Oprah Enters Frey Fabrication Fracas

Oprah Winfrey is standing by her man.

The Queen of Daytime spoke out in support of A Million Little Pieces author James Frey, whose memoir of addiction she helped to promote into a bestseller by selecting it for her book club, calling allegations that the author lied in the memoir "irrelevant."

Pieces tells the supposedly true story of Frey's struggles with crack and alcohol addiction, his various run-ins with the law and his two-month stint in a Minnesota rehab center.

Thanks in large part to Winfrey's endorsement, Pieces sold 1.77 million copies in 2005, making it the number-two-selling book of the year behind Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince.

Frey has said his book is in the process of being made into a movie, to be coproduced by Brad Pitt and directed by Mark Romanek. Ryan Gosling, Tobey Maguire, Orlando Bloom, Josh Hartnett and Jake Gyllenhaal are just a few of the actors who are reportedly in consideration for the lead role.

"Whoever they're gonna choose, I'll be happy with. I'm much more worried with the studio staying true to the story than I am about who they put in it," Frey told Winfrey during a recent appearance on her show.

"True" and "story" are words that have acquired new significance when linked with the author's work in recent days.

Frey has been under fire after the super sleuths at the Smoking Gun Website unearthed a wealth of information suggesting that accounts of his criminal activities and the amount of time he spent behind bars were exaggerated, if not entirely fabricated.

In the book, Frey claims that he was the target of an FBI drug sting, that he hit a cop with his car while driving drunk and that he was sentenced to three months in a county jail.

But according to the Smoking Gun, which dug up old police records in an attempt to substantiate the author's story, none of those accounts are accurate.

The site also contested Frey's account of his role in a car crash that killed two high school students in his hometown, an accident for which he claims he "got blamed by her parents and by her friends and by everyone else in that f--king hellhole."

Frey claims he contributed to the accident by helping Melissa Sanders, whom he refers to as "Michelle" in the book, deceive her parents so that she could go out on a date with a "football hero." On the date, said "hero" lost his race with an oncoming train, resulting in the death of his date. (Frey omits the other passenger who died in the car--another high school senior named Jane Hall.)

The deadly accident is a pivotal incident in the memoir, but according to Sanders' parents, Frey was only casually acquainted with their daughter and was never linked to the accident in any way.

Frey has admitted in interviews to embellishing his writing for dramatic effect, but has said he "stand[s] by the book as being the essential truth of my life."

However, since the Smoking Gun published its findings, Frey has become the subject of ridicule in the media and across the blogosphere. Rumors even circulated that Random House was taking the unprecedented step of offering full refunds on the discredited book.

The publisher has since denied that it planned to issue any refunds and said it was standing by its author. However, it was announced Thursday that future copies of Pieces will be published with an accompanying author's note, explaining the contents of the test, though what exactly it will say has yet to be released.

On Wednesday night, Frey appeared on Larry King Live to discuss the controversy surrounding the book. Midway through the interview, King took a call from someone identifying herself as "Oprah,"--yes the Oprah--who wanted to offer her thoughts on the matter.

Calling the hullabaloo surrounding the accuracy of Frey's Pieces "irrelevant," Winfrey dismissed the Smoking Gun's findings and resulting backlash as "much ado about nothing."

"What is relevant is that he was a drug addict who spent years in turmoil, from the time he was 10 years old, drinking and--and tormenting himself and his parents," Winfrey said.

"And out of that, stepped out of that history to be the man that he is today, and to take that message to save other people and allow them to save themselves. That's what's important about this book and his story."

In response to the Smoking Gun's allegations, Frey has retained high-powered celebrity attorney Martin Singer and has threatened to sue the Website for damages in the "range of millions of dollars." The site, in turn, has said it plans to "vigorously defend" its work.