Three Top Scandals of 2006: Frey, Foley and Gibson

The year’s not over and we very well may have a media blitz about some more dirty dealings and scandalous behavior, but what do you think will be the three top scandals you will most remember from this year? Here are the ones that I can think of so far:

Remember the James Frey scandal back in January? The Smoking Gun published an article on its website that Frey’s memoir A Million Little Pieces was a fraud. The book had already made millions thanks to being chosen as the September 2005 Oprah book club selection. Oprah went on Larry King initially to defend the book and its author. Not too long after that, a repentant and miserable James Frey appeared on Oprah to apologize for what he had previously defended, taking liberties – a lot of liberties – with the truth. The talk show queen also apologized for leaving the impression that the truth is not important in her statement on Larry King Live when she said what mattered about Frey’s memoir was its value as a therapeutic tool for addicts, and not whether it was true. Oprah recanted, “I left the impression that the truth is not important.” I don’t know about this one. Yes, totally fabricating and embellishing parts of a memoir and passing it off as true is scandalous, but at least James Frey wrote it. Should this be one of the top scandals?

Later in the year, young author, Kaavya Viswanathan, found herself in hot soup when a fan of author, Megan McCafferty, noticed amazing similarities between Viswanathan’s popular book, How Opal Mehta Got Kissed, Got Wild and Got a Life and two of McCafferty’s works. Caught out there, and probably hoping to avoid a full-blown scandal, the Harvard sophomore copped to reading McCafferty’s books, Sloppy Firsts and Second Helpings. She averred that any similarities were both unconscious and unintentional and proffered an apology. McCafferty’s publisher, Random House, was not inclined to let this slide after their investigation revealed no less than 40 passages in Opal Mehta that contained “identical language and/or common scene or dialogue structure.” This outright plagiarism and then lying about it seems like a much worse scandal to me.

On the sex scandal front, we’ve got now ex-Florida Representative Mark Foley sending sexually explicit emails to underage pages. Foley has expressed his remorse and announced through his attorney that he is gay, and that he was himself a victim of molestation and to top it all off, he’s an alcoholic. He then entered a rehab. Maybe he can write a book in a couple of years. Hey, it could work … two years after former New Jersey governor, Jim McGreevey, came out and announced that he was gay, he’s published a book called The Confession.

I know I am going to remember this scandal because it is just such a horrendous problem that crops up time and time again. Someone you think is fighting against or at least should be above reproach when it comes to pedophilia or sexual abuse has in fact been engaging in it the whole time. This past July, former Pastor Bob Gray of Trinity Baptist Church in Jacksonville, Fla. was arrested for more sex charges while he was already facing three counts of capital sexual battery, based on accusations of molesting three girls who had come forward years after the incidents. Perhaps we would have better luck getting eunuchs to fill these positions.

It may be a while before Mel Gibson gets anyone to believe that he’s not an anti-Semite after his drunken tirade against Jews this past summer. While some people are already inclined to forgive him, others have vowed to boycott him. Mel is paying for this scandal. Gibson had a deal on the table regarding a Holocaust series with ABC TV. The project was to be based on the self-published 1998 memoir of Flory A. Van Beek, a Dutch Jew whose gentile neighbors hid her from the Nazis. She lost several relatives in concentration camps. The memoir is entitled Flory: Survival in the Valley of Death. ABC felt it best to scrap the deal rather than have it tainted by the racist publicity against Mel. It’s rough to see everything good you’ve done ruined by a drunken outburst. While ‘in wine there is truth’ is not always a valid conclusion, unfortunately, a lot of people, including myself, believe that you are just not going to burst out with statements of this nature under the influence unless they are already in your repertoire. If you’re old enough to remember, you might recall that Jesse Jackson survived referring to New York City as ‘Hymietown’ back in the 80s, so there may still be hope for Mel to survive this scandal.

Those are the three top scandals of 2006 that stand out in my memory. Oh, that was more than three? Well the extra scandals were just by way of comparison. Now I will leave you to wonder if anyone in the literary world will fall from grace via scandal next year, since we already know that athletes will continue to take steroids, Naomi Campbell may very well continue to beat her employees with her cell phone, Rush Limbaugh will continue to take Viagra and, unless we find those eunuchs fast, sexually disturbed politicians will probably continue their scandalous and illegal activities until they get caught.

Reference:

• Mel Gibson interview with Diane SawyerJames Frey’s websiteMark Foley biographical sketch