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.

Answering an author’s questionnaire, filled out month’s prior to publication, Frey wrote, “I think of this book more a work of art or literature than I do a work of memoir or autobiography.” It was his publisher who marketed the book as a memoir, though he was certainly complicit in the approach; he did go on Oprah to promote it that way.

So the Frey saga continues, just in time to promote Bright Shiny Morning.