The Lies and Follies of Laura Albert, a.k.a. JT LeRoy

After reading the manuscript for The Heart Is Deceitful, Shirley Manson of the band Garbage writes a song about JT called "Cherry Lips (Go Baby Go!)" and will later say of the tiny, androgynous author, "I have held hands with him, I know he's for real."

2003: JT writes a draft of, and is given an associate-producer credit on, the Gus Van Sant film Elephant.

2004: JT becomes the front man and lyricist for the band Thistle. Joining him are Speedie and her boyfriend, Astor.

On Salon.com, JT offers advice to the Olsen twins before they turn 18.

May 2004: JT travels to Cannes with Speedie and Astor and their son for the debut of the film version of The Heart Is Deceitful.

November 2004: In a New York Times article titled "A Literary Life Born of Brutality," JT is quoted as saying, "The thing about attention is, it's like drinking. One drink is too many, and a million isn't enough."

February 2005: JT's slim novella Harold's End, with illustrations by Cherry Hood, is released. Despite being edited by Dave Eggers, and featuring cover blurbs by Zadie Smith, Nan Goldin, John Waters and Lou Reed, the book sells poorly. Writing for The New York Times, Bookforum's Albert Mobilio calls it "a shiny post-card of a book that offers a paper-thin impression of the author's talents."

2005: Willamette Week reviewer John Freeman writes, "In spite of the celebrities haranguing us to treat him like Joyce, sentence by sentence, LeRoy is not an especially crafty writer. There isn't a single metaphor or image of note in the entire book."

October 2005: Stephen Beachy writes an article for the San Francisco Bay Guardian that all but proves there is no JT. But the Bay Guardian decides not to publish, and Beachy instead takes it to New York magazine, where it runs on October 17 under the title "Who Is the Real JT LeRoy? A search for the true identity of a great literary hustler." In it, Beachy offers solid proof that JT is actually the confection of the 40-year-old Laura Albert, a.k.a. Speedie.

January 2006: The New York Times runs "The Unmasking of JT Leroy: In Public, He's a She," which reveals that the person appearing in public as JT is actually Savannah Knoop, half sister of Geoffrey Knoop, a.k.a. Astor (Laura Albert's real-life boyfriend). The article has the ironic good fortune of appearing one day after James Frey's A Million Little Pieces is revealed as a con.

2006: The film The Heart Is Deceitful is released; New York Times critic Manohla Dargis calls it "well-nigh unwatchable" and suggests, "Given publishing's seemingly endless appetite for memoirs filled with sexual sob stories and kinks, a JT LeRoy was inevitable ... It's only a matter of time (here's hoping) before Ms. Albert grovels for forgiveness before Mr. Cooper, as Mr. Frey did before Oprah Winfrey."

2007: JT's next book, Labor, is put on hold indefinitely.

Laura Albert is sued for fraud by Antidote International Films, the company that three years earlier had purchased the rights to Sarah, which it now claims is "too sullied and emotionally charged" to make into a film. Albert loses, and is ordered to pay $350,000.