Can I add an entire device as a physical volume in LVM?

Symptom:

You have created a volume group on the entire /dev/sdx device, however, you receive errors from fdisk when you try to look at the device. You may see output similar to the following:

Disk /dev/sdb: 32.2 GB, 32212254720 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 3916 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes

Dis...