Nan Talese Talks Oprah and James Frey

Posted on July 31, 2007

Legendary publisher and editor Nan Talese, who is the Senior Vice President of Doubleday and the Publisher and Editorial Director of Nan A. Talese/Doubleday Books, describes the behind the scenes drama that led up to Oprah Winfrey's infamous program in which she blasted James Frey for lying in his book, A Million Little Pieces. Nan says she was misled about the nature of the program that day and says how appalled she was at Oprah's behavior.

We understand how Nan feels, certainly. But we really think Oprah's ire was aimed at James Frey -- Frey publicly humiliated Oprah by claiming his memoir was all true. He sold millions of copies because of Oprah's endorsement and this was payback. But it was not right that Nan was essentially tricked into being on the show that day. Nan, who has a reputation for excellence, did no wrong and didn't deserve that. She handled herself quite well that day, though.