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We've still got about an hour before Oprah Winfrey's televised caning of Million Little Pieces embellisher James Frey airs on the West Coast. Winfrey, you may remember, recently threw herself between Frey and CNN's Larry King, defending her disgraced book club author from further brutalization at the hands of the skeletal softballer. Since then, the Big O's had a change of heart, and on today's show she finally gives Frey the what-for:

In a live broadcast of "The Oprah Winfrey Show" from her studios in Chicago in which she interviewed Mr. Frey, Ms. Winfrey apologized to her audience for her call to "Larry King Live" earlier this month defending the author. Today she berated Mr. Frey for duping her and her audience.


"I gave the impression that the truth does not matter," Ms. Winfrey said. "I made a mistake." To all of the viewers who called and wrote to her telling her she was wrong to allow Mr. Frey to maintain that his book reflected the "essential truth" of his life even though substantial details were falsified, Ms. Winfrey said, "You are right."

"I feel duped," she said. "I don't know what is true and I don't know what isn't," she said...

Those of you who don't wish to know what will happen on the 3pm show should stop reading here. After speaking the quoted words, a profoundly shaken Winfrey muttered something about how in a world where the truth cannot be discerned from fiction, she might as well believe that her hand is a ham sandwich, and as a demonstration of the futility of making such distinctions, the host attempted to chew off her balled-up fist. Consumed with rage that their icon could be so damaged by Frey's dissembling, Winfrey's audience rose as one, stormed the stage, and proceeded to tear him limb from limb. Thanks to the work of a quick-thinking producer, the graphic mauling was concealed by a still photo of Winfrey hugging Gwyneth Paltrow on a previous show.

Also: Gawker got a look at the live feed of the show this morning and liveblogged the whole event.

[Photo: AP]