The New York Times reports “A Second Ripple in Plagiarism Scandal” has moved across the pond as a young writer is accused of stealing from a second book by a British author.

Fresh passages in the novel by Harvard sophomore Kaavya Viswanathan, whose book was pulled from stores last week after she acknowledged plagiarizing portions of it, appear to be copied from a second author.

The newly affected author is Sophie Kinsella, who writes under the pen name of Madeleine Wickham, and writes the popular British “Shopaholic” series of girls books. Passages from her book also seem to have been lifted for the “Opal” book.

Can this get any worse for the publicists and PR shop at publisher Little, Brown? Viswanathan offered a lame excuse last week to the Today Show’s Katie Couric and intimated that as an avid reader she may have assimilated Megan McCafferty’s books.

Who’s running crisis management in the Little, Brown PR shop? First of all, why did Viswanathan go on the Today Show and appear to be a dirty rotten liar? Perhaps her agent, Jennifer Rudolph Walsh of the William Morris Agency, should just stay on vacation for a while longer.

Going on the Today Show and not coming clean might as well have been the worst thing Viswanathan could have done. If you’re going to go on a popular morning show, just spill the beans:

“Yep, I stole from those books and 17 others. I did it to make a buck. I’m poor and have to send money home to feed my mom and dad and sisters and brothers and uncles and aunts and 14 cousins. I’m sorry. Sue me.”

That excuse couldn’t be any worse than admitting you might have lifted the passages, but somehow forgot. Now, we have a second example of plagiarism. I suppose if another reader finds a passage lifted from Dan Brown’s Angels and Demons, it will take the cake.