Oprah supports embattled author

LOS ANGELES - Powerful TV talk show host Oprah Winfrey has thrown her support to embattled author James Frey, saying a national uproar over whether he fictionalised parts of his best-selling memoir was "much ado about nothing."

Appearing as a surprise caller on CNN's "Larry King Live" after King had gently quizzed Frey for nearly an hour, Winfrey broke her silence over whether his "A Million Little Pieces" was still a choice of her book club and had her endorsement.

She said that even though the facts of the account of Frey's drug and alcohol addiction were being questioned, the book "still resonates with me" and called the controversy "much ado about nothing" because, as Frey told King, the disputed passages make up less than 5 per cent of the book.

Talking to King on the phone just minutes before the show was to end, Winfrey said, "Everyone has been asking me to release a statement, and I first wanted to hear what James had to say and I didn't want that coloured by any personal conversation that I've had.

"He's said he's had many conversations with my producers who do fully support him and obviously we support the book because we recognise that there have been thousands and hundreds of thousands of people whose lives have been changed by this book."

It was Winfrey's selection of the memoir for her book club that helped make it the biggest-selling nonfiction book in the United States last year, with more than 1.7 million copies sold in a paperback edition.

But she had been silent following weekend charges made by The Smoking Gun website that Frey had made up an account that he had spent three months in jail after trying to run over a policeman while on drugs.

The Smoking Gun said it could find no evidence of his having spent that much time in jail and that his auto accident consisted of running his car up on a curb.

Frey refused to directly confront whether the incident was made up or not and insisted that while some elements in the book were embellished, the book's emotional core was true.

"I hope the emotional truth of the book resonates with (readers)," he told King. "I couldn't have written it if I hadn't been through a lot of the things I talk about."

He added, "It's a memoir. It's an imperfect animal. ...I don't think it should be held up and scrutinised the way a perfect nonfiction documentary would be or a newspaper article."

Winfrey appeared to agree, telling King: "Whether or not the car's wheels rolled up on the sidewalk or whether he hit the police officer or didn't hit the police officer is irrelevant to me."

She added, "What is relevant is that he was a drug addict, spent years in turmoil, from the time he was 10 years old and tormenting himself and his parents, and out of that history to be the man that he is today and to take that message to other people and allow them to save themselves. That's what important about this book."

As for Frey, he insisted "The essential truth of (my) drug and alcohol addiction is there. The emotional truth is there. .... I think you will find people who will dispute every memoir ever written."

Readers calling publisher Random House's customer service line were told they could receive refunds if they had bought the book directly from the publishing house. Random House, a unit of German media conglomerate Bertelsmann AG, issued a statement saying that such refunds were standard procedure.

Bookseller Barnes & Noble Inc. also said it is standard practice to offer refunds for returned books.

But Publishers Weekly Senior Editor Charlotte Abbott called the Random House refunds unprecedented.

- REUTERS