From Movieline's Hollywood Life, Nov. 2003

HOT TYPE. Young Hollywood hipsters are all about the work of novelist-screenwriter JT LeRoy, arguably one of the hottest writers to hit the scene since the terrific Chuck Palahniuk of Fight Club fame. LeRoy, a reclusive, 23 year old San Francisco based writer who was once a truck stop hustler, wrote the first screenplay draft for Elephant, Gus Van Sant's Columbine-inspired movie that won the Palme d'Or at Cannes, a script which Van Sant later discarded. Not to worry, though: You'll spot copies of novels by LeRoy, whose work evokes comparisons to Carson McCullers, Jean Genet and Tennessee Williams, being read in L.A.'s hippest coffee houses and hangouts. And next year, you'll begin seeing movie versions of them. XXX actress Asia Argento will direct the screenplay she has cowritten from LeRoy's semi-autobiographical collection of interwoven stories, The Heart is Deceitful Above All Things; the film will star Winona Ryder, Jeremy Renner and Tom Sizemore. Heart is about a young boy abusedby his druggy, whoring mother and her trucker boyfriend and is sent to live with psychotic, bible-thumping foster parents. Meanwhile, Secretary director Steven Shainberg and writer Jeffrey Hatcher are having a go at LeRoy's dark, moving novel Sarah, about a 12 year old cross dressing boy who becomes a local underground celebrity working as a truck stop hooker.