$AD NEW 'LEROY' CHAPTER
August 1, 2007 -- The writer who sparked a literary scandal by penning books under the imaginary alter ego "JT LeRoy" must cover nearly $350,000 in legal costs racked up by a movie producer duped by the hoax.
By KATI CORNELL
Judge Jed Rakoff ordered author Laura Albert to pay part of producer Jeffrey Levy-Hinte's legal expenses on top of the $116,500 that a jury awarded the movie producer last month.
Levy-Hinte bought the movie rights to one of Albert's novels, believing it to be a semi-autobiographical story by the gifted son of a truck-stop hooker - only to later learn the real writer was a mom from Brooklyn.
The $350,000 slap is a fraction of the $1 million that Levy-Hinte, of Antidote International Films, claimed he spent building the case against Albert and her company, Underdog. Rakoff called that demand "unreasonable."