By Alexander B. Tresniowski/Reported by Wendy Cole

His stock-in-trade is sifting through sinful confessions, but PHIL DONAHUE was on the wrong side of a scandal last week. In a syndicated essay about his Catholic upbringing, the good-guy talk-show host made up phony names for the nuns he fondly recalled and included a copy of a faked missal inscription. Not exactly a mortal sin, but after a Catholic News Service reporter blew the whistle, enough to force Phil into the confessional. "I changed the names of the nuns to protect the innocent," he said. Donahue's heart was in the right place, though: proceeds from the essay will benefit elderly nuns.