Today is the day to have some hot chocolate.

Three Zulkey.com interviewees are in the news today, two for semi-scandalous reasons, one for tragic. First and foremost, Chicago actor and Second City alumnus Jim Zulevic died this weekend at that absolutely too young age of 40. I didn't know him that well but what I knew was a nice, talented guy who loved the Chicago White Sox. I'm glad that he got to experience the 2005 season. It is a shock that such a young talent could leave us like that and he will definitely be missed here in Chicago.

Now, on to the others. The Smoking Gun quoted my interview with James Frey (who I later also interviewed here). TSG claims that the "best-selling nonfiction memoir filled with fabrications, falsehoods, other fakery."

Also, according to the New York Times, JT Leroy has been 'unmasked,' at least as a public in-person persona, as a woman named Savannah Knoop.

So all you other Zulkey.com interviewees out there, watch your backs and check your facts. Seriously, I have nothing to add or comment about either interviewee, as it's not my habit to invite somebody to my house to trash them, at the moment or later on. The curious thing is that while I typically conduct most interviews via email, which is an easy way to fake somebody out, I spoke with Leroy on the phone and eventually met Frey in real life (where he gave me a nice hug and the best book inscription I've ever received.) Not that those are evidence for or against their various cases (if you can call them that), but I just found it interesting that I got closer to them than I usually do with my interviewees.

Both controversies were lightly touched upon in each interview. I asked Frey "You say that you don't want A Million Little Pieces to be known as a recovery memoir, and you're hoping that publishing the book with Nan Talese and Co. will help eschew that generalization. What about Ms. Talese and Co. will help achieve that, do you think, and what (other than 'recovery memoir') are you hoping the book will be known as?"

He said " Nan is the premiere literary editor in our country. She works with some of the best writers in the world: Ian McEwan, Margaret Atwood, Pat Conroy, Jennifer Egan. She doesn't publish crap, and she doesn't publish sappy, bullshit memoirs. Having her name on my book gives it instant legitimacy.

If it were my choice, it would be listed as literature. It doesn't really matter though. What matters is how many people read it and how it affects them."

I did ask Leroy in his/her interview,"You disguise yourself in a lot of photos, often don’t read at your own readings and apparently don’t do many in-person interviews. Are you private or shy or something else?"

And the response was "Everyone talks about that so much, but I don’t know why that can’t just be an aspect of me, you know? Actors, when they go on talk shows or are in movies or whatever, can say, “Oh, that’s just a character I play,” but I don’t have that. It’s just a way to be protective. I don’t want to go out in public as myself and have people say shit to me. Susan Dey told me once that whatever age you get famous at, folks will hold you to that. I don't want to be held to anything."

He/she was however a very nice person to me on top of this and, as everybody else I have interviewed, gracious to give me their time.

At the moment, since I'm writing this at 8 AM and haven't had time to digest any of this, I have no thoughts on either of these situations, but I'm still grateful to them for letting me feature them in person on my site. And I'm frankly just not one to get in a tizzy about a literary scandal anyway: I much prefer to talk about the problems bulimic starlets, probably because I find their controversies more interesting than their actual work, as opposed to these authors, whose books will still be good.