Is Oprah's Golden Touch Tarnished?
Yet another memoir endorsed by Oprah Winfrey is revealed as a hoax.
Dec. 30, 2008 — -- Unfortunately for Oprah Winfrey, some stories really are too good to be true.
Herman Rosenblat's memoir, "Angel at the Fence," deemed by Winfrey as "the single greatest love story" she's ever featured on her show, may now be coined by some as the single phoniest love story, after the author admitted he fabricated the story of how he and his wife met at a Nazi concentration camp.
They did not, as Rosenblat falsely wrote in the book, meet at a concentration camp during World War II, where Rosenblat claimed his wife had thrown him apples and bread over the barbed-wire fence that separated them.
In reality, Rosenblat and his wife, Roma, were set up on a blind date in New York years after the war was over.
Ken Rosenblat, Rosenblat's son, knew for years of the hoax and expressed outrage today over his father's lie. He told the New York Post, "I didn't agree with it. I didn't want anything to do with it. I tried to just stay away from it."
Rosenblat's bogus autobiography is one of several memoirs that have been lauded by Winfrey and then later revealed to be frauds -- including James Frey's best-selling "A Million Little Pieces" and Margaret Seltzer's "Love and Consequences" -- consequently calling into question how much weight Winfrey's future book endorsements will carry.
Sara Nelson, the editor in chief of trade magazine Publishers Weekly, told ABCNews.com that she wouldn't be surprised if Winfrey, in response to the recent hoaxes, is more cautious in the future about what books she talks about on her show.
"This is embarrassing for [Winfrey] and I'm sure she's not happy about it," said Nelson. "I think she'll be more careful about what she promotes."
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