Lying is the new black

Oprah, come get these two! Misha Defonseca and Margaret Seltzer were two people who up until a week ago, I had never heard of and probably didn't care much about what with Obama and trying to get my freakin' Master's burning streams of random, paranoid and hopeful thought into my brain. I'd like to think of myself as a truly literary person but I read books usually two at a time and then nothing for months. After Harry Potter, what else is there? (kidding, a little.)

Anyway, who are these broads and who do I need to hook up with to publish a fake memoir? Compared to most other professions, it seems like easy money. Anyway, one of them lied about her experiences during the Holocaust (shame). Turns out she is not Jewish and incredibly enough, was not raised by wolves in the forests of Europe while single handedly fighting Nazis with her bare hands. There was even a film made about her life, which is a no-brainer because the producers probably read it and thought it was another Rambo sequel.

The other, which is my favorite, claimed to be half White, half Native- American, grew up a foster child in South Central LA and became a gang-banger or close confidante of said gang- bangers, the details don't really matter do they? The reality is that she's a suburban kid who apparently couldn't deal with the hardships of growing up upper middle class. She's been making the media rounds just as much as James Frey lately and I smell a fictional book coming, even though technically she already wrote it. Has writing fake accounts of one's life become the new 15 minutes? This should be a reality show...."America's Next Top Delusional Writer who's Publishers won't be bothered with silly things like fact- checking." What's especially hilarious and disheartening about what is really considered newsworthy is this piece by the Times before she was caught. A white girl who says "homies" and can use the term ghetto in conversation without it being ironic seemed to have them salivating. The whole article is written with inspired awe, a homage to cooking soul food and raising pit bulls, cause you know, that's all Black people do. (sigh)

links via The New York Times & Gawker