Leah Garchik is reporting that Laura Albert, the woman behind J.T. LeRoy is being sued, along with Judi Farkas by Antidote Films, the production company who obtained the rights to the “LeRoy” novel Sarah. They’re hoping to get back $45,000 in options and $60,000 in development costs. The suit has allegedly been filed in New York. Garchik claims she got the tip from the New York Times, but there’s nothing online at the Gray Lady’s site yet (unless it’s behind the TimesSelect wall). And I haven’t found any case information in the New York State Unified Court System. Does anybody have any info on this? (via the SFist)
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/18/arts/18arts.html
The fictitious author J T Leroy has enmeshed his publisher, his manager and the San Francisco woman identified as the actual author of his works in a lawsuit brought by a production company that optioned the film rights to the J T Leroy novel “Sarah.” Saying it was a victim of an elaborate literary hoax, Antidote Films, an independent film company run by the producers Jeffrey Levy-Hinte and Mary Jane Skalski, filed the suit against Bloomsbury Publishers; Laura Albert, the author; and Judi Farkas, J T Leroy’s Hollywood manager, on Aug. 11 in District Court in Manhattan. The company is seeking to recover $45,000 in option payments, along with an additional $60,000 in development costs. In the complaint the producers wrote that they thought that they were buying the rights to the story of a real-life “talented, anguished artist, androgynous ingénue and recluse.” Following revelations of the hoax, they charged, the book they optioned was “discredited and a joke in the eyes of many.” They said in court papers that they had abandoned the project. The defendants were not immediately available for comment. WARREN ST. JOHN
– What’s interesting here is the suggestion that Farkas knew of the hoax; Ira Silverberg, JT’s NY agent, admitted to being fooled and dropped “him” upon concluding “he” was a fake.