JT LeRoy
Encyclopedia
Jeremiah "Terminator" LeRoy was a pseudonym created by American
writer
Laura Albert
. The name was used from 1996 on for publication in magazines such as Nerve
and Shout NY
. After his first novel Sarah
was published, "LeRoy" started making public appearances. In a January 2006 article in The New York Times
, LeRoy's agent, manager, movie producer, as well as several journalists, declared that the person acting as LeRoy in public was Savannah Knoop, the half-sister of Albert's then partner, Geoffrey Knoop.
LeRoy was supposedly born October 31, 1980 in West Virginia
. His backstory was one of prostitution
, drug addiction and vagrancy
in California
, prior to the publication of his first novel in 1999. However, an exposé in October 2005 revealed that JT LeRoy was Laura Albert. In a February 2006 interview with The New York Times
, Geoffrey Knoop stated that Laura Albert was the author of the LeRoy books, which Albert later confirmed.
Albert described LeRoy as a "veil" rather than a "hoax", and claimed that she was able to write things as LeRoy that she could not have said as Laura Albert. In 2007 Albert was convicted of fraud and ordered to pay reparations for having signed legal papers in the name of her fictional character. Elements of the JT LeRoy hoax inspired "Sweetie", a 2008 episode of Law & Order
.
's Zoetrope: All-Story
, McSweeney's Quarterly Concern
, Memorious, and Oxford American
magazine's Seventh Annual Music Issue. LeRoy is listed as a contributing editor to BlackBook
magazine, i-D
and 7x7
magazines, and is credited with writing reviews all of which include the character Justin Wayne Dennis, articles and interviews for The New York Times
, The Times of London
, Spin, Film Comment
, Filmmaker, Flaunt
, Shout NY
, Index Magazine
, Interview
, and Vogue
, among others.
LeRoy's work has also appeared in such anthologies as The Best American
Nonrequired Reading 2003, MTV
's Lit Riffs, XXX: 30 Porn-Star Portraits, Nadav Kander
's Beauty's Nothing, and The Fourth Sex: Adolescent Extremes. LeRoy is also listed as guest editor for Da Capo’s Best Music Writing 2005.
Additionally, LeRoy was credited with liner notes and biographies for musicians Billy Corgan
, Liz Phair
, Conor Oberst
, Ash
, Bryan Adams
, Marilyn Manson
, Nancy Sinatra
and Courtney Love
and profiled award-winner Juergen Teller
.
's Elephant (2003) was credited to LeRoy. Van Sant began making Gerry, a largely improvisational, non-narrative film. He decided to continue that approach with Elephant while retaining some of LeRoy's contributions. LeRoy was also listed as that film's associate producer.
LeRoy was credited as associate producer for the 2004 film adaptation of The Heart Is Deceitful Above All Things
, directed by and starring Asia Argento
. It was released in spring 2006. LeRoy made a few appearances at promotional events.
Antidote Films
and producers Jeff Levy-Hinte
(Thirteen
, Laurel Canyon
) announced plans for a film adaptation of Sarah to be directed by Steven Shainberg
(Secretary) from a screenplay by Erin Cressida Wilson
and short story by Mary Gaitskill
. In June 2007 Laura Albert was sued by Antidote Films
for fraud
; the firm claimed that the contract signed by JT LeRoy to make a feature film was null and void, as the person LeRoy does not exist. On June 22, 2007, Albert was found guilty of fraud
by a Manhattan
jury, and ordered to pay reparations and damages.
LeRoy was rumoured to be a contributing writer to the upcoming movie House of Boys, a love story set in Amsterdam
in 1984. Layke Anderson
, Stephen Fry
and Udo Kier
are starring. The film is produced by Delux Productions (Girl with a Pearl Earring
) with shooting scheduled in Luxembourg
and Morocco
in December 2008.
In 1994, LeRoy got in touch with novelist Dennis Cooper
by faxing a request through Cooper’s agent, Ira Silverberg
. He struck up a telephone friendship with Cooper, who introduced him to the writer Bruce Benderson
, through whom he contacted novelist Joel Rose
, writer Laurie Stone, editor Karen Rinaldi, and agent Henry Dunow. He also got in touch with poet Sharon Olds
, Mary Karr
and Mary Gaitskill
, among others.
LeRoy thus built a core of literary supporters, engaging in lengthy, intimate phone conversations and correspondence with them. His biography seemed tailor-made for their interests. Like Olds, he had a strict family background; like Cooper’s characters, he was a boy who had fantasies
of being beaten up; like Benderson’s characters, he was a hustler; like Gaitskill’s characters, he was involved in S&M and prostitution
.
In 2000, writer Brian Pera, who had traveled the country on his own book tour, said he had met other writers who were in contact with LeRoy by e-mail and phone; LeRoy had bonded via extensive, often contradictory revelations, but was never able to meet these carefully cultivated confidants in public or in private. Throughout the 1990s, LeRoy rarely appeared in public. Then in 2001, a person claiming to be LeRoy began appearing in public, usually decked out in wig and sunglasses.
Peter Carlson wrote in The Washington Post
, "The San Francisco Chronicle called the LeRoy affair 'the greatest literary hoax in a generation'. But this fascinating interview reveals that the real story was far more complex and interesting." In Lemon Magazine, head writer Robert Bundy wrote an editorial entitled "Yes Virginia, There Is A JT LeRoy," in the style of Francis P. Church's classic 1897 newspaper editorial
defending the belief in Santa Claus
. Bundy argued that LeRoy exists "because a touching expression of longing, suffering, love, and endurance is not disqualified simply because it issues from a construct. He exists because if words and stories resonate and move the reader, then it matters not that the hand writing them signed another's name."
Celebrity supporters
In early 2001, Garbage
singer Shirley Manson
mentioned reading Sarah in her band's online journal. Manson then received LeRoy's manuscript for The Heart Is Deceitful Above All Things and they became friends. At the time, Manson was writing and recording the band's third album, beautifulgarbage
, and wrote a song about LeRoy called "Cherry Lips (Go Baby Go!)
". Manson later referenced LeRoy and his friend Speedie in the title song from the band's fourth effort, Bleed Like Me
. Shirley Manson wrote JT LeRoy and said "I can assure you, our little bug is really our little bug. I have held hands with him, I know he's for real."
Interviewers were rarely left alone with "LeRoy"; his 'family' never left him alone for interview, claiming that they were "protecting" him from the temptations from his former life as a drug user. In an interview with The Guardian
on January 4, 2006, "LeRoy" noted that he was "Twenty-three, er ... 24," when he would have been 25 years old, and was caught out when asked what Wiffleball
was, although claiming in author's bios that he enjoyed playing it. The writer of the article, Laura Barton, quickly received an email from the LeRoy camp attempting to cover up the slip-up.
wrote in the October 10, 2005 issue of New York magazine suggesting that LeRoy and his associate, Speedie, were personas adopted by musician Laura Albert
. Beachy, like several commentators since 1999, speculated on parallels to the case of Anthony Godby Johnson
, who was also eventually proven not to exist.
On November 11, 2005, Women's Wear Daily
wrote that the editors of The New York Times Magazine
killed an article LeRoy had written after Beachy's article questioning his identity was published. In the WWD article, LeRoy was quoted as saying, "They asked me for my passport
, my social security
card....I've always played with identity and gender
. I understand what [the Times] is saying, but they entered into working with me knowing that....Just because the Washington Post came after them, why should I be forced to prove who I am? They knew exactly what they were getting when they dealt with me."
The Washington Posts David Segal picked up the New York magazine story and wrote, "[LeRoy] appears to be one of the great literary hoaxes of our day, and it fooled a whole lot of people as well as the media, including the New York Times, which last year ran a lengthy profile of LeRoy".
Hans Eisenbeis, in the Minneapolis–Saint Paul newspaper The Rake, wrote, "I don't know what all the fuss is about. In the business, it's called a pseudonym, and the fact that J.T. LeRoy has been writing and publishing under that name for more than a decade ought to be track record enough to establish his (or her) credentials... It's an interesting mystery, but seems to me sort of irrelevant to whether the work written by that person is publishable or not."
entry titled "the Hoax edition" which cited an article in The Guardian that took a kind stance over the hoax issue stating that "identity is irrelevant". Also included were T-shirt prints which made light of the hoax, reading "I am the real JT LeRoy" and including an artistic image of the author's blonde wig and sunglasses. Also on the blog entry were promotional references to the film The Heart is Deceitful Above All Things, DVD
cover art and opening dates, and a Sundance Film Festival
viewing.
, published on January 9, 2006, gave evidence that the person appearing in public as JT LeRoy was Savannah Knoop, half-sister of Geoffrey Knoop.
St. John's follow-up article, published by the Times on February 7, 2006, carried the headline, "Figure In JT LeRoy Case Says Partner Is Culprit," an investigative interview with Geoffrey Knoop. In this article, Knoop stated of Albert, "For her, it's very personal. It's not a hoax. It's a part of her." He further stated that he and Albert had separated in December 2005 and were then involved in a custody dispute over their son; however, their case has never entered the courts and no request has been filed by Knoop for sole custody. Knoop also expressed his belief that Albert would never publicly admit to writing as LeRoy.
In a January 10, 2006 National Public Radio interview, Beachy noted that Laura Albert's work as a phone sex
operator honed her skill at creating elaborate stories about sexual acts and abuse, which Albert would use to elicit sympathy from other writers and editors who might help her get published. Beachy said he felt the hoax "was really about ambition and self-promotion."
(#1040) featured an article about JT LeRoy by Guy Lawson in which it was stated that the guitarist Billy Corgan
had been privy to the deceit since 2002 and that this felt to him "...like being inside the Magic Kingdom
."
, protection of privacy), the persona that Albert and her friends created raised criticism from those who took her novels to be autobiographical, though the works were published as fiction.
Knoop's personal appearances presented LeRoy's public with a glimpse of the object of their interest. Albert has been criticized for allegedly calling for attention to JT LeRoy by associating the character with HIV, but there is no evidence that HIV was significant in LeRoy's public persona. As Knoop explained, the ongoing HIV-positive storyline was deleted at the time that she entered the picture as a physical LeRoy-impersonator. In a September, 2008 interview, Knoop recalled the change in storyline to Gavin Gavin Browning of the Village Voice:
, a victim of child abuse
, a prostitute, and formerly homeless.
Albert gave a lengthy interview to The Paris Review in Fall 2006, detailing her own troubled history and her alleged personal experiences with abuse, abandonment, sex work, gender identity
, and her need, since childhood, to create alternate personae (chiefly over the telephone) as a psychological survival mechanism, through which she could articulate her own ideas and feelings.
Owens has refused to confirm his involvement with any of the real or fictitious characters in the case, citing ethical considerations. But in an article in the New York Times, he said that he did not know Knoop. Not until Laura Albert's interview in The Paris Review did she reveal that in fact she herself has been a regular patient of Owens's for many years. That cannot be confirmed.
, despite the difference that Frey's work was published as a memoir while Albert's work under the pseudonym JT LeRoy was published as fiction. Considering that her work was always labeled and marketed as fiction, the case of French novelist Romain Gary
(1914–1980) is more pertinent to JT’s trajectory than any correlation with authors who published under memoir, such as Armistead Maupin's The Night Listener
, who were revealed to be different than their book's personas.
Laura Albert is not the first female author to use a male or gender-neutral pseudonym. The three Bronte sisters initially wrote their books under Christian male pseudonyms, and Mary Ann Evans wrote as "George Eliot." Alice Sheldon wrote science fiction to great acclaim as "James Tiptree Jr."
for fraud
, which claimed that a contract signed with JT LeRoy to make a feature film of Sarah was null and void. On June 22, 2007, Laura Albert was found guilty of fraud by a Manhattan jury because she had signed her nom de plume to the movie contract. She was ordered to pay $110,000 to Antidote
, as well as an extra $6,500 in punitive damages -- with the total she was ordered to pay amounting to "$350,000 in legal fees," according to the New York Times.
In August 2008, the Authors Guild released an amicus brief in regards to the trial verdict, supporting Laura and opposing the jury’s decision, stating that the decision “will have negative repercussions extending into the future for many authors. The right to free speech, and the right to speak and write anonymously are
rights protected by our Constitution, and the district court's
decision which holds that Laura Albert's use of pseudonym breached the
Option and Purchase Agreement, is one that will have a chilling effect
upon authors wishing to exercise their right to write anonymously.” They went on to request that the court reverse the decision in regards to a breach of contract.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
writer
Writer
A writer is a person who produces literature, such as novels, short stories, plays, screenplays, poetry, or other literary art. Skilled writers are able to use language to portray ideas and images....
Laura Albert
Laura Albert
Laura Victoria Albert is the author of writings credited to the fictional teenage persona of JT LeRoy, a long-running literary hoax in which LeRoy was presented to the public and publishers as a transgender, sexually questioning, abused, former homeless drug addict and male prostitute...
. The name was used from 1996 on for publication in magazines such as Nerve
Nerve (magazine)
Nerve is a free magazine published by Catalyst Media in Liverpool, North West England. Combining features on social issues with artist profiles, it runs to 32 pages and is published about three times a year...
and Shout NY
Shout NY
Shout NY was a thought and culture magazine that covered New York arts, music, film and politics from 1998 through 2003. In its early days , it was fairly obscure and predominantly focused on New York City nightlife...
. After his first novel Sarah
Sarah (novel)
Sarah is a novel by Laura Albert using the fictional teenage persona of JT LeRoy, a long-running literary hoax.- Plot introduction :Sarah is a story told by a 12-year-old boy called Cherry Vanilla, whose real name is Jeremiah...
was published, "LeRoy" started making public appearances. In a January 2006 article in The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
, LeRoy's agent, manager, movie producer, as well as several journalists, declared that the person acting as LeRoy in public was Savannah Knoop, the half-sister of Albert's then partner, Geoffrey Knoop.
LeRoy was supposedly born October 31, 1980 in West Virginia
West Virginia
West Virginia is a state in the Appalachian and Southeastern regions of the United States, bordered by Virginia to the southeast, Kentucky to the southwest, Ohio to the northwest, Pennsylvania to the northeast and Maryland to the east...
. His backstory was one of prostitution
Prostitution
Prostitution is the act or practice of providing sexual services to another person in return for payment. The person who receives payment for sexual services is called a prostitute and the person who receives such services is known by a multitude of terms, including a "john". Prostitution is one of...
, drug addiction and vagrancy
Vagrancy (people)
A vagrant is a person in poverty, who wanders from place to place without a home or regular employment or income.-Definition:A vagrant is "a person without a settled home or regular work who wanders from place to place and lives by begging;" vagrancy is the condition of such persons.-History:In...
in California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
, prior to the publication of his first novel in 1999. However, an exposé in October 2005 revealed that JT LeRoy was Laura Albert. In a February 2006 interview with The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
, Geoffrey Knoop stated that Laura Albert was the author of the LeRoy books, which Albert later confirmed.
Albert described LeRoy as a "veil" rather than a "hoax", and claimed that she was able to write things as LeRoy that she could not have said as Laura Albert. In 2007 Albert was convicted of fraud and ordered to pay reparations for having signed legal papers in the name of her fictional character. Elements of the JT LeRoy hoax inspired "Sweetie", a 2008 episode of Law & Order
Law & Order
Law & Order is an American police procedural and legal drama television series, created by Dick Wolf and part of the Law & Order franchise. It aired on NBC, and in syndication on various cable networks. Law & Order premiered on September 13, 1990, and completed its 20th and final season on May 24,...
.
Books
Albert originally published as Terminator and later JT LeRoy.- SarahSarah (novel)Sarah is a novel by Laura Albert using the fictional teenage persona of JT LeRoy, a long-running literary hoax.- Plot introduction :Sarah is a story told by a 12-year-old boy called Cherry Vanilla, whose real name is Jeremiah...
(1999)
- A story of prostitutionProstitutionProstitution is the act or practice of providing sexual services to another person in return for payment. The person who receives payment for sexual services is called a prostitute and the person who receives such services is known by a multitude of terms, including a "john". Prostitution is one of...
and child sexual abuseChild sexual abuseChild sexual abuse is a form of child abuse in which an adult or older adolescent uses a child for sexual stimulation. Forms of child sexual abuse include asking or pressuring a child to engage in sexual activities , indecent exposure with intent to gratify their own sexual desires or to...
told by a 12-year-old boy, nicknamed Cherry Vanilla. The 12-year-old aspires to be a famous 'girl' lot lizard.- The Heart Is Deceitful Above All ThingsThe Heart Is Deceitful Above All Things (novel)The Heart Is Deceitful Above All Things is a 2001 novel by Laura Albert, using the pen name and fictional persona of JT LeRoy. It is a catalogue of drug abuse, child sexual abuse, physical abuse centred around Jeremiah, a young boy, and his prostitute mother Sarah...
(1999)
- The Heart Is Deceitful Above All Things
- A collection of short stories about the early life of young Jeremiah and his truck-stop prostitute mother Sarah, which depicts drug abuseDrug abuseSubstance abuse, also known as drug abuse, refers to a maladaptive pattern of use of a substance that is not considered dependent. The term "drug abuse" does not exclude dependency, but is otherwise used in a similar manner in nonmedical contexts...
, child sexual abuseChild sexual abuseChild sexual abuse is a form of child abuse in which an adult or older adolescent uses a child for sexual stimulation. Forms of child sexual abuse include asking or pressuring a child to engage in sexual activities , indecent exposure with intent to gratify their own sexual desires or to...
and physical child abuseChild abuseChild abuse is the physical, sexual, emotional mistreatment, or neglect of a child. In the United States, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Department of Children And Families define child maltreatment as any act or series of acts of commission or omission by a parent or...
.- Harold's End (2005)
- The novella follows a young heroin addict who is befriended by Larry, an older man, from whom he receives an unusual pet. Illustrations are by Australian artist Cherry HoodCherry HoodCherry Hood is an Australian artist, and sometimes a portraitist. She won the 2002 Archibald Prize for her portrait, Simon Tedeschi Unplugged.- Biography :...
. Published by Last GaspLast GaspLast Gasp is a book and underground comix publisher and distributor based in San Francisco, California.- History :Founded in 1970 by Ron Turner to publish the ecologically-themed comics magazine Slow Death Funnies, followed by the all-female anthology It Ain't Me Babe, Last Gasp soon became a major...
.- LabourLabour (novel)Labour is to be the first novel published by JT LeRoy since it was revealed that it was the pen-name of Laura Albert. It is also another collaboration with illustrator Cherry Hood who also illustrated Harold's End....
(2007)
- Labour
- A young boy lives with his mother and her boyfriend in a small trailer. When a new baby comes along, he must take care of it the best he can, drawing inspiration from a book about the labors of Hercules. This volume also features watercolor illustrations from Australian artist Cherry Hood.
Contributions to other written works
LeRoy's work was also published in literary journals such as Francis Ford CoppolaFrancis Ford Coppola
Francis Ford Coppola is an American film director, producer and screenwriter. He is widely acclaimed as one of Hollywood's most innovative and influential film directors...
's Zoetrope: All-Story
Zoetrope: All-Story
Zoetrope: All-Story is an American literary magazine that was launched in 1997 by Francis Ford Coppola. Blooming from Francis Coppola's "Crazy Idea Department," All-Story is devoted to showcasing the most promising voices in short-fiction...
, McSweeney's Quarterly Concern
Timothy McSweeney's Quarterly Concern
Timothy McSweeney's Quarterly Concern is a literary journal, first published in 1998, edited by Dave Eggers. The first issue featured only works rejected by other magazines, but thereafter the journal began to include pieces written with McSweeney's in mind. McSweeney’s has since published works by...
, Memorious, and Oxford American
Oxford American
The Oxford American is an American quarterly literary magazine "dedicated to featuring the very best in Southern writing while documenting the complexity and vitality of the American South."-First publication:...
magazine's Seventh Annual Music Issue. LeRoy is listed as a contributing editor to BlackBook
BlackBook Magazine
BlackBook is an American arts and culture magazine published 8x a year. Founded in 1996 as a quarterly publication, BlackBook has now expanded to a circulation of roughly 150,000. The magazine covers topics ranging from art, music, and literature to politics, popular culture, and travel guides....
magazine, i-D
I-D
i-D is a British magazine dedicated to fashion, music, art and youth culture. i-D was founded by designer and former Vogue art director Terry Jones in 1980. The first issue was published in the form of a hand-stapled fanzine with text produced on a typewriter...
and 7x7
7x7 Magazine
7x7 is a city-living-focused fashion, lifestyle, food, culture, opinion and entertainment digital, print, mobile and events platform. 7x7 covers San Francisco, Seattle and Portland....
magazines, and is credited with writing reviews all of which include the character Justin Wayne Dennis, articles and interviews for The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
, The Times of London
The Times
The Times is a British daily national newspaper, first published in London in 1785 under the title The Daily Universal Register . The Times and its sister paper The Sunday Times are published by Times Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary since 1981 of News International...
, Spin, Film Comment
Film Comment
Film Comment is an arts and culture magazine published by the Film Society of Lincoln Center, of which it is the official publication. Film Comment features critical reviews and in-depth analysis of mainstream, art-house, and avant-garde filmmaking from around the world...
, Filmmaker, Flaunt
Flaunt
Flaunt is a monthly American fashion culture magazine founded by the current editor-in-chief, Luis Barajas, and creative director, Jim Turner, also the founders of Detour magazine. Long Nguyen, a third founder and style director, also was working on Detour for four years...
, Shout NY
Shout NY
Shout NY was a thought and culture magazine that covered New York arts, music, film and politics from 1998 through 2003. In its early days , it was fairly obscure and predominantly focused on New York City nightlife...
, Index Magazine
Index Magazine
Index Magazine was a prominent New York City based publication for art and culture. It was created by Peter Halley and Bob Nickas in 1996. The publication featured a mix of interviews with famous arty folks like Björk with not so-famous New York personalities like Queen Itchie or Ducky Doolittle.It...
, Interview
Interview (magazine)
Interview is an American magazine which has the nickname The Crystal Ball Of Pop. It was founded in late 1969 by artist Andy Warhol. The magazine features intimate conversations between some of the world's biggest celebrities, artists, musicians, and creative thinkers...
, and Vogue
Vogue (magazine)
Vogue is a fashion and lifestyle magazine that is published monthly in 18 national and one regional edition by Condé Nast.-History:In 1892 Arthur Turnure founded Vogue as a weekly publication in the United States. When he died in 1909, Condé Montrose Nast picked up the magazine and slowly began...
, among others.
LeRoy's work has also appeared in such anthologies as The Best American
Best American series
The Best American Series is an annually-published collection of books, published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, each of which features a different genre or theme. Each book selects from works published in North America during the previous year, selected by a guest editor who is an established writer...
Nonrequired Reading 2003, MTV
MTV
MTV, formerly an initialism of Music Television, is an American network based in New York City that launched on August 1, 1981. The original purpose of the channel was to play music videos guided by on-air hosts known as VJs....
's Lit Riffs, XXX: 30 Porn-Star Portraits, Nadav Kander
Nadav Kander
Nadav Kander is a London based photographer, artist and director, internationally renowned for his portraiture and landscapes. His work forms part of the public collection at the National Portrait Gallery and the Victoria and Albert Museum in London. Kander's work is also exhibited in numerous...
's Beauty's Nothing, and The Fourth Sex: Adolescent Extremes. LeRoy is also listed as guest editor for Da Capo’s Best Music Writing 2005.
Additionally, LeRoy was credited with liner notes and biographies for musicians Billy Corgan
Billy Corgan
William Patrick "Billy" Corgan, Jr. is an American singer, songwriter, guitarist and occasional poet best known as the frontman and sole permanent member of The Smashing Pumpkins. Formed by Corgan and guitarist James Iha in Chicago, Illinois in 1987, the band quickly gained steam with the...
, Liz Phair
Liz Phair
Phair's entry into the music industry began when she met guitarist Chris Brokaw, a member of the band Come. Brokaw and Phair moved to San Francisco together, and Phair tried to become an artist there...
, Conor Oberst
Conor Oberst
Conor Mullen Oberst is an American singer-songwriter best known for his work in Bright Eyes. He has also played in several other bands, including Desaparecidos, Norman Bailer , Commander Venus, Park Ave., Conor Oberst and the Mystic Valley Band, and Monsters of Folk.-Musical career:Oberst began...
, Ash
Ash (band)
Ash are an alternative rock band that formed in Downpatrick, Northern Ireland in 1992. The band has sold 8 million albums worldwide.-Band beginning, Trailer and 1977 :...
, Bryan Adams
Bryan Adams
Bryan Adams, is a Canadian rock singer-songwriter, guitarist, bassist, producer, actor and photographer. Adams has won dozens of awards and nominations, including 20 Juno Awards among 56 nominations. He has also received 15 Grammy Award nominations including a win for Best Song Written...
, Marilyn Manson
Marilyn Manson
Marilyn Manson may refer to:* Marilyn Manson , an American rock musician* Marilyn Manson , the American rock band led by the singer of the same name...
, Nancy Sinatra
Nancy Sinatra
Nancy Sandra Sinatra is an American singer and actress. She is the daughter of singer/actor Frank Sinatra, and remains best known for her 1966 signature hit "These Boots Are Made for Walkin'"....
and Courtney Love
Courtney Love
Courtney Michelle Love is an American rock musician. Love is the lead vocalist, lyricist, and rhythm guitarist for alternative rock band Hole, which she formed in 1989, and is an actress who has moved from bit parts in Alex Cox films to significant and acclaimed roles in The People vs...
and profiled award-winner Juergen Teller
Juergen Teller
Juergen Teller is an artist and fashion photographer.-Life and career:Teller studied at the Bayerische Staatslehranstalt für Photographie in Munich, Germany...
.
Film
The original screenplay for Gus Van SantGus Van Sant
Gus Green Van Sant, Jr. is an American director, screenwriter, painter, photographer, musician, and author. He is a two time nominee of the Academy Award for Best Director for his 1997 film Good Will Hunting and his 2008 film Milk, both of which were also nominated for Best Picture, and won the...
's Elephant (2003) was credited to LeRoy. Van Sant began making Gerry, a largely improvisational, non-narrative film. He decided to continue that approach with Elephant while retaining some of LeRoy's contributions. LeRoy was also listed as that film's associate producer.
LeRoy was credited as associate producer for the 2004 film adaptation of The Heart Is Deceitful Above All Things
The Heart Is Deceitful Above All Things
The Heart Is Deceitful Above All Things is a 2004 film directed by and starring Asia Argento. It is based on JT LeRoy's novel of the same name...
, directed by and starring Asia Argento
Asia Argento
Aria Asia Anna Maria Vittoria Rossa Argento is an Italian actress, singer, model and director.-Family and early life:...
. It was released in spring 2006. LeRoy made a few appearances at promotional events.
Antidote Films
Antidote Films
Antidote Films, also known as Antidote International Films, Inc., is an independent film production company founded by producer Jeff Levy-Hinte based in New York City...
and producers Jeff Levy-Hinte
Jeff Levy-Hinte
Jeff Levy-Hinte is president of Antidote International Films , Inc based in New York City. Most recently he has produced The Kids Are All Right , co-written and directed by Lisa Cholodenko, which won the 68th Golden Globe Awards for Best Motion Picture, Comedy or Musical, and Best Performance by...
(Thirteen
Thirteen (film)
Thirteen is a 2003 American drama film directed by Catherine Hardwicke, and written by Hardwicke and Nikki Reed, the film's co-star. The film also stars Evan Rachel Wood and Holly Hunter. It is a semi-autobiographical film inspired by Reed's life at age 12 and 13 with Wood's character "Tracy" being...
, Laurel Canyon
Laurel Canyon (film)
Laurel Canyon is a 2002 American drama film written and directed by Lisa Cholodenko. The film stars Frances McDormand, Christian Bale, Kate Beckinsale, Natascha McElhone, and Alessandro Nivola.-Plot:...
) announced plans for a film adaptation of Sarah to be directed by Steven Shainberg
Steven Shainberg
Steven Shainberg is an American film director and producer.He is the nephew of author Lawrence Shainberg. Both are part of the Shainberg family of Memphis, Tennessee, founder of the Shainberg's chain of stores, which is now part of Dollar General.Shainberg received his BA from Yale University in...
(Secretary) from a screenplay by Erin Cressida Wilson
Erin Cressida Wilson
Erin Cressida Wilson is an American playwright, screenwriter, professor, and author.Wilson is known for the 2002 film Secretary, which she adapted from a Mary Gaitskill short story...
and short story by Mary Gaitskill
Mary Gaitskill
Mary Gaitskill is an American author of essays, short stories and novels. Her work has appeared in The New Yorker, Harper's Magazine, Esquire, The Best American Short Stories , and The O. Henry Prize Stories .-Life:Gaitskill was born in Lexington, Kentucky...
. In June 2007 Laura Albert was sued by Antidote Films
Antidote Films
Antidote Films, also known as Antidote International Films, Inc., is an independent film production company founded by producer Jeff Levy-Hinte based in New York City...
for fraud
Fraud
In criminal law, a fraud is an intentional deception made for personal gain or to damage another individual; the related adjective is fraudulent. The specific legal definition varies by legal jurisdiction. Fraud is a crime, and also a civil law violation...
; the firm claimed that the contract signed by JT LeRoy to make a feature film was null and void, as the person LeRoy does not exist. On June 22, 2007, Albert was found guilty of fraud
Fraud
In criminal law, a fraud is an intentional deception made for personal gain or to damage another individual; the related adjective is fraudulent. The specific legal definition varies by legal jurisdiction. Fraud is a crime, and also a civil law violation...
by a Manhattan
Manhattan
Manhattan is the oldest and the most densely populated of the five boroughs of New York City. Located primarily on the island of Manhattan at the mouth of the Hudson River, the boundaries of the borough are identical to those of New York County, an original county of the state of New York...
jury, and ordered to pay reparations and damages.
LeRoy was rumoured to be a contributing writer to the upcoming movie House of Boys, a love story set in Amsterdam
Amsterdam
Amsterdam is the largest city and the capital of the Netherlands. The current position of Amsterdam as capital city of the Kingdom of the Netherlands is governed by the constitution of August 24, 1815 and its successors. Amsterdam has a population of 783,364 within city limits, an urban population...
in 1984. Layke Anderson
Layke Anderson
-Selected filmography:*Re-Kill*House of Boys*Closing the Ring*Dolphins*Popcorn*X2: X-Men United-External links:*...
, Stephen Fry
Stephen Fry
Stephen John Fry is an English actor, screenwriter, author, playwright, journalist, poet, comedian, television presenter and film director, and a director of Norwich City Football Club. He first came to attention in the 1981 Cambridge Footlights Revue presentation "The Cellar Tapes", which also...
and Udo Kier
Udo Kier
Udo Kier is a German actor, known primarily for his work in horror and exploitation movies.-Early life:...
are starring. The film is produced by Delux Productions (Girl with a Pearl Earring
Girl with a Pearl Earring (film)
Girl with a Pearl Earring is a 2003 drama film directed by Peter Webber. The screenplay was adapted by screenwriter Olivia Hetreed based on the novel by Tracy Chevalier. The film stars Scarlett Johansson, Colin Firth, Tom Wilkinson, and Cillian Murphy. The film is named after a painting of the same...
) with shooting scheduled in Luxembourg
Luxembourg
Luxembourg , officially the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg , is a landlocked country in western Europe, bordered by Belgium, France, and Germany. It has two principal regions: the Oesling in the North as part of the Ardennes massif, and the Gutland in the south...
and Morocco
Morocco
Morocco , officially the Kingdom of Morocco , is a country located in North Africa. It has a population of more than 32 million and an area of 710,850 km², and also primarily administers the disputed region of the Western Sahara...
in December 2008.
Supporters
Literary supportersIn 1994, LeRoy got in touch with novelist Dennis Cooper
Dennis Cooper
Dennis Cooper is an American novelist, poet, critic, editor and performance artist.-Career:Cooper grew up the son of a wealthy businessman in Arcadia, California. His first forays into literature came early, focusing on imitations of Rimbaud, Verlaine, de Sade, and Baudelaire...
by faxing a request through Cooper’s agent, Ira Silverberg
Ira Silverberg
Ira Silverberg is an influential literary agent and editor in the New York publishing business. Silverberg worked as a literary agent at Donadio & Ashworth, as Editor-in-Chief at Grove/Atlantic Press, and as editorial and publishing director at Serpent's Tail's U.S. projects, High Risk Books and...
. He struck up a telephone friendship with Cooper, who introduced him to the writer Bruce Benderson
Bruce Benderson
Bruce Benderson is an American author, to Jewish parents of Russian descent, who lives in New York. He attended William Nottingham High School in Syracuse, New York and then Binghamton University...
, through whom he contacted novelist Joel Rose
Joel Rose
Joel Rose is an American novelist.Rose has co-authored and edited graphic novels for DC Comics. His journalism has appeared in the New York Times, New York Magazine, New York Newsday, Marie Claire, Paper, Details, Bomb, Los Angeles Times, and Black Book, among others. He has written for several...
, writer Laurie Stone, editor Karen Rinaldi, and agent Henry Dunow. He also got in touch with poet Sharon Olds
Sharon Olds
-Life:Sharon Olds was born in 1942 in San Francisco. She was raised as a “hellfire Calvinist”, as she describes it. She says she was by nature "a pagan and a pantheist" and notes "I was in a church where there was both great literary art and bad literary art, the great art being psalms and the bad...
, Mary Karr
Mary Karr
Mary Karr is an American poet, essayist and memoirist. She rose to fame in 1995 with the publication of her bestselling memoir The Liars' Club...
and Mary Gaitskill
Mary Gaitskill
Mary Gaitskill is an American author of essays, short stories and novels. Her work has appeared in The New Yorker, Harper's Magazine, Esquire, The Best American Short Stories , and The O. Henry Prize Stories .-Life:Gaitskill was born in Lexington, Kentucky...
, among others.
LeRoy thus built a core of literary supporters, engaging in lengthy, intimate phone conversations and correspondence with them. His biography seemed tailor-made for their interests. Like Olds, he had a strict family background; like Cooper’s characters, he was a boy who had fantasies
Sexual fantasy
A sexual fantasy, also called an erotic fantasy, is a fantasy or pattern of thoughts with the effect of creating or enhancing sexual feelings; in short, it is "almost any mental imagery that is sexually arousing or erotic to [an] individual"...
of being beaten up; like Benderson’s characters, he was a hustler; like Gaitskill’s characters, he was involved in S&M and prostitution
Prostitution
Prostitution is the act or practice of providing sexual services to another person in return for payment. The person who receives payment for sexual services is called a prostitute and the person who receives such services is known by a multitude of terms, including a "john". Prostitution is one of...
.
In 2000, writer Brian Pera, who had traveled the country on his own book tour, said he had met other writers who were in contact with LeRoy by e-mail and phone; LeRoy had bonded via extensive, often contradictory revelations, but was never able to meet these carefully cultivated confidants in public or in private. Throughout the 1990s, LeRoy rarely appeared in public. Then in 2001, a person claiming to be LeRoy began appearing in public, usually decked out in wig and sunglasses.
Peter Carlson wrote in The Washington Post
The Washington Post
The Washington Post is Washington, D.C.'s largest newspaper and its oldest still-existing paper, founded in 1877. Located in the capital of the United States, The Post has a particular emphasis on national politics. D.C., Maryland, and Virginia editions are printed for daily circulation...
, "The San Francisco Chronicle called the LeRoy affair 'the greatest literary hoax in a generation'. But this fascinating interview reveals that the real story was far more complex and interesting." In Lemon Magazine, head writer Robert Bundy wrote an editorial entitled "Yes Virginia, There Is A JT LeRoy," in the style of Francis P. Church's classic 1897 newspaper editorial
Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus
Is There a Santa Claus? was the title of an editorial appearing in the September 21, 1897, edition of The New York Sun. The editorial, which included the famous reply "Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus", has become an indelible part of popular Christmas folklore in the United States and...
defending the belief in Santa Claus
Santa Claus
Santa Claus is a folklore figure in various cultures who distributes gifts to children, normally on Christmas Eve. Each name is a variation of Saint Nicholas, but refers to Santa Claus...
. Bundy argued that LeRoy exists "because a touching expression of longing, suffering, love, and endurance is not disqualified simply because it issues from a construct. He exists because if words and stories resonate and move the reader, then it matters not that the hand writing them signed another's name."
Celebrity supporters
In early 2001, Garbage
Garbage (band)
Garbage are an alternative rock band formed in Madison, Wisconsin in 1994. The group consists of Scottish singer Shirley Manson and American musicians Duke Erikson , Steve Marker and Butch Vig . All four members are involved in songwriting and production...
singer Shirley Manson
Shirley Manson
Shirley Anne Manson is a Scottish recording artist and actress, best known internationally as the lead singer of the alternative rock band Garbage. For much of her international career Manson commuted between her home city of Edinburgh to the United States to record with Garbage but now lives and...
mentioned reading Sarah in her band's online journal. Manson then received LeRoy's manuscript for The Heart Is Deceitful Above All Things and they became friends. At the time, Manson was writing and recording the band's third album, beautifulgarbage
Beautifulgarbage
Beautiful Garbage is the third album by alternative rock group Garbage. The album was released worldwide in October 2001 by Mushroom Records UK and in North America by Interscope and was the followup to the band's Grammy-nominated Version 2.0...
, and wrote a song about LeRoy called "Cherry Lips (Go Baby Go!)
Cherry Lips
"Cherry Lips", also known as "Cherry Lips " is a 2001 song written, recorded and produced by alternative rock group Garbage for their third studio album, Beautiful Garbage. It was released the following year by Mushroom Records as the albums second international single, with the exception of North...
". Manson later referenced LeRoy and his friend Speedie in the title song from the band's fourth effort, Bleed Like Me
Bleed Like Me
Bleed Like Me is the fourth studio album recorded and produced by alternative rock group Garbage. It was released in April 2005 by Warner Bros...
. Shirley Manson wrote JT LeRoy and said "I can assure you, our little bug is really our little bug. I have held hands with him, I know he's for real."
Personal appearances
The controversial subject matter in LeRoy's work created substantial critical interest in the author, and various reporters and book critics sought out his identity. LeRoy, citing extreme shyness, refused to appear in public without being disguised in a wig, hat, and sunglasses. LeRoy would rarely speak in public and regularly hide under tables during his own book readings.Interviewers were rarely left alone with "LeRoy"; his 'family' never left him alone for interview, claiming that they were "protecting" him from the temptations from his former life as a drug user. In an interview with The Guardian
The Guardian
The Guardian, formerly known as The Manchester Guardian , is a British national daily newspaper in the Berliner format...
on January 4, 2006, "LeRoy" noted that he was "Twenty-three, er ... 24," when he would have been 25 years old, and was caught out when asked what Wiffleball
Wiffleball
Wiffle ball or wiffleball is a variation of the sport of baseball designed for indoor or outdoor play in confined areas. The game is played using a perforated, light-weight, rubbery plastic ball and a long, plastic bat.- History :...
was, although claiming in author's bios that he enjoyed playing it. The writer of the article, Laura Barton, quickly received an email from the LeRoy camp attempting to cover up the slip-up.
Exposure
The exposure of Laura Albert's fiction developed during 2005 and 2006 as a series of journalist-published accounts that cast doubt on the credibility of the author's claims.2005: the Beachy article and its fallout
Author Stephen BeachyStephen Beachy
Stephen Beachy is a writer. He was born in Des Moines, Iowa, in 1965. His first novel, The Whistling Song, was published by W. W. Norton with cover illustrations by Curt Kirkwood in 1991 and his second, Distortion, by Harrington Park Press, in 2000 and was reprinted in December 2010 by Rebel...
wrote in the October 10, 2005 issue of New York magazine suggesting that LeRoy and his associate, Speedie, were personas adopted by musician Laura Albert
Laura Albert
Laura Victoria Albert is the author of writings credited to the fictional teenage persona of JT LeRoy, a long-running literary hoax in which LeRoy was presented to the public and publishers as a transgender, sexually questioning, abused, former homeless drug addict and male prostitute...
. Beachy, like several commentators since 1999, speculated on parallels to the case of Anthony Godby Johnson
Anthony Godby Johnson
Anthony Godby Johnson is the subject and supposed author of the 1993 memoir A Rock and a Hard Place: One Boy's Triumphant Story. Subsequent investigations suggest that there may have never been a person by this name, and that his entire story was a fabrication on the part of Vicki Johnson, the...
, who was also eventually proven not to exist.
On November 11, 2005, Women's Wear Daily
Women's Wear Daily
Women's Wear Daily is a fashion-industry trade journal sometimes called "the bible of fashion." WWD delivers information and intelligence on changing trends and breaking news in the fashion, beauty and retail industries with a readership composed largely of retailers, designers, manufacturers,...
wrote that the editors of The New York Times Magazine
The New York Times Magazine
The New York Times Magazine is a Sunday magazine supplement included with the Sunday edition of The New York Times. It is host to feature articles longer than those typically in the newspaper and has attracted many notable contributors...
killed an article LeRoy had written after Beachy's article questioning his identity was published. In the WWD article, LeRoy was quoted as saying, "They asked me for my passport
Passport
A passport is a document, issued by a national government, which certifies, for the purpose of international travel, the identity and nationality of its holder. The elements of identity are name, date of birth, sex, and place of birth....
, my social security
Social security
Social security is primarily a social insurance program providing social protection or protection against socially recognized conditions, including poverty, old age, disability, unemployment and others. Social security may refer to:...
card....I've always played with identity and gender
Gender
Gender is a range of characteristics used to distinguish between males and females, particularly in the cases of men and women and the masculine and feminine attributes assigned to them. Depending on the context, the discriminating characteristics vary from sex to social role to gender identity...
. I understand what [the Times] is saying, but they entered into working with me knowing that....Just because the Washington Post came after them, why should I be forced to prove who I am? They knew exactly what they were getting when they dealt with me."
The Washington Posts David Segal picked up the New York magazine story and wrote, "[LeRoy] appears to be one of the great literary hoaxes of our day, and it fooled a whole lot of people as well as the media, including the New York Times, which last year ran a lengthy profile of LeRoy".
Hans Eisenbeis, in the Minneapolis–Saint Paul newspaper The Rake, wrote, "I don't know what all the fuss is about. In the business, it's called a pseudonym, and the fact that J.T. LeRoy has been writing and publishing under that name for more than a decade ought to be track record enough to establish his (or her) credentials... It's an interesting mystery, but seems to me sort of irrelevant to whether the work written by that person is publishable or not."
2006: JT LeRoy blog: "the hoax edition"
On January 6, 2006 JT LeRoy posted a blogBlog
A blog is a type of website or part of a website supposed to be updated with new content from time to time. Blogs are usually maintained by an individual with regular entries of commentary, descriptions of events, or other material such as graphics or video. Entries are commonly displayed in...
entry titled "the Hoax edition" which cited an article in The Guardian that took a kind stance over the hoax issue stating that "identity is irrelevant". Also included were T-shirt prints which made light of the hoax, reading "I am the real JT LeRoy" and including an artistic image of the author's blonde wig and sunglasses. Also on the blog entry were promotional references to the film The Heart is Deceitful Above All Things, DVD
DVD
A DVD is an optical disc storage media format, invented and developed by Philips, Sony, Toshiba, and Panasonic in 1995. DVDs offer higher storage capacity than Compact Discs while having the same dimensions....
cover art and opening dates, and a Sundance Film Festival
Sundance Film Festival
The Sundance Film Festival is a film festival that takes place annually in Utah, in the United States. It is the largest independent cinema festival in the United States. Held in January in Park City, Salt Lake City, and Ogden, as well as at the Sundance Resort, the festival is a showcase for new...
viewing.
The New York Times articles and reactions
Three days after the blog entry, a New York Times article by Warren St. JohnWarren St. John
Warren St. John is an American author and journalist.St. John is the author of the National Bestseller Rammer Jammer Yellow Hammer: A Road Trip into the Heart of Fan Mania. The book explores the phenomenon of sports fandom and chronicles the Alabama Crimson Tide's 1999 season by following the team...
, published on January 9, 2006, gave evidence that the person appearing in public as JT LeRoy was Savannah Knoop, half-sister of Geoffrey Knoop.
St. John's follow-up article, published by the Times on February 7, 2006, carried the headline, "Figure In JT LeRoy Case Says Partner Is Culprit," an investigative interview with Geoffrey Knoop. In this article, Knoop stated of Albert, "For her, it's very personal. It's not a hoax. It's a part of her." He further stated that he and Albert had separated in December 2005 and were then involved in a custody dispute over their son; however, their case has never entered the courts and no request has been filed by Knoop for sole custody. Knoop also expressed his belief that Albert would never publicly admit to writing as LeRoy.
In a January 10, 2006 National Public Radio interview, Beachy noted that Laura Albert's work as a phone sex
Phone sex
Phone sex is a type of virtual sex that refers to sexually explicit conversation between or other persons via telephone, especially when at least one of the participants masturbates or engages in sexual fantasy...
operator honed her skill at creating elaborate stories about sexual acts and abuse, which Albert would use to elicit sympathy from other writers and editors who might help her get published. Beachy said he felt the hoax "was really about ambition and self-promotion."
Rolling Stone: Billy Corgan and "the Magic Kingdom"
The November 29, 2007 Rolling StoneRolling Stone
Rolling Stone is a US-based magazine devoted to music, liberal politics, and popular culture that is published every two weeks. Rolling Stone was founded in San Francisco in 1967 by Jann Wenner and music critic Ralph J...
(#1040) featured an article about JT LeRoy by Guy Lawson in which it was stated that the guitarist Billy Corgan
Billy Corgan
William Patrick "Billy" Corgan, Jr. is an American singer, songwriter, guitarist and occasional poet best known as the frontman and sole permanent member of The Smashing Pumpkins. Formed by Corgan and guitarist James Iha in Chicago, Illinois in 1987, the band quickly gained steam with the...
had been privy to the deceit since 2002 and that this felt to him "...like being inside the Magic Kingdom
Magic Kingdom
Magic Kingdom Park is one of four theme parks at the Walt Disney World Resort located near Orlando, Florida. The first park built at the resort, Magic Kingdom opened Oct. 1, 1971. Designed and built by WED Enterprises, the park's layout and attractions are similar to Disneyland in Anaheim, California...
."
Girl boy girl
In 2008, Savannah Knoop published Girl Boy Girl: How I Became JT LeRoy, a memoir about the six years she spent as LeRoy.Controversy
While many authors have taken pen names for various reasons (anonymityAnonymity
Anonymity is derived from the Greek word ἀνωνυμία, anonymia, meaning "without a name" or "namelessness". In colloquial use, anonymity typically refers to the state of an individual's personal identity, or personally identifiable information, being publicly unknown.There are many reasons why a...
, protection of privacy), the persona that Albert and her friends created raised criticism from those who took her novels to be autobiographical, though the works were published as fiction.
Knoop's personal appearances presented LeRoy's public with a glimpse of the object of their interest. Albert has been criticized for allegedly calling for attention to JT LeRoy by associating the character with HIV, but there is no evidence that HIV was significant in LeRoy's public persona. As Knoop explained, the ongoing HIV-positive storyline was deleted at the time that she entered the picture as a physical LeRoy-impersonator. In a September, 2008 interview, Knoop recalled the change in storyline to Gavin Gavin Browning of the Village Voice:
Fiction as therapy
Although Laura Albert initially maintained her silence about her own personal history, a negative backlash nevertheless tarnished LeRoy's reputation early in 2006. The attacks focused on Albert's credibility to speak on the issues which had supposedly impacted LeRoy, such as being transgenderTransgender
Transgender is a general term applied to a variety of individuals, behaviors, and groups involving tendencies to vary from culturally conventional gender roles....
, a victim of child abuse
Child abuse
Child abuse is the physical, sexual, emotional mistreatment, or neglect of a child. In the United States, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Department of Children And Families define child maltreatment as any act or series of acts of commission or omission by a parent or...
, a prostitute, and formerly homeless.
Albert gave a lengthy interview to The Paris Review in Fall 2006, detailing her own troubled history and her alleged personal experiences with abuse, abandonment, sex work, gender identity
Gender identity
A gender identity is the way in which an individual self-identifies with a gender category, for example, as being either a man or a woman, or in some cases being neither, which can be distinct from biological sex. Basic gender identity is usually formed by age three and is extremely difficult to...
, and her need, since childhood, to create alternate personae (chiefly over the telephone) as a psychological survival mechanism, through which she could articulate her own ideas and feelings.
The role of Dr. Terrence Owens
Dr. Terrence Owens, a therapist at the McAuley Adolescent Unit of St. Mary's Medical Center in San Francisco, was credited by LeRoy for motivating him to write. LeRoy claimed Owens encouraged writing between sessions to maintain continuity of thought, saying that LeRoy's accounts would help to train a class of prospective social workers. Those writings eventually made their way into the collection of short stories in 1998.Owens has refused to confirm his involvement with any of the real or fictitious characters in the case, citing ethical considerations. But in an article in the New York Times, he said that he did not know Knoop. Not until Laura Albert's interview in The Paris Review did she reveal that in fact she herself has been a regular patient of Owens's for many years. That cannot be confirmed.
Pseudonym cases
The LeRoy case has been frequently compared with the coincident controversy involving the author James FreyJames Frey
James Christopher Frey is an American writer. His books A Million Little Pieces and My Friend Leonard , as well as Bright Shiny Morning , were bestsellers...
, despite the difference that Frey's work was published as a memoir while Albert's work under the pseudonym JT LeRoy was published as fiction. Considering that her work was always labeled and marketed as fiction, the case of French novelist Romain Gary
Romain Gary
Romain Gary was a French diplomat, novelist, film director, World War II aviator. He is the only author to have won the Prix Goncourt twice .- Early life :Gary was born in Vilnius under the name Roman Kacew...
(1914–1980) is more pertinent to JT’s trajectory than any correlation with authors who published under memoir, such as Armistead Maupin's The Night Listener
The Night Listener (novel)
The Night Listener is a roman à clef by Armistead Maupin. The novel's plot is based on the real life story of Anthony Godby Johnson, the purported author of a book, A Rock and a Hard Place: One Boy's Triumphant Story, that was later revealed to be a hoax.-Plot summary:Gabriel Noone is a gay writer...
, who were revealed to be different than their book's personas.
Laura Albert is not the first female author to use a male or gender-neutral pseudonym. The three Bronte sisters initially wrote their books under Christian male pseudonyms, and Mary Ann Evans wrote as "George Eliot." Alice Sheldon wrote science fiction to great acclaim as "James Tiptree Jr."
Fraud trial
In June 2007, Albert was sued by Antidote International Films Inc.Jeff Levy-Hinte
Jeff Levy-Hinte is president of Antidote International Films , Inc based in New York City. Most recently he has produced The Kids Are All Right , co-written and directed by Lisa Cholodenko, which won the 68th Golden Globe Awards for Best Motion Picture, Comedy or Musical, and Best Performance by...
for fraud
Fraud
In criminal law, a fraud is an intentional deception made for personal gain or to damage another individual; the related adjective is fraudulent. The specific legal definition varies by legal jurisdiction. Fraud is a crime, and also a civil law violation...
, which claimed that a contract signed with JT LeRoy to make a feature film of Sarah was null and void. On June 22, 2007, Laura Albert was found guilty of fraud by a Manhattan jury because she had signed her nom de plume to the movie contract. She was ordered to pay $110,000 to Antidote
Antidote
An antidote is a substance which can counteract a form of poisoning. The term ultimately derives from the Greek αντιδιδοναι antididonai, "given against"....
, as well as an extra $6,500 in punitive damages -- with the total she was ordered to pay amounting to "$350,000 in legal fees," according to the New York Times.
In August 2008, the Authors Guild released an amicus brief in regards to the trial verdict, supporting Laura and opposing the jury’s decision, stating that the decision “will have negative repercussions extending into the future for many authors. The right to free speech, and the right to speak and write anonymously are
rights protected by our Constitution, and the district court's
decision which holds that Laura Albert's use of pseudonym breached the
Option and Purchase Agreement, is one that will have a chilling effect
upon authors wishing to exercise their right to write anonymously.” They went on to request that the court reverse the decision in regards to a breach of contract.
External links
- JT LeRoy's official website
- JT LeRoy's blog
- Thistle LLC official site, a band
- The Heart Is Deceitful Above All Things, official site
- "The Lies and Follies of Laura Albert, a.k.a. JT LeRoy", LA Weekly, Feb. 20, 2008
- The Heart Is Deceitful Above All Things review at Kirkus Reviews
- "Sarah", review at Kirkus Reviews