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camera with an expression that fell Laura Albert, the writer behind somewhere between defiant and sad. the literary persona JT LeRoy. The next day, when Albert sent me both an email and a Facebook opportunistic asshole (or, more sim- friend request, I ignored them. Read- ply, a journalist). But if she did, she ing all of the stories had spooked me didn’t show it: “So awesome to hear and suggested untold multitudes of from you!” she wrote. “It’s been wild drama. I didn’t understand what life over here.” experiences could produce some- When we finally meet up a few one like Laura Albert. I wasn’t sure I months later at a café not far from wanted to find out. Albert’s home in Russian Hill, it’s But at the Sundance Film Festi- July. Magnolia Pictures, which is val this January, it suddenly seemed releasing Author with Amazon Stu- that everyone wanted to find out dios on September 9, has arranged who Laura Albert was. The festival for a publicist to accompany Albert marked the debut of Author: The JT to the interview. But she turns up LeRoy Story, a feature-length docu- at the café alone, wearing the same The first time I met Laura Albert, I by wigs and enormous sunglasses, mentary that promised a definitive newsboy cap she wore when I met had almost forgotten who she was. bearing a passing resemblance to look at the JT saga. Directed by Jeff her two years earlier, a T-shirt that It was June 2014, at a pop-up kosher a late-stage Michael Jackson. Two Feuerzeig—best known for another reads “Fuck Gucci,” black-and-white- restaurant in SoMa. “Do you remem- more books followed his star-making documentary about a poorly under- striped arm warmers, a long, ruffled ber JT LeRoy?” our mutual acquain- debut, as did an associate producer skirt, and rings on seven of her fin- tance asked me before introducing us. credit for Gus Van Sant’s Elephant gers. Around her neck hangs a type- “That was Laura.” and a screenwriting gig for the HBO writer pendant embossed with the I remember thinking that Albert series Deadwood. words “Write Hard Die Free.” It dan- looked like no one else in the room: And then, in late 2005 and early gles next to another necklace, this Dressed in a bustier, an ankle-length 2006, articles in New York magazine one strung with a silver raccoon skirt, a floppy newsboy cap, and and the New York Times brought it penis bone. In Sarah, the raccoon sleeves that went from her wrists to all crashing down: JT, it was revealed,YOU stood outsider artist, The Devil and penis bone is depicted as a protective her upper arms, she was an island of wasn’t actually a living, breathing, Daniel Johnston—and bankrolled by amulet for the truck-stop prostitutes, Dickens Fair goth in a sea of casual writing human being. On the page Vice and A&E, Author is told almost or lot lizards, who also use it to stim- linen. We chatted for a while: She and over the phone, he was instead solely from Albert’s perspective, draw- ulate the prostates of their clients. GONE was friendly, easy to talk a San Francisco writer ing on her vast archive of home videos, After the book was published, celeb- to, slightly haunted. She named Laura Albert—who, drawings, writings, and the telephone rity admirers like Rufus Wainwright gave me her business as part of the ruse, had conversations she began recording as and Michael Pitt were photographed card and suggested that also posed as JT’s assis- a teenager. The film, as an early Vari- wearing their own raccoon penis we take a bike ride some- tant, alternately called ety review pointed out, is essentially a bones. Later in our interview, Albert time. It was a distinctly Speedie and Emily Frasier. podium for Albert to air her side of the would give me one, too, wrapped in San Francisco experi- Another woman, Savan- story—and nobody else’s. And, as the tissue paper, tipped with silver, and ence: Of course I’d go to nah Knoop—who was the review also noted, it’s actually the sec- signed “JT LeRoy.” a kosher pop-up and talk half sister of Albert’s boy- ond documentary about Albert: The “It’s insane. It’s absolutely fucking about bikes with someone who used friend, Geoff—played the role of JT first, Marjorie Sturm’s The Cult of JT crazy,” Albert says when I ask her if to be someone else. LeRoy during public appearances. LeRoy, was released last year and takes it’s strange, after spending so many When I got home that evening, I As I continued to search the web for a much more critical view of its subject. years assuming the identity of some- went online and began to reacquaint details about Albert’s history, I found a And so, spurred by all of this one else, to be starring in a movie myself with a period of time in the few post-fall-from-grace articles about renewed interest in a woman who about herself. “When I meet some- late 1990s and early aughts when JT her; the backlash had come quickly, presented an admittedly fascinating body and they say, ‘Oh, she was doing LeRoy was seemingly everywhere. along with a fraud lawsuit centered picture, I finally emailed Albert back. this for fame,’ it’s like, ‘Dumbass, I A transgender former child prosti- on a movie contract that she’d signed I figured she’d think I was being an was hiding.’ I mean, John Waters said tute, the story went, he (his pronoun as JT LeRoy. In one mem- of choice) was born in West Virginia orable 2007 New York Times and abandoned by his mother on story, a reporter accompanied the streets of San Francisco. He pub- Albert on a road trip from her lished his autobiographical debut home in San Francisco to Los novel, Sarah, to great and bestsell- Angeles and depicted her as a ing acclaim in 2000. Only 19 years old, high-maintenance mess he quickly accrued exhaustive media with veracity issues. I coverage and a coven of celebrity fans also found a 2010 photo from Winona Ryder, Courtney Love, from Zoo magazine and Lou Reed to Carrie Fisher, Bono, of Albert flashing her and Billy Corgan. There were pic- boobs, which was most The woman who invented the boy who seduced the literary tures of JT everywhere: He was slight, notable for the way she world a decade ago is still searching for answers. androgynous, and usually obscured stared directly at the By REBECCA FLINT MARX PHOTOGRAPH BY Justin Kaneps 102 San Francisco | September 2016 September 2016 | San Francisco 103 to me—said to JT—that the most un- Antoinette to get a rewrite, you American thing you can do is reject Even a decade know?” Albert says after I comment fame. It’s like, dude, you had to drag on this resurgence of interest in her me out, how can you say that I did story. She’s thrilled with the Feuer- this to get attention? But I also feel later, attempting zeig documentary, which she’s seen that I’ve been made ready, and I know four or five times now; telling her what my intention is. I didn’t do the to make sense story is “the process whereby the pain reality show. I’ve proven myself. I’ve of the past in its pastness may be con- proven you can’t buy me, and I think verted to the future tense of joy,” she that makes it very frustrating to peo- of JT LeRoy—let says, quoting Robert Penn Warren. ple. I’ve maintained my integrity.” But, Over the course of our four-hour she adds, “I don’t feel proud of that, alone Laura Albert— interview, Albert talks a lot about the because there was no other option.” pain of the past—hers, mostly, but The question of Albert’s intention also that of the JT fans who she says and integrity has for the past decade requires not so approach her after readings to share been central to what people talk their own stories of abuse. She talks about when they talk about JT LeRoy. much a flowchart about the time her mother tried to The saga wasn’t simply a question of a set her on fire; about how Deadwood pseudonymous writer duping readers creator David Milch gave her a piece and a bunch of celebrities. Using the as a suspension of Franz Kafka’s house to carry with persona of JT, Albert, who was then her during the fraud trial; about how, in her 30s, formed emotionally inti- of disbelief: after the trial, when she felt the “gate mate telephone relationships with a of writing shut,” people told her that number of people, writers like Den- no one would care about her in seven nis Cooper and Mary Gaitskill among It’s like a Möbius months, that everyone else would tell them, who believed they were helping her story. She was offered reality televi- an abused HIV-positive transgender strip tied into sion shows, book deals, countless talk street kid by offering him both their show interviews, she says. But she time and their lit-world connections. turned it all down: “That would have In The Cult of JT LeRoy, one of JT’s a Gordian knot.