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The cliche goes that a “a picture is worth a thousand words.”  But for Rory Freedman and Kim Barnouin, authors of the best-selling diet book Skinny Bitch, it’s “a picture of Posh is worth a six-figure book deal.”

The duo, whose healthy-eating guide debuted over 18 months ago but has only now hit the charts as a best-seller, have just signed a fat deal for a Skinny Bitch cookbook and an eating guide for pregnant women.

And why is their irreverent take on vegan eating suddenly all the rage? Because of Posh, of course. Victoria Beckham, the sometimes pop star most famous for marrying soccer god David Beckham and scowling at the paparazzi, was photographed carrying the book a few weeks ago.

There isn’t anyone who attributes its big splash since then to anything but the influence of the thin-as-a-paper-cut songstress, whose haircut makeover of Tom Cruise fembot Katie Holmes has also become quite popular at hair salons nationwide (just ask for “The Posh”).

I mean, it certainly can’t be the book’s content.

I’m not bashing the vegan lifestyle by any stretch, whatever people want to do to stay healthy is their own perogative. But this book is hardly for the mainstream, carnivorous public. Among the rules of the Skinny Bitch universe:

No meat, no dairy, no poultry, no seafood, no eggs, no fake eggs, no fake anything, no chemicals, no cigarettes, no coffee, no caffeinated tea, no decaf tea unless it’s green and organic, no alcohol except organic wine (and even then drink sparingly), no soda, no diet soda, no juice that is not 100% juice, no flavored water, no artificial sweeteners, no refined sugar, no nothing, ever, even a little…

So basically, all you’re left with on this diet is fruit and salad. Oh, and fruit salad. And, um, tofu. Yum! (Yes, yes, I know there’s more to vegan eating than that, please don’t email me!)

Oh, and it also seems to carry the message that anyone who would dare put a bit of junk food in their mouths is both

a) A “fat pig,” and

b) Most definitely going to die, like really, at any minute

I appreciate the book’s no-nonsense approach, and it is funny (refreshing for a diet book), and let’s just say I definitely learned a thing or three about the meat industry in this country (things really haven’t progressed much since good old Upton Sinclair, eh?). And for anyone interested in starting a vegan lifestyle? Definitely, I recommend it.

But how could a book that insults its readers, promotes the strictest diet imaginable, and that, based on the prices at the health food section of my grocery store, is also pretty damn expensive to follow, suddenly become the biggest craze in the country?

Heck, even I bought the damn thing, and I doubt very much I was the target audience; you’ll be hard pressed to find me following any diet that requires me to give up the daily coffee–not to mention beers at the pub and the occasional smoke (not that I smoke, um, ever) (hi, Mom!).

If the Posh photo op was orchestrated, I say bravo to the marketing genius behind it. And I loved this idea from a Huffington Post piece on the Posh phenomenon. They recommend dropping low-selling literary tomes into the hands of every paparazzi magnet, no matter how empty-headed:

Talk about win-win. These party girls, who have endured more than their share of bad press of late, might finally be taken a bit more seriously. As for you, you haggard wordsmiths, you’ll soon be on the fast track to the morning talk-show circuit and a high-six-figure book deal.

So, get busy. Throw down that Publishers Weekly. People magazine awaits.

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