J.T. Leroy is supposedly a twenty-five year old transsexual author with a checkered past. Known for his dark portrayals of a childhood filled with rape, prostitution, and cross-dressing, Leroy has become a contemporary literary phenomenon. At sixteen he wrote his first novel at the suggestion of an adolescent psychologist. But was this child prodigy a child at all? Or was his sensation a great literary hoax? According to Vanity Fair and The New York Times, J.T. Leroy did not exist. Gaining notoriety and book sales, celebrity fans as well as countless readers around the world it seemed that his audience had been in a sense fooled.
When in public Leroy wore a wig, hat and sunglasses to perpetuate the myth of his own introversion. Going as far as to hide under tables at book readings, the author hardly said a word in public and would never sit alone with a reporter. The question then arose: Was JT Leroy a true genius or a work of fictional himself?
In perhaps one of the greatest literary hoaxes of our time Leroy has become an international phenomenon. It was exposed that JT is in fact Laura Albert - the 42 year old female rock singer of the band Thistle. Recently Albert was found guilty of fraud for lying to a film company about the Leroy persona and was ordered to pay $100,000. While Laura penned the books, it was the Warholian decoy Savannah Knoop who masqueraded as JT. Even though Albert claims that Knoop fell into the JT Leroy persona and no longer needed coaching, the fictional author was exposed during interviews that often contradicted each other.
Andy Warhol was involved in a similar controversy when he sent a proxy on a college campus lecture tour and was later exposed. It was discovered that Warhol often sent in decoys with silver hair and glasses.
The controversy over author James Frey’s “A Million Little Pieces” being embellished and published as non-fiction set the scene for Leroy to be publicly attacked. But the line between a fake autobiography and fake autobiographical fiction is somewhat blurred. Whether or not there will be a class action lawsuit is up in the air. But it is up to the reader to decide whether or not they will put down the great works of JT Leroy and pick up a “real” piece of non-fiction like Jenna Jameson’s “How To Make Love Like A Porn Star” or Paris Hilton’s “Confessions of an Heiress,” when the truth is that most "autobiographies" are released by celebrities who have little or nothing to do with writing them in the first place.
In a Fall 2006 interview with the Paris Review Albert explained her own experience with abuse, personal abandonment, prostitution, and a morphed gender identity. She also mentioned her longing since childhood to create an alternate persona through which she could express herself. It seems that Leroy and creator Albert’s history may in fact have more than a few parallels, making her “persona” more of a pen name.
The 2004 film “The Heart Is Deceitful Above All Things” was based on Leroy’s book and marketed as a true story - that is, until the controversy broke mid-release causing the studio to relinquish all posters and cross out the word “True”. “Leroy" was even credited as the writer of Gus Van Sant’s 2003 movie "Elephant" (where you will also find he was an associate producer). No one knows what will become of the JT persona in the midst of literary outrage, but The Weinstein Co. is teaming with “Stay” producer Tom Lassally to bring the story to life on film. In the meantime feel free to masquerade as the fictitious author yourself by picking up one of these “I Am JT Leroy” shirts from Bright Lab Inc.
I end this article with a quote from J.T. himself. "Everybody needs someone to know who they really are."
-- Theresa Bennett
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