Yawn. JT Leroy is not who he claims to be, which is a twenty something former male hustler from West Virginia. Last month The New York Times unmasked Leroy as two people. On paper he’s a middle-aged woman from Brooklyn, Laura Alpert, and in person, the 25-year old sister of Alpert’s former boyfriend, Geoffrey Knoop. But the male Knoop has now come forward to further spoil Alpert’s literary drag performance.
Geoffrey Knoop, Ms. Albert’s partner for the last 16 years, said in a telephone interview on Saturday evening that he had seen Ms. Albert write the books of JT Leroy in their San Francisco apartment. He added that for much of the last decade, he had been present when Ms. Albert conducted telephone conversations as JT Leroy with unwitting editors, writers and celebrities, using the voice of a young man with a West Virginia accent. Ms. Albert, 40, is originally from Brooklyn.
“The jig is up,” said Mr. Knoop, 39, a rock musician. “I do want to apologize to people who were hurt,” he added. “It got to a level I didn’t expect.”
Alpert’s gotta spill it sooner or later. “Deny, deny, deny” can only fool people for so long (*cough* Tom *cough* Cruise *cough*). But if she strategies carefully, she can definitely work this to her advantage. Get Oprah on the phone and cash in with a sympathetic appearance on her show. It may not have worked that well for James Frey, but Alpert’s story has cross-dressers and celebrities; two things daytime TV lives for.
Figure in JT Leroy Case Says Partner Is Culprit [NY Times]
EARLIER: The Sex Change Of JT Leroy
How about we take this to the next level?
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