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Welcome to the first meeting of JT Anonymous. I published JT. I defended him in public, performed for him, responded to every editorial and hook-me-up request. I took Twilight Zone phone calls and tendered his frightening tantrums.
I'm embarrassed to tell you all the nutty things I did. Every time he was mean, or screwed up, I always told myself to stay steady and kind. Why did I make the effort? I'm no saint. But from listening to him, I believed the childhood he described surviving would have killed anyone else. The very least I could do was show compassion. I lived up to my promise, too - until a week before Stephen Beachy's story <http://susiebright.blogs.com/WhoisJTLeRoy.pdf> came out saying that JT Leroy was a hoax.
What happened a week before the dime dropped? I guess you could say it was My Own Private Idaho- I mean, breaking point.
The day in October that I got my last "what-have-you-done-for-me-lately" email from JT, I hadn't heard from him in a long time. I knew why- I was no longer in a position to help him, professionally. His interest in me as a friend had evaporated as soon as he had new companions with diamonds on their fingers and bells on their toes. I was a blip.
JT had long ago risen above my rank in the publishing world. Despite his plaintive old cries of how much he loved me, and how important my work was to him- which overwhelmed me at the time- now, it was all Courtney This and Winona That. Gus Van Sant is calling. Carrie Fischer says dinner is ready.
One Hollywood friend of mine who he courted, told me he sent her expensive gifts of chocolates and lingerie. Wow. I wasn't on that list.
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