One more unhappy chapter in the James Frey saga was written Thursday as the author's representative confirmed that Frey had been dropped by his publisher.
Riverhead, a division of conglom publisher the Penguin Group, will not publish the author's next two books, Frey publicist Lisa Kussell told a wire service. Story was first reported by the New York Post on Thursday.
Frey was accused of, and later admitted to, inventing chunks of his memoir "A Million Little Pieces" after a report by investigative Web site the Smoking Gun outed the author as an impostor. Site reported, among other things, that Frey did not serve three months in jail, as his book claimed.
Frey was later the target of an unusually public flogging by Oprah Winfrey. Before the scandal broke, Riverhead had him signed up for two new books in the fall, including one that was to be a so-called novel of Los Angeles. The house did not publish "Pieces."
Riverhead has been comparatively silent since the controversy began, and it did not comment on Frey on Thursday. The house had previously confirmed it was investigating his second book, "My Friend Leonard," which it published.
There's still no word on the fate of Frey's editor, Sean McDonald, whom Frey followed from previous publisher Doubleday. McDonald recently said he was surprised to learn of the author's deception.
Frey also has a movie deal with Warner Bros for "Pieces" and worked on an early draft of the script. That project remains in development.
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