LeRoy

I first heard about J.T. LeRoy in Interview, I think.

(And wouldn't Andy Warhol have been delighted with the whole story!)

I was working my way through lots of Dennis Cooper at the time, so I was mildly intrigued by the synopsis of LeRoy's work. I never got around to reading it, though.

I also remember thinking very clearly, "that background story sounds like bullshit to me. If I ever heard a made-up story, this is it."

I also thought that the publisher was trying to make a buck with the author's outrageous backstory, or maybe it was a celebrity working with a ghostwriter to hype a new project.

And then I forgot about J.T. LeRoy until he (she?) got busted and the truth came out: it was some chick who fooled a lot of people. Laura Albert's trial for fraud starts today (N.Y. Times link, so it probably won't last long).

What does it all mean? It means I'm a goddamn psychic genius, is what it means.