WELL, talk shows, blogs and lawyers have all been abuzz in the wake of an expose by the news-reporting website The Smoking Gun on the one of the top selling books of last year, namely by James Frey. The editors of the site undertook some brilliant investigative reporting and found that Frey had lied about ? or embellished ? a significant portion of his supposedly true story and, in the process, conned the universally-adored Oprah Winfrey.

The controversy centres around the fact that the book was published as a memoir and not as fiction and, because of some of its unbelievable content, Oprah endorsed it on her Book Club (incidentally this book was originally rejected as a work of fiction by 17 publishers and only saw the ink of the printer's press when Frey agreed for the manuscript to be published as a supposedly factual memoir. At this point he should have also edited out the fiction, but he didn't.) Anyone knows that Oprah's endorsement is worth millions; it catapults unknowns to the echelons of the New York Times best seller lists and, allows for the lucky author to enter the world of the rich and famous. Quite an accomplishment for a man who tiresomely repeats throughout his dramatic ordeal in a drug and alcohol rehabilitation centre and while the first two monikers fit, it turns out his oh-so-bad criminal past amounts to a few outstanding warrants for public drunkenness and traffic violations.

Big bad James is just a spoiled rich kid from Ohio who couldn't handle his substances. His first trip to the mothership of treatment centers in Minnesota cleans him up, he falls for a fellow addict and lives happily ever after with a seriously revisionist view of his short-lived druggie past. As for the book itself - the writing was appalling. I understand that it was an attempt to mirror his disjointed thought pattern but the endless repetition bored me to tears. However, if you look at Oprah.com - where the average Oprah-induced fan is a middle-aged, middle class, conservative white woman, you will find that most of her base supporters and Oprah herself could not put the book down. Conversely, I have been unable to finish it and I am one of the fastest readers I know (I finish books in two evenings which is why I opt for paperbacks for the most part). So I set out to analyse why so many women, found this such a compelling read and I've deduced that the only people who can't seem to put this book down are those who have led such sheltered lives that his is "extraordinary". I am encouraged that there are one million plus readers who think his life story (even with embellishment and fantasy) is exciting enough to read from cover to cover, because mine, when and if I ever publish, will make Frey's look positively boring. But I better stop before I reveal too much!

Two things that annoy me most about Frey are his hypocrisy and denial.

First he fumes in the book when an ex-junkie, rock star comes back to the rehab to share his story. Frey's description of the rock star leaves us no doubt that it is Steven Tyler of Aerosmith, just as his description of the rehab identifies it as Hazelden. Frey is furious at Tyler's obvious exaggeration of his past drug use. And I would fully agree with him. If, as he apparently claims, Tyler did ingest $5,000 worth of cocaine every day (among other things), the aging star would longsince have joined Janis, Jim Morrison, Jimi Hendrix and others in Rock 'n' Roll Heaven. Frey, infuriated by how "sincerely" the speech is made, imagines beating Tyler up. But now we have Frey spewing precisely the same sort of bullshit to the reading public ? and earning a million little royalty cheques to boot. Folks, when you have hit rock bottom and end up in a treatment centre, the competition evolves into just how bad a drug abuser you were and how much you could consume. It's a very common phenomenon called Junkie Pride and fools no one but the unfortunate sufferer of the affliction.

Predictably, Frey has joined the Hollywood whiners by hiring Martin Singer of Lavely & Singer, the ultimate Beverly Hills entertainment suer, to defend himself against the Smoking Gun's claim he lied and is a liar. This is a no-brainer. Let's not forget Frey's damn mantra because it's no great leap to add liar to those labels.

Tell me folks, how many alcoholic, drug addict, criminals are not liars? Please? Anyone?

I don't think Martin Singer honestly thinks he can win this case, but that won't stop him earning a living.

After all, thanks to the Smoking Gun, we can see the defense's entire case in the "Private & Confidential" letter from Singer, that has been publicly posted for one and all's sheer amusement (go to www.thesmokinggun.com).

Now for the denial. Frey has been clean and sober for the last 11 or so years.

He eschews AA and related 12 step programs as another addiction and claims that he has remained clean and sober alone. That is bull.

From day one in his trashy book we hear about his newest addiction that pops up the minute he is detoxed - her name is Lilly. Yup, it's an all too common way for people to clean up - put down the substances and pick up a love affair. It's commonly known as Sex & Love Addiction and is the reason rehabs separate the men and women.

And finally the irony comes when, near the beginning of the book, Frey repeats the scientific findings that alcoholics and addicts rank higher in intelligence tests than the average person. The rest of the book serves to contradict that finding, at least in his case.

I feel here I have to point out the ultimate irony that Frey is upset thhe expose is threatening to ruin his reputation by proving he wasn't anything like the depraved criminal he portrayed himself as in his book.

Despite all the lies and Frey's claims that, and I paraphrase "the haters are trying to discredit me", he has to be laughing all the way to the bank because the recent expose has generated even more publicity and people are willing to spend some $15 just to see what all the fuss is about.