James Frey rocketed to national attention as the memoirist who was anointed, then eviscerated, on "The Oprah Winfrey Show." But before that, Frey spent nearly a decade in Hollywood, hanging out at industry barbecues, hustling movie ideas and co-producing a few indie flicks.
Frey had become the New York-based bestselling author of "A Million Little Pieces" by the time he returned over the holidays to throw what one observer described as a classic Hollywood fit. A screenwriter wanted to change the details of Frey's memoir of addiction for a film script being written for Warner Bros.
Frey said they didn't have the right to alter the facts in the book, the observer recalled this week. "How could they do this? This was his life! How could they change the facts of his life?" Eventually, Frey fired his agency.
"In light of what we now know, the reasons that James left our agency are certainly ironic, and it's nice being on the right side of irony," said Jeremy Zimmer, a top agent at United Talent Agency and one of Frey's agents before the confrontation.
Reached by phone, Frey said: "I can't comment on any of that stuff. I'm sure I know what you're going to write." Pressed on details, he interrupted: "I can't comment on anything."
A few minutes later, Frey added, "All I wanted to do was write a book that would help people get through tough times, and I never meant for any of this to happen, and I'm sorry that it has."
Frey's own story line is rooted in Hollywood. He is listed at the Internet Movie Database website as the director and writer of a small 1998 film called "Sugar: The Fall of the West," and he has a writing and story credit on the 1998 David Schwimmer movie "Kissing a Fool." He's also listed as a co-producer of 2001's "See Jane Run" and as a producer of the 2000 Luke Wilson film "Preston Tylk," which was also released as "Bad Seed."
And when he decided to shop his memoir around to agents, he settled on Kassie Evashevski, the respected literary manager of Brillstein-Grey Entertainment. Unlike a traditional literary agent, Evashevski represents both book and film projects. Some believe this hybrid approach creates a built-in temptation to see a book as a steppingstone to a film deal.
"Generally speaking, the big money is to be made on the film side," said prominent West Coast literary agent Sandra Dijkstra. "The temptation would be to counsel the author to write a book that would have enormous film appeal and that might compromise some of its integrity."
