what's faker than fake?



so there's been some interesting fraud writing incidents lately, the latest being from "jt leroy." though many have hailed him/her as brilliant and whatnot, there has always been speculation as to whether jt leroy was for real. the new york times recently exposed the author as a concept from a san francisco couple, geoffrey knoop and laura albert. the times speculated that albert was the brains behind the published books. knoop and albert are also members of unsigned band thistle, which jt leroy was also supposedly part of. and in public appearances, leroy was often "played" by knoop's half sister savannah knoop. that's probably who posed for this photo shoot for the pop manifesto... maybe illy can give more details on that...

he/she has always been described as painfully shy (thus explaining the uncommon public appearances) and has had a seedy past filled with hiv, hustling and drugs. shirley manson wrote a song about him/her called "cherry lips." billy corgan even wrote a song for thistle. leroy also wrote the introduction to the sixth installment of the "Best Music Writing" anthology... he/she basically fooled the masses. i feel like it's a metamorphosis of combining writing, music and performance art. quite fascinating, and i expect to see more people copying the ruse...