Laura Albert

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Laura Victoria Albert

Laura Albert in her study. Photo by :Kelly Lee Barrett
Born 2 November 1965 (1965-11-02) (age 42)
New York City, United States1
Occupation Author
Genres Fantasy, Mystery

Laura Victoria Albert (born 1965) is the author of writings credited to the fictional teenage persona of JT LeRoy, a long-running literary hoax in which LeRoy was presented to the public and publishers as a transgendered, sexually questioning, abused, former homeless drug addict and male prostitute. Albert was raised in Brooklyn, and she and her former partner Geoffrey Knoop have a young son. She has also used the names Emily Frasier and Speedie.

In a New York magazine article in October 2005, Stephen Beachy suggested that LeRoy was a literary hoax created by Albert. [1] Beachy suggested that Albert was not only LeRoy's friend Emily Frasier, but also Speedie, LeRoy's street-hustling friend, as well as LeRoy himself. Albert has since confirmed that she is the writer behind the LeRoy books.[2]

Investigation showed that the advance for LeRoy's first novel, Sarah, was paid to Laura Albert's sister, JoAnna Albert, and that further payments to LeRoy were made to a Nevada corporation, Underdogs Inc., whose president is Carolyn F. Albert, Laura Albert's mother.

The New York Times published an article about Disneyland Paris with the JT LeRoy byline in the Sunday magazine T:Travel supplement in September 2005. [3] After the publication of the New York article, the Times found that expense receipts included an Air France itinerary for three people instead of the four described in the article. Employees at Disneyland Paris and two Paris hotels confirmed that the person claiming to be JT LeRoy matched photographs of Laura Albert, who told the employees she was traveling with her husband and son. She told hotel employees who thought JT LeRoy was male that she was a transsexual woman who had sex reassignment surgery three years earlier.

A 9 January 2006 article in the New York Times gave evidence that the role of LeRoy was played publicly by Savannah Knoop, the half-sister of Albert's partner. [4] Geoffrey Knoop later stated Albert was the author of the JT LeRoy works. [5] [6] Albert directly confessed to the hoax in a Fall 2006 Paris Review interview.[7]

In June 2007, Albert was sued by Antidote International Films Inc. for fraud, which claims that a contract signed with JT Leroy to make a feature film of Sarah is null and void.[8], [9]. On June 22, 2007, Laura Albert was found guilty of fraud by a Manhattan jury, and ordered to pay $110,000 to Antidote, as well as an extra $6,500 in punitive damages.[10]

In October 2008, Seven Stories Press will publish Savannah Knoop's Girl Boy Girl: How I Became JT LeRoy, which details Knoop's partaking in the JT LeRoy charade. Seven Stories offered the following press release:

"Who was the real JT LeRoy? A new memoir reveals how a girl, pretending to be a boy, captured the imagination of everyone who met her . . . JT became a darling of the avant-garde - including Asia Argento, Gus Van Sant, Michael Pitt, Carrie Fisher, Winona Ryder, Courtney Love, Debbie Harry and dozens of others . . . Then it turned out to be a hoax."

This announcement has already been met with disdain by Albert, who told the New York Post's Page Six gossip column:

"I am not in any way connected with this book and it disgusts me. Just because you play a writer doesn't mean you are a writer[...] I think Savannah is being motivated by money and attention. Now that she's had to go back to being a civilian, this is her way of getting back to it. It's sad and it's sleazy. She's really stepping on my feelings. [...]This is a cheap way for Seven Stories to get my story. And it's disgusting they're using celebrity names to sell it. I'm not interested in making a career of JT, I'm an artist."

Seven Stories Editor-in-Chief Amy Scholder replied: "Savannah has every right to tell her story. It is funny and irreverent. Laura will hopefully feel differently when she reads the book."[11]

[edit] References

  1. ^ Beachy, Stephen. "Who is the Real JT LeRoy? A search for the true identity of a great literary hustler", New York, October 2005. 
  2. ^ L.A. Times "Writer Behind JT LeRoy Comes Clean"
  3. ^ LeRoy, JT. "Uncle Walt, Parlez-Vous Français?", New York Times T:Travel magazine, September 25, 2005. 
  4. ^ St. John, Warren. "The Unmasking of JT Leroy: In Public, He's a She", New York Times, January 9, 2006. 
  5. ^ St. John, Warren. "Figure in JT Leroy Case Says Partner Is Culprit", New York Times, February 7, 2006. 
  6. ^ Boulware, Jack. "She is JT LeRoy", Salon, March 8, 2006. 
  7. ^ Rich, Nathaniel. "Being JT LeRoy", The Paris Review, Fall 2006. 
  8. ^ Feuer, Alan (June 15, 2007). Going to Court Over Fiction by a Fictitious Writer. New York Times
  9. ^ "Writer Testifies About Source of Nom de Plume" By Alan Feuer, N.Y. Times, Published: June 20, 2007
  10. ^ Westfeldt, Amy. "Jury: Novel Bought by Company Fraudulent", Associated Press, June 23, 2007. 
  11. ^ Page Six (June 2, 2008). Leroy Hoaxers In Falling-Out New York Post