The Hustler, The Writer, The Hoax

BY: Michael Arkin

Among the great literary hoaxes that have blemished the publishing business is A Million Little Pieces, James Frey’s 2003 memoir recounting his recovery from alcoholism and crack cocaine. When it was discovered that the author had fabricated parts of his story, Oprah Winfrey, who had chosen the book as one of her book club selections and by doing so, elevated it to a NY Times bestseller, made mincemeat of the author.

As Louis Menand points out in his examination of literary hoaxes in The New Yorker, the difference between fact and fiction and the belief that literary expression must be original and genuine, is a relatively new concept. But not so new that a woman named Laura Albert, writing under the nom de plume JT Leroy, shouldn’t have been aware of it.

LeRoy’s first novel, Sarah, published in 2000, told the harrowing autobiographical story of a sexually and emotionally abused HIV+ homeless teenager alternately known as Jeremiah, Jeremy, Terminator, and JT, who was raped at the age of 5 before being lured into transvestite hustling in truck stops by his drug-addicted mother. JT’s tale of woe had, as Joseph Mankiewicz so aptly said, “everything but the bloodhounds nipping at his rear end.”

Such suffering needed to be shared and so JT, speaking in a breathy Scarlett O’Hara-like voice apropos of his West Virginian upbringing, reached out to writer Dennis Cooper to tell him what a big fan he was of his novel Try. Little did Cooper know, he wasn’t talking to a teenage boy, but was in fact speaking with Laura Albert whose impersonation skills had been mastered during her days working for a phone-sex service. Cooper, who developed a telephone relationship with JT not only encouraged the boy to keep writing, he put him in touch with other writers, agents and publishers.

JT, whose earliest articles were compiled into a book, The Heart is Deceitful Above All Things, was soon garnering the attention of editors and celebrities alike. Gus Van Sant was adapting Sarah for the big screen, Madonna was sending him Kabballah books, Bono was a supporter, even 60s icon, Nancy Sinatra, showed up at one of his book’s publicity events. The only thing missing was JT himself.

Laura Albert, Savannah Knoop and Asia Argento

Under mounting pressure from the press and an increasing number of people who were not only clamoring to meet him but beginning to wonder whether JT LeRoy actually existed, Laura Albert and her boyfriend, Geoff Knoop had to find someone to personify their creation. They didn’t have to look very far — Knoop’s 21-year-old half-sister, Savannah, was the perfect choice. Looking like an attractive yet androgynous Andy Warhol creation, she made her debut in an interview for the press wearing a cheap blonde wig and large sunglasses. He explained away his small but noticeable breasts by telling people he was undergoing a sex change, which only added to his indescribable allure. It didn’t matter that the real JT didn’t sound anything like the familiar voice people knew from the telephone or that he needed a nomenclator standing behind him to cue him on the people he supposedly knew, he was the literary “It” boy.

Suddenly he was hanging out with Winona Ryder, partying with Carrie Fisher and Courtney Love, having flings with movie stars, and attending the Cannes Film Festival, all under the watchful gaze of Laura who by that point had affected a spotty British accent and went under the aliases Speedie and/or Emily.

It’s hard for a couple to survive in an atmosphere like that, especially when a third party like JT sucks all of the oxygen out of the room. It wasn’t long before long Laura and Geoff’s relationship was feeling the effects of JT’s notoriety. Taking care of their young son, Thor, Geoff was relegated to role of Mr. Mom while Laura did the book tour circuit with JT. Concerned friends and family urged Laura to come clean and an ever-widening circle of acquaintances and supporters couldn’t help but notice the loose ends in JT’s story.

Laura Dern and Kristen Stewart in JT LeRoy

Finally, The New York Times put the pieces together and exposed the lie – Savannah was the real-life embodiment of JT. The emotions that JT’s supporters felt ranged from outrage to sorrow but when all was said and done, did readers really care who actually wrote the material?

JT LeRoy’s story or should I say, Laura Alpert’s story, has so intently captured the public’s fascination that there have been two movies made about it – the first, Jeff Feuerzeig’s documentary Author: The JT LeRoy Story and the second, the upcoming theatrical release JT LeRoy based on Savannah Knoop’s memoir, Girl Boy Girl: How I Became JT LeRoy. Directed by Justin Kelley (I Am Michael) and starring Laura Dern as Laura Alpert, Kristin Stewart as Savannah and Jim Sturgess as Geoff, the film, set to open on April 26, should popularize this offbeat story and reopen the debate about the question of literary expression and whether the distinction between fact and fiction makes any difference at all.