into the Goldmans on how much money they would make from the publication.

"Seventeen cents per book? That's all? What kind of a publis.h.i.+ng deal is that?

Seventeen cents?" Oprah said. "Does that ease your pain?" She returned to the money again and again.

"Do you consider the proceeds from the book blood money?"

The victim's sixty-six-year-old father said there wasn't that much money involved.

"If you're only going to get seventeen cents, who gets the rest of it?" said a skeptical Oprah.

"We have a judgment," said Fred Goldman, "the only form of justice that we were able to attain through the civil court. And that piece of paper is meaningless unless we pursue that judgment. We took away the opportunity from him [Simpson] to earn additional money, and that money is the only form of justice."

Oprah looked disgusted and disapproving. "We as a country have been able to move on," she said. "I would hope you would [be able to move on and] get peace."

Riled, Kim Goldman snapped, "It's insulting to a.s.sume we would ever get peace."

"I did not mean to be insulting," said Oprah. "Thank you for honoring your commitment to be here." She quickly moved to a commercial and then introduced Denise Brown.

"I will not be reading this book," Oprah told her. "My producers have read it and tell me that Nicole is depicted as a drug addict and s.l.u.t and deserves the description."

Denise Brown said the book was "evil" and publication was "morally wrong." At the end of the hour, Oprah looked like she had clean hands: she had said she wouldn't read the book, and she wouldn't recommend the book. Still, she allowed the princ.i.p.als to come on her show and give her huge ratings, while pus.h.i.+ng O. J. Simpson's confessional novel to number two on The New York Times The New York Times bestseller list. bestseller list.

When Oprah started her book club in 1996 she gave all of her authors "the love treatment," and her enthusiastic endors.e.m.e.nts sent their books charging up The New York The New York Times bestseller list, a b.u.t.ton-busting experience for any writer. Oprah's Book Club bestseller list, a b.u.t.ton-busting experience for any writer. Oprah's Book Club became a national sensation that enshrined her as a cultural icon while energizing publishers, enriching authors, and enlightening viewers. Yet when Alice McGee had first suggested in a memo that Oprah do a book club on the air, she did not think it would work. She worried about the ratings. "We'll get horrible numbers," she said. "We'll bomb....Over the years we've tried to do fiction and always died in the ratings." But after Oprah received a gold medal from the National Book Foundation and an Honor from the a.s.sociation of American Publishers, was named Person of the Year by the Literary Market Place, dubbed by Newsweek Newsweek as the most important person in the world of books as the most important person in the world of books and media, and lauded as a "Library Lion" of the New York Public Library, she framed McGee's memo and hung it on her office wall.

At the time, book clubs were springing up all over the country and many booksellers ran author readings and study groups out of their stores. Oprah responded to the existing popularity of these groups and seized the zeitgeist. "She gets no credit for invention," joked TV Guide TV Guide critic Jeff Jarvis, "but she certainly knows how to steal critic Jeff Jarvis, "but she certainly knows how to steal wisely."

She began her book club, as she did so many of her shows, with herself. Having gone from x.x.xL sweats to slinky spandex after losing almost eighty-five pounds in 1993, she felt she had turned her life around. She finally had accepted daily exercise as her metabolic savior, and she now wanted to convert her sedentary viewers. So she decided her May sweeps period would be an entire month of "Get Movin' with Oprah: Spring Training 1995." This set the stage for the fitness book she wanted to write with her trainer, which preceded her book club.

"We had this big discussion about what [that month of spring training] would do in the numbers and what about people who really didn't want to lose weight," she said.

"And then we decided O. J. was on anyway so we could do what we wanted." By that time Oprah could do almost anything she wanted and stay at number one. She would soon win a Daytime Emmy for the fifth consecutive year as Best Talk Show Host, and would make her first appearance on the Forbes Forbes annual list of the four hundred richest annual list of the four hundred richest Americans, with a net worth then of $340 million. Life Life magazine dubbed her "America's magazine dubbed her "America's most powerful woman," and Time Time named her one of "The Most Influential People of the named her one of "The Most Influential People of the Century." As the dramatist Jean Anouilh once said, "Every man thinks G.o.d is on his side.

The rich and powerful know he is."

Taking note of her monthlong workout, The Onion, The Onion, a parody newspaper, ran a a parody newspaper, ran a front-page headline announcing, "Oprah Secedes from U.S., Forms Independent Nation of Cheesecake-Eating Housewives." The tongue-in-cheek story reported that the newly formed republic of "Ugogirl" would be recognized by the UN as a sovereign nation with att.i.tude and sa.s.s.

From the time she started losing weight with Bob Greene in 1993, Oprah talked about writing a book with him, and he began jotting down notes. When she determined the time was right, they found a writer and signed with Hyperion to coauthor Make the Make the Connection: Ten Steps to a Better Body--and a Better Life. Oprah wrote the introduction Oprah wrote the introduction and the front piece for every chapter, sharing photos of herself at her fattest and fittest, as well as poignant entries from her journals about how her weight had consumed her life.

She whipped up frenzied excitement about the book when Hyperion sponsored a breakfast with her and her trainer in Soldier Field stadium during the 1996 ABA convention in Chicago, which was followed by a mile-long power walk to McCormick Place, the convention center. "I can't tell you what I ate that morning, who shared my table or what I wore that day," wrote Renee A. James in the Allentown Morning Call. Morning Call.

"But I do remember this very clearly: Oprah Winfrey was incredible. She looked great; she sounded approachable. As she spoke to the a.s.sembled ma.s.ses, she came across as your very best girlfriend. Every woman in the crowd felt like Oprah was connecting specifically with her. We shared the same struggles, including the never-ending weight loss battle, despite the fact that Oprah was (back then) a millionaire with a hit television show and more money than the rest of us would see in several lifetimes. It didn't faze us that she was an international celebrity. She was just like us. She sounded exactly like each one of us when we talked to our girlfriends. Oprah would fit right in if she wandered into one of our get-together lunches. The whole experience was powerful. The connection she made that day with a couple thousand women was about much more than losing weight."

Sadly, James changed her mind about Oprah twelve years later. "Could it have something to do with the difference between the superstar billionaire we see in 2008 and the girlfriend I saw walking around, talking to people on Soldier Field in 1996?

Somehow, Oprah is starting to feel a bit too 'empowered,' just a little too 'enlightened' for the rest of us. To me, this feels like the friend who got a little too impressed with herself and became just a little too good for the rest of us. Makes you sort of mad; but you still miss her."

Watching Oprah and her trainer in the summer of 1996 leading all those women huffing and puffing across parking lots, up highway overpa.s.ses, and along the lakefront convinced booksellers to place heavy orders for Make the Connection, Make the Connection, which had a first which had a first printing of two million copies. On publication day Oprah dedicated her show to her book with Bob Greene, and she also posed for a cover story in People: People: "Oprah Buff: After "Oprah Buff: After Four Years with a New Fitness Philosophy Oprah Is Happy at Last." Within a month, Make the Connection was at the top of every bestseller list in the country. was at the top of every bestseller list in the country.

Oprah was so convinced she would never gain weight again that she spent the next several months making a motivational home video t.i.tled Oprah: Make the Oprah: Make the Connection in which she talked about having conquered her weight problem. "The sixtyminute tape is less an instructional guide on getting in shape than it is an Oprah-fest," in which she talked about having conquered her weight problem. "The sixtyminute tape is less an instructional guide on getting in shape than it is an Oprah-fest,"

said the Chicago Sun-Times. Chicago Sun-Times. "We see Oprah boxing on the beach with Greene. Oprah in a "We see Oprah boxing on the beach with Greene. Oprah in a field of flowers with a puppy. Oprah in her dressing room. Oprah dancing. Oprah sitting around the dinner table with her buddies. Oprah finis.h.i.+ng the marathon. We see fat Oprah. We see fit Oprah."

We also see generous Oprah, who announced that all proceeds from the video would go to A Better Chance, a Boston-based program that provides inner-city students with good grades the opportunity to attend the nation's best college preparatory schools.

Days after launching her own book, Oprah launched her book club to feature works of adult contemporary fiction. She made a few exceptions for her friends when she chose Maya Angelou's nonfiction book The Heart of a Woman The Heart of a Woman and Bill Cosby's and Bill Cosby's Little Bill Little Bill children's stories. When she started featuring nonfiction in 2005, she rejected her "aunt"

Katharine's memoir, Jay Bird Creek, Jay Bird Creek, because, according to Mrs. Esters, Oprah said her because, according to Mrs. Esters, Oprah said her book was "too trite and mediocre. No drama or excitement."

"I self-published the book, and Oprah said she could not consider it for her show unless it was published by a publisher like Random House, Inc....She also said her viewers would not like it." Mrs. Esters had written about growing up in the Jim Crow South and her fight for civil rights. "My book was too little for Oprah to bother with."

Inexplicably, Oprah ignored the two women whose contemporary fiction had given her an entree into acting. Alice Walker, who wrote The Color Purple, The Color Purple, and Gloria and Gloria Naylor, who wrote The Women of Brewster Place, The Women of Brewster Place, were never selected for Oprah's Book were never selected for Oprah's Book Club for any of their subsequent works. Particularly puzzling was the distance Oprah put between herself and Alice Walker, because The Color Purple The Color Purple had been such a significant had been such a significant part of Oprah's success, expanding and, in many ways, making her career. Her homage to the movie could be seen in the "Color Purple" meadow she created at her Indiana farm.

Yet she never invited Alice Walker to see the landscaped hymn of praise to her novel.

"I love Oprah and I admire her and I think she's a gift to the planet," Walker said in 2008, "but she's put a huge remove between us that I don't understand....Maybe my views are just too out there for her."

Equally inexplicable was what looked like Oprah's total usurping of the novel when it became a musical and opened on Broadway in 2005. The marquee blared: "Oprah Winfrey Presents The Color Purple. The Color Purple. " Only in the smallest print in the programs and in " Only in the smallest print in the programs and in the full-page ads that ran in newspapers were the words "Based upon the novel written by Alice Walker."

"Perhaps in claiming The Color Purple The Color Purple in this way she was healing a wound she in this way she was healing a wound she had acquired when Steven [Spielberg] refused to put her name on the marquee for the movie," Walker suggested. "I know that hurt Oprah very deeply, and I think that she was trying to get back at him and gain some ground that she felt was lost. So she took over the whole thing, the whole marquee, without really thinking about me, or about whether it was fair....It was not particularly graceful on her part or Scott's [Scott Sanders, the producer] part. I don't know how they could do it, but since they did, I expect that they will live with it. You know I can."

Neither Alice Walker nor Gloria Naylor could explain being omitted from Oprah's Book Club, which from 1996 until she temporarily discontinued it in 2002 concentrated on fiction by living authors, mostly female. She would announce her pick and then give viewers a month to read it. In the interim, her producers filmed the author at home, and over dinner with Oprah and a few fans discussing the book, scenes that were later woven into the show that was done about the book. Her first book club choice was The Deep The Deep End of the Ocean, by Jacquelyn Mitchard, a story about a mother whose child is by Jacquelyn Mitchard, a story about a mother whose child is kidnapped. Mitchard's publicity director at Viking Penguin remembered Oprah calling her to say, "We're gonna create the biggest book club in the world," which was no exaggeration since The Oprah Winfrey Show The Oprah Winfrey Show was then broadcast in 130 countries. Oprah was then broadcast in 130 countries. Oprah knew enough from previous book promotions to warn the publicist to print thousands of extra copies and then to get out of the way of the stampede. Mitchard's book, which had a first run of sixty-eight thousand copies, sold more than four million copies after being chosen by Oprah's Book Club.

"I want to get the country reading," said Oprah, who recognized her power as a cultural force. For the next six years she chose books that mirrored her own interests, which some critics called "middle brow," "sentimental," and "commercial." Mostly she chose sad stories written by women about women who survived misery and pain to find redemption. They were women like her, who triumphed over s.e.xual abuse, careless mothering, racism, poverty, unrequited love, weak men, unwanted pregnancy, drugs, even obesity. "Reading is like everything else," Oprah said. "You're drawn to people who are like yourself."

Oprah may have seen herself in Wally Lamb's debut novel, She's Come Undone, She's Come Undone, about an obese teenager overcoming rape and self-hatred, which became a 1997 book club choice. Twelve years later she joined forces with Tyler Perry to coproduce Precious, Precious, a film about an obese, pregnant Harlem teenage mother who overcomes rape, illiteracy, and an evil mother to make a new life for herself. The film was based on the novel Push, Push, by Sapphire. For the most part, Oprah's book club choices featured women who had been raped, molested, or murdered by men who committed adultery or acted abusively toward their families. In several of the novels, the men were threatening and the women nurturing. The New York Times New York Times literary critic Tom Shone said, "The Oprah list offers us literary critic Tom Shone said, "The Oprah list offers us that rather ominous thing: not a world without pity, but a world composed of nothing but."

1996-2002.

The Deep End of the Ocean, by Jacquelyn Mitchard by Jacquelyn Mitchard Song of Solomon, by Toni Morrison by Toni Morrison The Book of Ruth, by Jane Hamilton by Jane Hamilton She's Come Undone, by Wally Lamb by Wally Lamb Stones from the River, by Ursula Hegi by Ursula Hegi The Rapture of Canaan, by Sheri Reynolds by Sheri Reynolds The Heart of a Woman, by Maya Angelou by Maya Angelou Songs in Ordinary Time, by Mary McGarry Morris by Mary McGarry Morris A Lesson Before Dying, by Ernest J. Gaines by Ernest J. Gaines Ellen Foster, by Kaye Gibbons by Kaye Gibbons A Virtuous Woman, by Kaye Gibbons by Kaye Gibbons The Meanest Thing to Say, by Bill Cosby by Bill Cosby The Treasure Hunt, by Bill Cosby by Bill Cosby The Best Way to Play, by Bill Cosby by Bill Cosby Paradise, by Toni Morrison by Toni Morrison Here on Earth, by Alice Hoffman by Alice Hoffman Black and Blue, by Anna Quindlen by Anna Quindlen Breath, Eyes, Memory, by Edwidge Danticat by Edwidge Danticat I Know This Much Is True, by Wally Lamb by Wally Lamb What Looks Like Crazy on an Ordinary Day, by Pearl Cleage by Pearl Cleage Midwives, by Chris Bohjalian by Chris Bohjalian Where the Heart Is, by Billie Letts by Billie Letts Jewel, by Bret Lott by Bret Lott The Reader, by Bernhard Schlink by Bernhard Schlink The Pilot's Wife, by Anita Shreve by Anita Shreve White Oleander, by Janet Fitch by Janet Fitch Mother of Pearl, by Melinda Haynes by Melinda Haynes Tara Road, by Maeve Binchy by Maeve Binchy River, Cross My Heart, by Breena Clarke by Breena Clarke Vinegar Hill, by A. Manette Ansay by A. Manette Ansay A Map of the World, by Jane Hamilton by Jane Hamilton Gap Creek, by Robert Morgan by Robert Morgan Daughter of Fortune, by Isabel Allende by Isabel Allende Back Roads, by Tawni O'Dell by Tawni O'Dell The Bluest Eye, by Toni Morrison by Toni Morrison While I Was Gone, by Sue Miller by Sue Miller The Poisonwood Bible, by Barbara Kingsolver by Barbara Kingsolver Open House, by Elizabeth Berg by Elizabeth Berg Drowning Ruth, by Christina Schwarz by Christina Schwarz House of Sand and Fog, by Andre Dubus III by Andre Dubus III We Were the Mulvaneys, by Joyce Carol Oates by Joyce Carol Oates Icy Sparks, by Gwyn Hyman Rubio by Gwyn Hyman Rubio Stolen Lives: Twenty Years in a Desert Jail, by Malika Oufkir by Malika Oufkir Cane River, by Lalita Tademy by Lalita Tademy The Corrections, by Jonathan Franzen by Jonathan Franzen A Fine Balance, by Rohinton Mistry by Rohinton Mistry Fall on Your Knees, by Ann-Marie MacDonald by Ann-Marie MacDonald Sula, by Toni Morrison by Toni Morrison Within the first year, Oprah's Book Club had sold almost twelve million copies of contemporary fiction, a genre that typically sold no more than a few thousand copies per t.i.tle per year, and according to Publis.h.i.+ng Trends, Publis.h.i.+ng Trends, an industry newsletter, she was an industry newsletter, she was responsible for $130 million in book sales. Consequently, she became known as "The Midas of the Midlist" for her ability to turn modestly successful novels into raging bestsellers. "This is a revolution," said Toni Morrison, the first black writer to win the n.o.bel Prize for Literature. Oprah introduced Morrison to her audience in 1996 as "the greatest living American writer, male or female, white or black." Over the next six years she selected Morrison for the book club four times, even hosting a master cla.s.s so the erudite writer could instruct Oprah's audience on how to read a novel. Oprah began that show by rea.s.suring viewers that she, too, had difficulty reading Toni Morrison, and revealed her conversation with the writer.

"Do people tell you they have to keep going over the words sometimes?" Oprah said.

"That, my dear," said Toni Morrison, "is called reading."

By the end of the first year of Oprah's Book Club, publishers were reeling. "It's like waking up in the morning and finding your husband has changed into Kevin Costner," said one female publisher. They turned themselves inside out to accommodate Oprah, signing confidentiality agreements to keep secret her selection until she announced it on her show. They agreed to contribute five hundred free copies of the book for her to distribute to her audience, and to donate ten thousand copies to libraries. They dispatched sales reps to sell blindly: "There will be an Oprah Book Club selection in two months. I don't know what it is. How many copies do you want to order?" In turn, booksellers had to sign confidentiality agreements not to open the boxes s.h.i.+pped with the Oprah stencil until the minute she announced her selection on the air. The anointed authors also signed affidavits swearing not to reveal their good fortune until Oprah had announced their books. They were permitted to tell their spouses but no one else, including parents, siblings, and children. In addition, publishers had to cede Oprah cover approval of the placement of the book club logo (a big yellow O O with a white center) and with a white center) and agree to stop stamping books with the logo once the month was up. After that time, they could not even mention her book club in advertis.e.m.e.nts.

It's hard to believe that Oprah's crusade for literacy would trigger any criticism, but within months she had drilled into the raw nerves of literary elites. "Yes, her book club is a societal boon," stated The New Republic, The New Republic, "but her taste for the soap-operatically "but her taste for the soap-operatically uplifting is not." The New York literary critic Alfred Kazin dismissed her book club as a "carpet bombing of the American mind." But culture critic Camille Paglia defended Oprah: "I think the reaction against her is sheer intellectual sn.o.bbery. The idea that a black woman with a devoted audience could have this kind of impact jeopardizes [her critics'] role as tastemakers." The carping reached a crescendo in 2001, when Oprah selected The Corrections, The Corrections, by Jonathan Franzen, for book club beatification. Franzen, by Jonathan Franzen, for book club beatification. Franzen, whose first two novels combined sold a total of fifty thousand copies, seemed poised for gigantic commercial success as an Oprah pick, but he did not leap at the opportunity.

"The first weekend after I heard, I considered turning it down," he said later.

"Yes, I was very serious. I see this as my book, my creation, and I didn't want that logo of corporate owners.h.i.+p on it....It's not [just] a sticker. It's part of the cover. They redo the whole cover. You can't take it off. I know it says Oprah's Book Club, but it's an implied endors.e.m.e.nt, both for me and for her. The reason I got into this business is because I'm an independent writer, and I didn't want that corporate logo on my book."

He went on to say that being selected for Oprah's Book Club did as much for her as it did for him. "[My book with three hundred thousand copies in print] was already on the best-seller list and the reviews were pretty much all in. What this means for us is that she's b.u.mped the sales up to another level and gotten the book into Walmart and Costco and places like that. It means a lot more money for me and my publisher, [and] it gets that book--that kind of book into the hands of people who might like it."

Franzen defined his book--"that kind of book"--as in the "high-art literary tradition," whereas he said most of Oprah's books were merely "entertaining." He added, "She's picked some good books, but she's picked enough schmaltzy, one-dimensional ones that I cringe, myself, even though I think she's really smart and really fighting the good fight."

Franzen seemed to have publicly dismissed Oprah as a carnival barker, and she reacted by rescinding her invitation. She announced to her viewers, "Jonathan Franzen will not be on The Oprah Winfrey Show The Oprah Winfrey Show because he is seemingly uncomfortable and because he is seemingly uncomfortable and conflicted about being chosen as a book club selection. It is never my intention to make anyone uncomfortable or cause anyone conflict....We're moving on to the next book."

Franzen told USA Today that he felt "awful" about what he had done. "To find that he felt "awful" about what he had done. "To find myself being in the position of giving offense to someone who's a hero--not a hero of mine per se, but a hero in general--I feel bad in a public-spirited way."

Flabbergasted, The Was.h.i.+ngton Post's literary critic, Jonathan Yardley, called Franzen's words "so stupid as to defy comprehension. He did everything he could to take Oprah Winfrey's money and then run as far away from her as possible." Chris Bohjalian, whose novel Midwives Midwives was the twenty-first book chosen by Oprah, said, "I was angry on was the twenty-first book chosen by Oprah, said, "I was angry on behalf of the book club, and I was appalled as a reader who appreciates the incredible amount that Oprah Winfrey has done for books." He added that sales of Midwives Midwives jumped jumped from 100,000 copies to 1.6 million after it became an Oprah pick.

Franzen was reviled from coast to coast. Newsweek Newsweek called him "a pompous p.r.i.c.k," called him "a pompous p.r.i.c.k,"

The Boston Globe called him an "ego-blinded sn.o.b," and the called him an "ego-blinded sn.o.b," and the Chicago Tribune Chicago Tribune called him called him "a spoiled, whiny little brat." Stepping in to defend him, David Remnick, editor in chief of The New Yorker, The New Yorker, said, "I think the world of Jonathan. I think he's sorry about Oprah, said, "I think the world of Jonathan. I think he's sorry about Oprah, but it's not a monumental issue. Everyone steps on someone's toes sometimes." E. Annie Proulx, the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The s.h.i.+pping News, The s.h.i.+pping News, also came to Franzen's also came to Franzen's defense. "Jon was so right," she said. "He objected because he didn't like a lot of Oprah's choices. And I can say this because I know none of my books will ever make Oprah's list.

Some of the books she picks are a bit sentimental. I see where she's coming from, and she's done marvelous things for books and readers. But for someone to think that it's no kudo to be accepted on a list of sentimental books is understandable."

In November 2001, a month after his disinvitation by Oprah, Jonathan Franzen won a National Book Award for The Corrections, The Corrections, and a few months later she decided to and a few months later she decided to discontinue her book club. Our Lady of Literacy had had it. "It has become harder and harder to find books on a monthly basis that I feel absolutely compelled to share," she said. "I will continue featuring books on The Oprah Winfrey Show The Oprah Winfrey Show when I feel they merit when I feel they merit my heartfelt recommendation."

If she appeared overly sensitive to public criticism, it was because she had become accustomed to getting perpetual praise from the press--laudatory profiles, admiring interviews, adoring cover stories. With the exception of the tabloids, the U.S.S.

Oprah sailed mostly smooth seas. Now she had hit a little turbulence over her lack of sailed mostly smooth seas. Now she had hit a little turbulence over her lack of literary taste, and being derided as Our Lady of the Lowbrows had nicked her in a vulnerable spot. Never particularly proud of her education from the historic black college of Tennessee State University, she felt inferior around her Ivy League contemporaries.

She knew her success and celebrity lifted her into most social circles, because, as she said many times, money opens every door in America. But the one marked "High-Art Literary" seemed to have slammed shut on her.

Oprah gave the publis.h.i.+ng industry ten months to miss her book club before she announced that she was bringing it back. This time, though, she made herself immune to literary attacks by concentrating solely on the cla.s.sics. For the next two years she rallied her viewers around some of literature's finest writers: 2003-2005.

East of Eden, by John Steinbeck by John Steinbeck Cry, the Beloved Country, by Alan Paton by Alan Paton One Hundred Years of Solitude, by Gabriel Garcia Marquez by Gabriel Garcia Marquez The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter, by Carson McCullers by Carson McCullers Anna Karenina, by Leo Tolstoy by Leo Tolstoy The Good Earth, by Pearl S. Buck by Pearl S. Buck As I Lay Dying, by William Faulkner by William Faulkner The Sound and the Fury, by William Faulkner by William Faulkner Light in August, by William Faulkner by William Faulkner By 2005, America's literary community was starving. More than 150 writers, mostly female novelists such as Amy Tan, Louise Erdrich, and Jane Smiley, signed a pet.i.tion to Oprah, saying "the landscape of literary fiction is now a gloomy place." They begged her to come back, and she agreed because she said she missed interviewing authors about their books. Interestingly, all of her next selections were books by men.

2005-2008.

A Million Little Pieces, by James Frey by James Frey Night, by Elie Wiesel by Elie Wiesel The Measure of a Man: A Spiritual Autobiography, by Sidney Poitier by Sidney Poitier The Road, by Cormac McCarthy by Cormac McCarthy Middles.e.x, by Jeffrey Eugenides by Jeffrey Eugenides Love in the Time of Cholera, by Gabriel Garcia Marquez by Gabriel Garcia Marquez The Pillars of the Earth, by Ken Follett by Ken Follett A New Earth, by Eckhart Tolle by Eckhart Tolle The Story of Edgar Sawtelle, by David Wroblewski by David Wroblewski When she opened the 2005 season with her selection of A Million Little Pieces, A Million Little Pieces, by by James Frey, she had no idea that she would become embroiled in a controversy that would trigger thirteen cla.s.s-action lawsuits, a bruising clash with a prestigious publisher and a revered editor, plus a tirade from The New York Times The New York Times that would make the Franzen that would make the Franzen fracas look like sweet potato pie. As Jonathan Franzen remarked a few years later, "Oprah should keep away from white guys with the initials J.F."

In the beginning, Oprah was bewitched by James Frey's harrowing memoir of addiction and recovery. For three months she gave him the full love treatment. "The book...kept me up for two nights straight," she told her audience on September 22, 2005, when she announced A Million Little Pieces A Million Little Pieces as her next book club selection. "It's a wild as her next book club selection. "It's a wild ride through addiction and rehab that has been electrifying, intense, mesmerizing, and even gruesome."

On October 26, 2005, she introduced the thirty-six-year-old bearded writer as "the child you pray you never have to raise. At age ten he was drinking alcohol, by twelve he's doing drugs, and from there he spends almost every day the same: drunk and high on crack....He does it all: freebases cocaine, drops acid, eats mushrooms, takes meth, smokes PCP, snorts glue, and inhales nitrous oxide."

Frey also wrote about boarding a plane drunk and bloodied from a brawl, having two root ca.n.a.l operations without anesthesia, and finding his dead girlfriend hanging from a rope. He wrote graphically about the violence he had witnessed, suffered, and perpetuated at Hazelden during his rehabilitation, and about a crack-fueled confrontation with Ohio police that resulted in seven felony charges and eighty-seven days in jail. "I was a bad guy," he told Oprah.

Several book reviewers challenged his accounts as "lacking credibility," but they gave him high marks for vivid imagination. Others were not so forgiving. "Absolutely false," Dr. Scott Lingle, president of the Minnesota Dental a.s.sociation, told Deborah Caulfield Rybak of the Minneapolis StarTribune. StarTribune. He said that no dentist in the state He said that no dentist in the state would perform surgery without Novocain: "No way. Nohow. Nowhere," said a former spokesman for Northwest Airlines about Frey's contention that he had boarded a plane wounded and inebriated. Counselors from Hazelden denied his claims of violence, and Ohio police laughed at his so-called criminal record, which consisted of a DUI when he was twenty-three years old. For that he had simply posted bond of $733, with no jail time. His "crimes" consisted of driving without a license and driving with an open container of beer, as opposed to being the chief target of an FBI narcotics probe, as he claimed. "He thinks he's a bit of a desperado," said David Baer, a former Ohio police officer amused by the bad-guy portrait Frey limned of himself.

Frey's publishers (Doubleday in hardcover and Anchor in paperback) gave Oprah's producers a copy of Rybak's d.a.m.ning article from the Minneapolis StarTribune StarTribune when Oprah was considering the booking, but according to the reporter, she was never contacted by anyone at Harpo. "I was quite surprised by the lack of vetting done by her organization," Rybak recalled a few years later. At the time, Oprah didn't seem to care.

She said she loved the book and wanted to make it her next selection.

During the narrated video segment that introduced Frey to her audience, seven of her employees extolled the book, bringing Oprah to tears. "I'm crying 'cause these are all my Harpo family and we all love the book so much." The book went on to sell two million copies in the next three months, impressing even Oprah. "Within hours of our book club announcement, readers across the country raced to get the book," she announced. " A Million Little Pieces A Million Little Pieces. .h.i.t number one on hit number one on USA Today,The New York Times, USA Today,The New York Times, and Publishers Weekly, Publishers Weekly, the triple crown of books." the triple crown of books."

Then came the explosion from the website The Smoking Gun, which posted a story on January 8, 2006: "A Million Little Lies: The Man Who Conned Oprah." Citing a six-week investigation into Frey's so-called criminal record and his inability to explain the disparities between what he had written and what official records showed, the website stated, "[H]e has demonstrably fabricated key parts of the book, which could--and probably should--cause discerning readers...to wonder what is true." The next day Frey's publishers responded with a statement of support, which prompted Edward Wyatt's story in TheNew York Times TheNew York Times to lead, "And on the second day Doubleday shrugged." to lead, "And on the second day Doubleday shrugged."

For the next seventeen days the James Frey story dominated the national news cycle, especially in The New York Times, The New York Times, which published thirty-one articles inside of a which published thirty-one articles inside of a month questioning Frey's honesty, his publisher's credibility, and Oprah's complicity.

Many at the publis.h.i.+ng house felt the negative coverage was a way for the media to take on Oprah without doing so directly. "It was a veiled attack on her that kept the story going," said a vice president of Random House, Inc., the umbrella company of Doubleday and Anchor.

Oprah's producers, especially Ellen Rakieten, Sheri Salata, and Jill Adams, stayed in close touch with Frey, calling him every day and sending emails. "We love the book, James. We don't care what they say. It's irrelevant. Really." But the continual drubbing so unsettled Oprah that she finally insisted Frey go on Larry King Live Larry King Live to defend himself. to defend himself.

She made the arrangements for his appearance herself and promised to call in at the end of the show with a statement. She had two prepared--one for him and one against him-and her decision of which she would read depended on how he did. "Go on with your mother," she told him. "You'll look more sympathetic."

So, on January 11, 2006, accompanied by his mom and two publicists from Anchor, James Frey appeared on CNN to discuss the controversy surrounding his book, now described as a "fraud" and "a scandal." Polite and low-key, he said he was a flawed person with a troubled past. He pleaded "a very subjective memory" due to his drug addiction and acknowledged that he had "changed some things" in the book but that it was "the essential truth" of his life. He would not admit to any lies or distortions. King pointed out that while Frey had the support of his publisher, he had yet to hear from Oprah. One of his callers asked, "Do you think [she] will support you?"

By the end of the hour there was still no call from Oprah, and Frey looked like a whipped dog, with his mother close to tears. Just as Larry was to turn the next hour over to Anderson Cooper, he announced, "I'm going to hold the show a little longer because I understand we have Oprah on the phone. Let's see what she has to say. Are you there, my friend?" The host leaned forward, straining his suspenders to hear whether Frey would live another day.

"I wanted to say because everyone's been asking me to release a statement," said Oprah. "I first wanted to hear what James had to say....He's had many conversations with my producers, who do fully support him and obviously we support the book because we recognize that there have been thousands and hundreds of thousands of people whose lives have been changed by this book....I feel about A Million Little Pieces A Million Little Pieces that although that although some of the facts have been questioned...that the underlying message of redemption in James Frey's memoir still resonates with me....Whether or not...he hit the police officer or didn't hit the police officer is irrelevant to me...." She added, "To me, it seems to be much ado about nothing....It's irrelevant discussing, you know, what happened or did not happen to the police."

"It's still an Oprah recommend, right?" said Larry King.

"Well, I certainly do recommend it for all."