Oprah Tricked by Phony Book Tale Again!

After the James Frey fiasco, you might think Team Oprah would be slightly leery of inspirational stories of triumph under duress, but once again, Oprah has egg on her face for endorsing a tale that turned out to be too tall.

The Associated Press reports that Berkley Books has canceled publication of “Angel at the Fence” and will demand that the author and the agent return any money already paid to them.

Holocaust survivor, Herman Rosenblat, apparently invented this “heart-warming” story of how he met his wife while he was a prisoner at a sub-camp of Buchenwald in Nazi Germany. His wife was not a prisoner. She was a young Jewish girl whose family was pretending to be Christian. They lived nearby.

According to the fake memoir, for months, they met on opposite sides of a barbed-wire fence. She brought him apples and bread. They lost touch after Rosenblat was transferred to another camp. but, in the 1950s, they were miraculously reunited on a blind date in New York.

Winfrey called their romance “the single greatest love story … we’ve ever told on the air.” A children’s book and feature film adaptation were scheduled to begin next year. The film may still go forward with some editing as to why Rosenblat felt it necessary to concoct the story. (He just saw “Life is Beautiful”?)

Producer Harris Salomon told New Republic (TNR) special correspondent Gabriel Sherman that it is “unfortunate” that Rosenblat lied, but he believes the story has value. He went on to say that he thinks Herman should appear on Oprah again and tell the truth. Salomon said: “Obviously, this is a surprise to me. Obviously, I am extremely angry. He let me down professionally and personally. We get used to dealing with people of all stripes in this business. This is the business and the society we live in today, that allows people to lie, but also feeds off people lying and asking for forgiveness.”

Forgiveness, our butts. Just like in the Frey episode, the ‘public apology’ is just so everyone knows that Oprah, the publishers and the producer were ‘innocent victims’ in the whole scam.

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Tags: herman, james, movies, oprah, roma, TV