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Editor of disputed Frey memoir calls out Oprah
DALLAS — The editor and publisher of James Frey’s disputed memoir, “A Million Little Pieces,” hasn’t had her last word yet on Oprah Winfrey’s nationally televised pillorying of the author.
The book was a bestseller after Winfrey chose it for her book club in fall 2005. Frey later acknowledged that the memoir contained many fictitious episodes, and Winfrey, who initially defended the author, denounced him in person on her TV show.
Nan A. Talese was with Frey on that show. At a session of a nonfiction writers’ conference in Dallas last Saturday, she accused Winfrey of “fiercely bad manners” and said she would have done nothing differently in how she handled Frey’s manuscript.
“I’m afraid I’m unapologetic of the whole thing. And the only person who should be apologetic is Oprah Winfrey,” Talese said, according to The Dallas Morning News.
As for Frey’s use of fictitious elements in his ostensibly factual account of addiction and recovery, Talese said: “When someone starts out and says, ‘I have been an alcoholic. I have lied. I have cheated.’ … You do not think this is going to be the New Testament.”
A judge approved a tentative settlement in May, calling for publishing house Random House and Frey to refund $2.35 million to those who bought his book before his appearance on Winfrey’s show.
St. Louis mayor says no to ‘Ike Turner Day’; blues performer, 75, says that’s OK
ST. LOUIS — Music legend and Clarksdale, Mo., native Ike Turner said he holds nothing against St. Louis’ mayor for a decision not to issue a City Hall proclamation in his honor.
Mayor Francis Slay has turned down a request from organizers of the Big Muddy Blues Festival to make Sept. 2 “Ike Turner Day.” Turner, 75, is scheduled to perform that day at the blues festival in St. Louis.
Turner says he never asked for the honor. He notes he already has a star on the St. Louis Walk of Fame, and said he doesn’t worry about whether he’s given those honors.
“I just care about making people happy in the audience,” he said.
Turner’s past troubles include a 17-month stint in jail on a 1990 drug conviction. He was depicted as an abusive husband in “What’s Love Got to Do With It,” a 1993 movie about ex-wife Tina Turner’s life, in which he was portrayed by Laurence Fishburne.
Ike Turner admitted in his autobiography that he had hit his former wife, but said the movie depiction is what hurt his career.
“All I can say, and I would say this only to her, is ‘I’m sorry,’” he told The St. Louis Post-Dispatch in last Sunday’s edition.
“But I can’t undo yesterday. I don’t owe anybody else that.”
The mayor suggested, through a spokesman, that Ike Turner could visit a St. Louis center that provides services to domestic violence victims to call attention to the issue.
Judges gather to work against unequal treatment
ATLANTA — About 200 judges gathered last Sunday at the tomb of civil rights leaders Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and Coretta Scott King to reaffirm their efforts to promote fairness in the legal system.
The judges, part of the National Bar Association’s Judicial Council, gathered with King’s sister, Christine King Farris, to place a wreath before the tomb. The event was part of the National Bar Association’s annual conference, which began last Saturday in Atlanta and concludes tomorrow.
Civil District Court Judge Michael Bagneris of New Orleans, standing before the reflecting pool that surrounds the tomb, recalled a quote by Martin Luther King that said the law cannot control a man’s heart but can restrict the heartless.
“I encourage all of my ‘brethren of the bench’ to use your bench to continue to restrict the heartless and continue to mete out justice and thereby doing your part for peace,” said Bagneris, who is the judicial council’s chairman.
Farris thanked the judges for their civil rights efforts.
“If it had not been for our lawyers and judges, I’m not sure we would have made the progress that we did,” Farris said. “Dr. King had to rely and depend on them.”
None of the judges offered specific proposals during the short ceremony that was held amid the hot and humid day, but Bagneris later said it’s often not the laws themselves that cause unfairness among community groups, but the way the laws are applied.
Circuit Court Judge Marion Humphrey of Pulaski County, Ark., said more must be done to help those who are imprisoned gain better financial footing after serving their sentences. He said it affects black communities because of the disproportionate number of blacks in U.S. prisons.
“Justice has to play a role in this,” Humphrey said.
Argentina criticizes U.S. border fence
MEXICO CITY — A U.S. plan to expand fences along the Mexican border to stem illegal immigration is an insult to all Latin Americans, Argentine President Néstor Kirchner said Tuesday during a visit to Mexico.
“It’s not just an insult to our sister nation of Mexico, but to all the nations of Latin America and all the nations of the world,” the leftist president said to the applause of Mexican lawmakers.
President Bush and Congress have approved plans for a 700-mile fence along the border. The Department of Homeland Security is committed to completing 370 miles by the end of 2008.
Relations between Argentina and the United States began to cool in 2002, when Argentina defaulted on international loans and its economy collapsed. Kirchner, who became president in 2003, he has been credited for rescuing the country from devastating fiscal crisis.
Adding to the often tense relationship, Argentina joined other countries in South America that strongly opposed the U.S.-led war in Iraq.
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