Pierce Mattie Public Relations New York & Los Angeles

Oprah has helped dozens of authors turn their literary products into bestsellers in a matter of an hour. Through her legendary Book Club, Oprah has brought her loyal viewers to a literary high with tear-jerkers, enlightening and memoirs. Her latest addition to the Oprah Book Club, “A Million Little Pieces” is a memoir of author James Frey’s addition and recovery. After being well embraced on Oprah, Frey divulged the audience in his bodily addictions and his eventual emotional ride to recovery.

Frey received raves about the book and a few questioned the validity. As a guest on “Larry King Live,” Frey was questioned about the extreme cases of addition and survival. As a saving angel, Oprah telephoned into the station to support him and labeled the alleged embellishments as “much ado about nothing.”

Stunning audiences worldwide, Oprah once again invited Frey to her daytime show. Moved to tears and overall disgusted, Oprah seemed hurt that he not only “duped” her but also her viewers who she refers to as her family in believing in him. "I feel duped," Winfrey told Frey on her talk show. "But more importantly, I feel that you betrayed millions of readers."

Frey’s response: “In order to get through the experience of the addition, I thought of myself as being tougher than I was and badder than I was, and it helped me cope,” commented Frey. “And when I was writing the book, instead of being as introspective as I should have been, I clung to that image.”

What does this mean for Frey? Don’t lie – especially to Oprah Winfrey! Duh! The future of his career seems tough but his book sales have not suffered as of writing. His book, selling over 1 million copies (Thank You Ms. Winfrey!) is still in the top five selling books for Amazon.com. Frey has recently signed a two-book contract with Riverhead Books for a novel about contemporary Los Angeles in 2007. All in all – Frey is making money and has received so much press in the last few weeks that this little fictional memoir seems like it was worth the embellishments. Haven’t we all “embellished” a little? Bottom line – I’m more interested in this memoir than I was after Oprah’s first discussion.