Five Years Later, James Frey And Oprah Winfrey Rekindle Affair In Manhattan Hotel

Five years after his televised flaying at Oprah Winfrey’s hands, James Frey today returned to the talk show host’s program and said that he has never watched the January 2006 show, which he termed “a personal car crash for me.”

Sitting across from Winfrey in a penthouse suite at the Soho Grand Hotel in Manhattan, Frey said that he felt “steamrolled” and "ambushed" by the TV star and referred to the incident as a public stoning. He told Winfrey that he commissioned the artist Ed Ruscha, a friend of his, to create a painting entitled “Public Stoning.” The work (seen here) hangs in his Manhattan apartment.

Frey, appearing as one of Winfrey’s “Most Memorable Guests, said that he “never shed a tear” about the fallout from TSG’s disclosure that his book “A Million Little Pieces” was riddled with fabrications and embellishments. “Most writers of memoirs do what I did,” he said.

Frey recalled his first conversation with Winfrey, when she informed him that she had chosen his book as a selection for her book club. After hanging up the phone, he told his wife, “Our life just changed.” Frey added that he did not realize at the time how prophetic that statement was.

The second part of the Frey-Winfrey reunion is scheduled to air tomorrow.