• Publisher Nan Talese says she was tricked into going on Oprah. She had agreed to go on an episode discussing truth in America and how it led to the Frey situation, only to be bombarded by the fiery rage of Harpy McHarpo. Sandbagged or not, at least Talese got her teeth capped before the appearance. [NYO]
• Frey's literary and film agent Kassie Evashevski drops him, leaving him cold, lonely, and representation-less. She ends their relationship on an ominous note: "I suspect we haven't heard the last of James Frey." Well, no kidding — obviously this whole kerfuffle is fodder for his next book. [PW]
• Now everyone's coming clean: "My friend Karl and I did not overdose on a combination of cocaine, heroin, and ecstasy. We shared a bottle of Shiraz and fell asleep watching The Suite Life with Zack and Cody." [Banterist]

Our brains are incredibly freyed (fuck, we were trying not to do that) from all the James Frey coverage, even if it is partially our own fault. Nevertheless, our attention has been drawn to a posting on Oprah's message boards. It's a few days old, but still worth noting:

Bad news, Texans: The Dallas leg of Fake Writer James Frey's Motivational Fake Writer Tour, originally scheduled for the Dallas Hyatt Regency this Friday, has been cancelled. The event was being sponsored by a residential treatment center for "indigent mentally ill and chemically addicted adults."

• 3 years later, a resolution to the legendary fake Puma blowjob ads: They were specs from a European off-shoot of Saatchi & Saatchi. And while they weren't supposed to hit the internet, they did wonders for online store sales. [MemeFirst]
• Just in time for Valentine's Day, FreshDirect appeals to singles by suggesting they avoid suicide by gorging on Ben & Jerry's. [Gothamist]
• The queen Scissor Sister goes shopping for sex toys. Big whoop, right? Actually, the big whoop is that someone's taking camera phone pictures in the sex shop. Creepy much? [Two Martini Lunch]
• Saturday's Idiotarod — in which teams race shopping carts from Brooklyn to Manhattan's East River Park — only received minimal NYPD interference (cops just asked the teams to "slow down"). Are we supposed to believe that having shopping cart barrelling at you is much less a public concern than, say, riding the subway pantsless? [NYDN]
• You can question James Frey's honesty, his writing, his story — but don't you dare question his break-dancing skills. [H-P]

• If you just can't relieve yourself of the pain of learning your favorite writer James Frey is merely a Fake Writer, try posting on James Frey Owes Me Money. He's more likely to hear you there than, say, when you're screaming at him on your DVR'd episode of Oprah. [JamesFreyOwesMeMoney]
• So once you've been publically shamed and spanked by Oprah, what do you do next? Why, you go and speak at the Dallas Hyatt Regency! The event is being sponsored by a home for the mentally ill and chemically addicted, which touches on a level of irony previously unknown to man. [HotelChatter]
• In case you thought Frey's appearance on Oprah was about his mistake, take note: Oprah said "I" 119 times during the infamous episode. [TMZ]
• The Jews weigh in — oy. [Aish]
• The Brooklyn Public Library reclassifies A Million Little Pieces as fiction. Prospect Park, so progressive. [Galleycat]
• "James, I am your father." [Corporate-Casual]
• Lying to Oprah is easier than you think. [Andy's Blog]

If we seem a little groggy this morning, forgive us — we didn't sleep much at all last night, kept awake by the questions running through our head: Did Oprah go too far yesterday with her hard-ass questioning and truth-and-redemption shtick? Is Frey a pathological liar, or just some dude who fucked up? How much is the publishing industry to blame? If it hadn t been a Book Club book, would this be such a big deal? Can a book s worth exist independent of the author s intent? And how did they get all those little sprinkles to stick on that guy s hand?

As you likely expected, James Frey vs. Oprah post-game analysis dominated most of last night's news, with our darling Anderson Cooper devoting an entire hour to the matter with his dapper guest, Smoking Gun editor William Bastone. Much of the time was spent replaying Oprah footage, especially the part where a shocked Oprah and her studio audience are visibly hurt to learn that Frey fabricated details about his love, Lilly, and her suicide.

The Oprah is not pleased.
So we've carefully watched James Frey's appearance on Oprah — this morning's live-blog was a paraphrased summary, obviously — and we are, of course, completely in awe of the whole thing. Best. Television. Ever. After the jump, our photographic recap.

Oprah Winfrey's awesome power truly knows no bounds. After refusing for the last two-and-a-half weeks to take any responsibility for James Frey's faux-nonfiction, Doubleday & Anchor Books, the Random House division that published A Million Little Pieces finally issued an apology today — timestamped 4:51 p.m., before Oprah was even off the air.

So James Frey is appearing on Oprah this afternoon, but we're lucky to have an honest-to-God sneak preview for you (the show is taping live, right now, in Chicago). We'll keep updating this post as the show progresses.

• Set your DVRs: Fake Writer James Frey and his very real publisher are going on Oprah tomorrow (OPRAH! OHMAGAH! YOU ARE SUUUUCH AN INSPIRATION!) to discuss the controversy surrounding A Million Little Pieces. Over/under on the likelihood that Dr. Phil comes out to talk to Frey about his honesty issues: 40 percent. [Oprah]
• GarbageScout uses Google Maps and cell phone technology to, uh, help you find good garbage. For the brave, this is great for scavenging furniture. For the pervy, it's an excellent tool for finding dirty underwear. [GarbageScout]
• We were in a green room with Bernard Henri-Levy once. He sat screamed en francais on his cell phone the entire time while we tried to enjoy the cheese plate. That being said, we don't intend to read his new book. [Boston Globe]
• The AP keeps some 1,000 pre-written obits on hand. What we wouldn't give to read Paris Hilton's... [E&P]
• Speaking of the Little Skankbot That Could, how can Paris Hilton's lawyers honestly ask for an assessment of Zeta Graff's mental condition? Did they not see how their own client performed on the stand? [CourtTV]
• To be clear, we are NOT making fun of this young girl's Bat Mitzvah or her excitement over reading the Torah. We're happy for her, because she's got her own URL and, even if you weren't cool enough to get invited to her party, you can still download her Bat Mitzvah desktop wallpaper. And the music video. [Jessie's Bat Mitzvah]

• Did Oprah know Frey was full of shit, and when did she know it? Likely before he was on her show, it now seems. [NYT]
• Channel Thirteen honcho to be new PBS chief. Tote bags for everyone! [NYT]
• 156K become paying members of TimesSelect in its first four months; Dowd starts mining list for potential dates. [E&P]
• Tired of tracking just Newhouses and Wassersteins and assorted Sulzbergers? It seems Florios are now invading 4 Times Square, too. [WWD]

How does the New York Times Book Review justify taunting "We told ya so" on the matter of Fake Writer James Frey's memoir like, oh, two freaking weeks after the story was big? They don't really — but as Intern Alexis learns, they make up for it by readily employing the word "twaddle," which is so faux-naughty that it totally makes up for any annoyingly late-breaking Frey thoughts. After the jump, Alexis twaddles her way through this week's Review.

BREAKING:

Earlier today we posted the Times Book Review's bestseller list for next weekend, as currently available at NYTimes.com. It lists A Million Little Pieces as the top-selling nonfiction paperback:

Hey, so long as Oprah is buying that "essential truth" crap, ain't no way Tanenhaus is disagreeing.

• Jesus, whether you believe in him or not, loves you, and that's why he's given you the documents from Paris Hilton's deposition. You knew the bitch was dumb, but you never could have predicted this level of retardation. It's medical, really.
• The transcript for Colin Farrell's sex tape makes our hearts surge with hope. Just like we felt the first time we saw Bridget Jones' Diary.
• We expect NYC restaurants to be filthy, but Soho House? Oh, the $1300/year horror of it all!
• We've seen promo posters for The Heart is Deceitful Above All Things, based on the book by Fake Writer JT Leroy — and the marketing department behind them clearly has no clue what the fuck is going on.
• Opinionistas writer Melissa Lafsky is revealed. Now that you know her name, you can also know she's the estranged step-sister of Jordan Catalano!
• William Shatner returns to his true calling as an awards show host, which naturally ups the worth of his kidney stone to $25K.
• Packs of cigarettes seem to be falling from the sky, for reasons we can't quite figure out. Either some sneaky guerrilla marketing is afoot, or God has taken pity on your habit.
• Your job sucks. Get a new one with Gawker Jobs.
• Stop reading James Frey, and defintely stop reading him in public.
• Tina Brown takes a "break" from the Washington Post. Will we ever see her again? Or has she lost her will to buzz?!

On Fake Writer James Frey's website, an update announces that the BigJimIndustries.com is currently down not because of detractors, but because traffic was affecting access to other sites that share the same network. "We basically forced James to take the site down," it reads.

Click to enlarge.

Now that you know A Million Little Pieces certainly doesn't contain James Frey's life story, as you'd long thought it did, we can imagine you must be desperate for any sort of printed-and-bound account of Frey's real past. This is why we're pleased to direct you to America's best stomping ground for obsessive collectors of useless ephemera: eBay. Where you can now find the 1986 yearbook from Frey's high school.