Oprah would do well to lavish herself in Tom Cruise publicity, since this month's Vanity Fair paints a scathing picture of her. No longer is she the innocent victim of the James Frey scandal, but rather a punch puller, duping publisher Nan Talese and the author into appearing on her show to call them out on the falsified memoir.

As Talese herself argued last year, and the Evgenia Peretz's VF article confirms, Talese originally agreed to appear on Oprah's show to take part in a "Truth in America" panel; she'd deliver the publishing industry's expertise. But when she and Frey arrived at the studio, the show's focus was switched on them, and that they'd be discussing the Frey scandal. According to one source we spoke with, they were alerted to the change as they were walking on to the studio stage, with no advance notice.

Meanwhile, as Jossip relayed last week, Frey never pitched his publisher, Talese/Doubleday, as a memoirist.

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At a literary event last weekend, James Frey publisher Nan Talese picked at old wounds. Old Oprah wounds.

Talese had apparently come to the Mayborn Literary Nonfiction Writers Conference of the Southwest in Grapevine, Texas, ready to rumble. In an afternoon discussion on Saturday, Talese brought up the issue of Frey's memoir. Saying she was unapologetic about publishing the book, Talese said in her genteel, mid-Atlantic accent that it was Oprah who needed to apologize for her behavior in the affair. Talese argued that Frey, in the gripping manuscript he submitted, had described himself as a liar, a cheater and an addict, and under those circumstances she did not believe she was reading "the New Testament," where every word was avowed truth. She described Oprah as exhibiting "fiercely bad manners."

Oh, it gets better.

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