Laura Albert, JT LeRoy's mom, creator, alter-ego, alias, drives down the coast with Alan Feuer, her NY Times enabler. (Sorry, but that's what he is.) It takes her nearly as long to get out the door as to drive from SF to LA, but thankfully Ms. Albert didn't take the wheel.

Idle thought: why didn't she get into the LeRoy drag and hang around some truck stops on the way?

The piece ends pretty abruptly as did the excursion, the greater purpose of which seems to have been to glom on to David Milch, the Deadwood creator who had been something of a mentor to Albert. Feuer writes:

After small talk had determined the reporter was indeed a human being, a request was made to turn the tape recorder off--at which point the interview became an intervention.

Mr. Milch was stern.

Shut your mouth, he told Ms. Albert. Quit this sick behavior. Disengage. Forget the press. Go home. Be still. Get healthy. Raise your child. And pray that you can write.

He then reached in his pocket and gave Ms. Albert five crisp hundred-dollar bills.

That's not an intervention, that's good advice. Did the NY Times finance this little stunt? Is Feuer in love with his subject?

GalleyCat has been following Feuer's coverage of Albert, and has a more literary view. Hollywood is a far tougher town than New York.