Rumors have swirled the last few weeks that Laura Albert, the now-infamous writer responsible for the “J.T. Leroy” persona, was being sued by film producers on the basis that she misrepresented herself as someone else and so they shouldn’t have to make the movie as a result. And lo, the New York Times has more on the story with plenty more details: Antitode International Films (producers of such movies as THIRTEEN and LAUREL CANYON) has sued Albert for fraud, saying that a contract signed with J.T Leroy to make a feature film of SARAH should be null and void, for the simple reason that JT Leroy does not exist.
Underdogs Inc., “Leroy”‘s company, was paid $15,000 under the contract, which was renewed, at the same rate of $15,000, for each of the next two years. Antidote is suing for its money back. The trial began yesterday and already the entertainment quotient is high. Albert’s lawyer began his opening statements with “Laura Albert is a complicated person” (um, yeah) while the plaintiff lawyers depicted Albert’s fraud in considerable detail. We’ll be watching how this latest episode in the Leroy affair plays out.