Oprah showed her audience a picture of Simon Cowell from the 80's with long dark hair and a moustache wearing a T shirt with the word "mechanic on it". Simon said: "It's not a great look, is it? God, I had a moustache. And I wasn't even a mechanic!"

Oprah Winfrey is giving away millions on her new hit, "Oprah's Big Give." But the talk queen refuses to share a dime with a Boston mom who claims she gave Winfrey the idea for the show.

Darlene Tracy, a mother of four with no experience in TV producing, claims that, way back in February 2005, she hatched the concept for a reality show called "The Philanthropist," in which contestants are challenged to help the needy.

Tracy claims she sent her pitch to Ellen Rakieten, executive producer of Winfrey's talk show, and that Rakieten and another producer, Jennifer Thornton, wrote back to ask for more details.

Tracy contends she shipped off a fine-tuned business proposal on March 1, 2005. Four months later, Thornton allegedly told Tracy that Oprah's company, Harpo Productions, was going to pass.

Then, in November 2006, Winfrey announced on her show that she was giving money to audience members so they could help their communities. The following month, she and ABC announced they were teaming up for "Big Give." Tracy, representing herself, promptly filed a complaint in U.S. District Court in Boston seeking to stop "Big Give" from airing.

Lawyers for Chicago-based Winfrey argued that Massachusetts wasn't the place to fight this battle. Judge Rya Zobel dismissed Tracy's action, without an opinion.

Tracy has since hired a lawyer and filed an appeal that documents her contact with Winfrey's Harpo Productions and sets forth similarities between "The Philanthropist" and "Big Give."

A Winfrey spokesman tells us: "We agree with the judge that [Tracy's] claims against Harpo Productions, Inc. are without merit."

But could the suit affect Oprah's future deals? We hear that Winfrey and Rakieten have been shopping a companion "Big Give" book. Winfrey is said to have bypassed Random House because its Crown division signed Kitty Kelley to dig dirt on her.

Instead, we hear, she's been talking to Simon & Schuster - but the prospect of having Tracy name the house in her suit has chilled the deal. Reps for the publisher and Harpo insist that there are no plans for a "Big Give" book.

Oprah's spokesman says she's "confident that the Court of Appeals will agree that Tracy has no claim."

A source close to Tracy argues, "Oprah's side has conceded that they didn't have a philanthropy show in development until they got Darlene's pitch. Stealing a show about altruism is more than a little ironic."
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Now she's O-for-two.

A second memoir hailed by Oprah Winfrey's media empire was exposed as a fraud when author Margaret B. Jones - who claimed to be a biracial gang-banger - was revealed as Margaret Seltzer, a well-to-do San Fernando Valley girl.

"Love and Consequences" was published last week to generally rave reviews - and on her MySpace page, Jones/Seltzer trumpeted the plug from O, The Oprah Magazine.

A "startlingly tender memoir," read the enthusiastic blurb.

Uh-O!

Publisher Riverhead Books was forced to recall 19,000 copies of the book yesterday after Seltzer admitted her gripping tale of running drugs for a South Central Los Angeles gang was a work of fiction.

"Riverhead is saddened by this turn of events," the publisher said in a statement. "We feel bad for our readers, Peggy and her family."

Oprah's magazine also backed off its praise. "While it was a great read, we now know that it should have been classified as fiction, rather than as a memoir, said Amy Gross, editor in chief.

"Love and Consequences" was the second memoir revealed as a hoax in the past week - the first came when author Misha Defonseca acknowledged that her 1997 book "Misha: A Memoir of the Holocaust Years" was a fake.

More memorably, author James Frey received a nationally broadcast, verbal spanking from Winfrey two years ago after admitting he invented or exaggerated sections of his best-selling memoir, "A Million Little Pieces."

Winfrey selected Frey's autobiography for her Oprah Book Club audience.

Seltzer, 33, was exposed by her sister, who read a profile of the author last week in The New York Times and then contacted the paper. The Times confronted Seltzer, who was tearful and contrite in admitting the deception.

Riverhead Books canceled a planned book tour for Seltzer. The publisher will offer refunds for anyone who bought the book.

The MySpace page set up by the author was yanked, and the voicemail box at her Oregon home was filled yesterday.

The latest scandal came despite the efforts of Seltzer's editors, who fact-checked the story. Riverhead said Seltzer's duplicity included bogus photos, letters and even fake foster siblings, whom she produced to verify her story.

The hoax demonstrates the difficulty publishers face in separating truth from fiction in memoirs.

"One cannot protect oneself 100% from a dedicated hoaxster any more than one can protect oneself 100% from a dedicated terrorist," said Sara Nelson, editor in chief of Publishers Weekly.
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Discovery Health network will be handed over to Winfrey next year and renamed OWN — the Oprah Winfrey Network. The deal is "the fulfillment of yet another dream for me." Oprah will be chairman. No money changed hands in the deal which
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