Will Oprah Cancel Her Order for Endorsement for Socks the Cat's Memoirs?
Oprah Winfrey, a big champion of frauds James Frey and Margaret Seltzer, has once again been burned by a literary faker. This time it's the author of a phonified Holocaust story:
Herman Rosenblat's memoir, "Angel at the Fence," deemed by Winfrey as "the single greatest love story" she's ever featured on her show, may now be coined by some as the single fakest love story, after the author admitted he fabricated the story of how he and his wife met at a Nazi concentration camp.
They did not, as Rosenblat falsely wrote in the book, meet at a concentration camp during World War II, where Rosenblat claimed his wife had thrown him apples and bread over the barbed-wire fence that separated them.
In reality, Rosenblat and his wife, Roma, were set up on a blind date in New York years after the war was over.
Rosenblatt was quoted by Time.com yesterday as explaining his motivations thus: "I wanted to bring happiness."
Meanwhile, another fake memoirist, Socks the Cat, the abandonend first feline of the Clinton White House, is reportedly near death. What's more, as they left the White House, the Clintons dumped Socks on White House secretary Betty Currie:
The cat who was the pet of the Clinton family in the White House apparently has cancer.
According to presidential historian Barry Landau, a friend of Socks' current owner, Betty Currie, the cat may have just "days or weeks" to live.
Socks ended up with Currie—who was Bill Clinton's White House secretary—after the Clintons left the White House. The cat didn't get along with the Clintons' dog, and aggravated the president's allergies.
As for Currie, who became well-known during the Monica Lewinsky scandal, she's now working for John Podesta, who's co-chairman of President-elect Barack Obama's transition.
It's not known if she'll work in the Obama White House.
Tim Cavanaugh wrote about literary fakery for Reason. Read all about it here.
