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Things keep getting worse for Harvard sophomore Kaavya Viswanathan, who is accused of plagiarizing material for How Opal Mehta Got Kissed, Got Wild, and Got a Life, her novel about an Indian-American teenager and her struggle to get into Harvard.
On Tuesday:
*Little, Brown said it would not publish a second novel it has under contract with Viswanathan, 19. The publisher also said it would not publish the expected revised edition of Opal Mehta.
*The New York Times revealed similarities between Opal Mehta and a second author's work, Can You Keep a Secret? by British writer Sophie Kinsella, published in 2004. Kinsella declined to comment Tuesday.
*The Record of Bergen County said it would review news articles Viswanathan wrote for the daily newspaper in northern New Jersey while she was an intern in 2003 and 2004.
Viswanathan's problems began April 23, when the Harvard Crimson reported similarities between Opal Mehta and two books by Megan McCafferty, Sloppy Firsts and Second Helpings.
Last week, Little, Brown publisher Michael Pietsch announced that all copies of Opal Mehta were being pulled from bookstores.
Variety has reported that a planned movie version of Opal from DreamWorks seems unlikely.
Viswanathan has made no comment about the similarities between her book and Kinsella's but said last week that nearly identical passages between her book and McCafferty's novels were "unintentional." She acknowledged reading and loving McCafferty's books and said she had unconsciously "internalized" passages.
When she was 17, the author received $500,000 for Opal and a second novel. Little, Brown has not said whether it hopes to get the advance back.
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