Oprah Winfrey

[princess 1,712]

TV Guide.comAccording to a Parade magazine poll, 76 percent of respondents believe Oprah Winfrey was wrong to conspicuously exclude Whoopi Goldberg from her Legends Ball....

[desperatelyseekingthetruth 0]

She excluded Whoopi, and included Mariah C.

[Persiaa 0]

TV Guide.comAccording to a Parade magazine poll, 76 percent of respondents believe Oprah Winfrey was wrong to conspicuously exclude Whoopi Goldberg from her Legends Ball....

Hmm, why did she do that?

[Queen G 0]

Oprah Says She and Friend Not GayMonday, July 17, 2006 3:40 PM EDTThe Associated PressNEW YORK (AP) — Oprah Winfrey and her friend Gayle King want to be clear: they're not gay.In the August issue of O, the Oprah Magazine, the talk-show host explains that some people misunderstand her close friendship with King."I understand why people think we're gay," she says. "There isn't a definition in our culture for this kind of bond between women. So I get why people have to label it — how can you be this close without it being sexual?"In a long article, Winfrey, 52, and King converse about their 30 years of friendship and "four-times-a-day phone calls." King, who hosted "The Gayle King Show" in 1997, is an editor of O, the Oprah Magazine.The two friends say they would have no problem telling the public if they were in a sexual relationship."The truth is, if we were gay, we would tell you, because there's nothing wrong with being gay," says King.Says Winfrey: "Something about this relationship feels otherworldly to me, like it was designed by a power and a hand greater than my own. Whatever this friendship is, it's been a very fun ride."

[heybabes 0]

Oprah Says She and Friend Not GayMonday, July 17, 2006 3:40 PM EDTThe Associated PressNEW YORK (AP) — Oprah Winfrey and her friend Gayle King want to be clear: they're not gay.In the August issue of O, the Oprah Magazine, the talk-show host explains that some people misunderstand her close friendship with King."I understand why people think we're gay," she says. "There isn't a definition in our culture for this kind of bond between women. So I get why people have to label it — how can you be this close without it being sexual?"In a long article, Winfrey, 52, and King converse about their 30 years of friendship and "four-times-a-day phone calls." King, who hosted "The Gayle King Show" in 1997, is an editor of O, the Oprah Magazine.The two friends say they would have no problem telling the public if they were in a sexual relationship."The truth is, if we were gay, we would tell you, because there's nothing wrong with being gay," says King.Says Winfrey: "Something about this relationship feels otherworldly to me, like it was designed by a power and a hand greater than my own. Whatever this friendship is, it's been a very fun ride."

Thanks you Ho, youse to ugly to be a Lesbian anyways. I can't stand her

[MC 1]

I'm not buying it. They must have gotten caught or something. Damage control before the fact. Why else would she talk about having a connection she can't describe other than to say "otherworldly" and that some people "misunderstand" their close friendship?Are we going to see another one who became so full of herself that she really thinks we're stupid? Pass the popcorn.

[Hair Annoyed 0]

I suspected Oprah might be gay long before I had even heard of Gayle King. It wasn't her relationship with Gayle that I thought was weird and undefinable. In fact, I think that extremely close platonic freindship between women is assumed to be the norm. It was her relationship with STEDMAN that I thought was weird. The conclusion that I (and apparently many others) came to is: maybe they're both gay. Only then did I wonder who her girlfriend might be if she really were gay. Because she repeatedly said Gayle was her bestfriend, Gayle seemed like the most likely prospect.

[HephaistionLo 0]

They must have gotten caught or something. Damage control before the fact.

Exactly. She's never said anything before. Why now?

[Hoyaheel 1,874]

In Ted C's column today, he said Oprah's been denying she was gay for years (I noticed Ted did NOT say "Oprah is not gay". He said she's been denying she was gay......)

[smartypants23 0]

Oprah helped me realize I was wearing the wrong bra size...and for that I will be forever grateful.

[Cutielb99 0]

OPRAH 'GAY' DENIAL BACKFIRES

Page Six

 

July 23, 2006 -- OPRAH Winfrey made a big mistake by "outing" herself and Gayle King as non-lesbians in the latest issue of her O magazine, according to public-relations experts.

 

The "best friends" - "after 30 years of four-times-a-day phone calls" - deny "those tabloid rumors" that they are gay, not that there's anything wrong with that.

 

"I've told nearly everything there is to tell. All my stuff is out there," Oprah says. "People think I'd be so ashamed of being gay that I wouldn't admit it? Oh, please."

 

But public-relations gurus - most of whom declined to speak on the record - say the maneuver will backfire by only bringing more attention to the rumors.

 

"There must be a billion people who would have never even suspected it," said Bobby Zarem, the legendary spin-master portrayed by Al Pacino in "People I Know" (2003). "This brings attention to something that the average person never thought about. It's a huge, huge mistake."

 

Winfrey's and King's denial also gave rival TV hosts the chance to lambaste Oprah with skepticism and snide innuendo.

 

"When did we reach the place where celebrities feel the need to announce this?" wondered MSNBC's king of snarkiness, Keith Olbermann, on Tuesday night.

 

"The evidence, theoretically, for Oprah being gay is really strong," replied Tom O'Neil of In Touch Weekly. "Oprah is really butch. If you took a good drag queen, a good drag queen version of Oprah, and put it next to Oprah, you would not be able to tell these two apart.

 

"No. 2, she and Stedman [Graham], they've never gotten married," O'Neil told Olbermann. "Come on, we know what that's about. No. 3, her friendship with Gayle, she keeps saying, has been a 'fun ride.' Well, I think I know what it's about when two chicks say they are having a fun ride."

 

The next night, Joe Scarborough, on the same low-rated cable channel, implied that Winfrey, if she were gay, would have very good reason to hide the fact.

 

"Yes, right, she could just come out and announce it. She'd still be the queen of daytime TV, right? Middle-class women across America would still follow her, right?" Scarborough scoffed.

 

His guest, Tina Dirmann, of Star magazine said, "They want to know why people think they're gay? Because they talk about how much they love and how much they mean to each other all the time . . . Oprah calls their friendship 'otherworldly' . . . We're all sick of it at this point."

 

---

 

"The evidence, theoretically, for Oprah being gay is really strong," replied Tom O'Neil of In Touch Weekly. "Oprah is really butch. If you took a good drag queen, a good drag queen version of Oprah, and put it next to Oprah, you would not be able to tell these two apart.

 

"No. 2, she and Stedman [Graham], they've never gotten married," O'Neil told Olbermann. "Come on, we know what that's about. No. 3, her friendship with Gayle, she keeps saying, has been a 'fun ride.' Well, I think I know what it's about when two chicks say they are having a fun ride."

 

Oh wow. This guy sounds like a real jackass.

Edited July 23, 2006 by Cutielb99

[Cutielb99 0]

"When I was 22 years old and working as a TV anchor in Baltimore, there was a young production assistant in the newsroom, Gayle King. One night there was a snowstorm and she couldn't get home. I said, 'Hey, you can spend the night at my house.' She said, 'I don't have any panties.' I said, 'Well, I do. I have clean panties, and once I give 'em to you, you don't have to give 'em back.'"- Oprah Winfrey

[Cutielb99 0]

In Ted C's column today, he said Oprah's been denying she was gay for years (I noticed Ted did NOT say "Oprah is not gay". He said she's been denying she was gay......)

I sometimes go back and read the old Tea with Ted chats, and he says lots of juicy stuff about folks. He made several comments on Oprah years ago...

 

Oprah helped me realize I was wearing the wrong bra size...and for that I will be forever grateful.

Me too!!! And she also suggested some jeans that made my butt look fantastic!

[MC 1]

And she also suggested some jeans that made my butt look fantastic!

What brand are they?

[BobbyD 2]

Rachael Ray's Special Guest: OprahTUESDAY AUGUST 15, 2006 07:30PM ESTBy Liza HammWhen Rachael Ray's new talk show kicks off in September, one very special guest will be in the house: Ray's friend and mentor, Oprah Winfrey. On Aug. 3, Winfrey, 52, made a surprise stop at the New York City set of Ray's show, where she hung out for the entire taping, met the audience, got a full tour of the set and shared some on-air coffee talk with Ray. Afterwards, Winfrey, who rarely appears on other people's shows, headed to the airport for a flight to South Africa, where she is working on her Leadership Academy for Girls, due to open in January. Ray's hour-long syndicated program, The Rachael Ray Show, premieres Sept. 18. The episode with Winfrey will air during its first week. However, the show will not be celebrity-driven. Ray, 36, says she expects guests, including her husband, lawyer and musician John Cusimano, to relax and get their hands dirty by cooking with her or playing foosball. The show is coproduced by King World and Winfrey's Harpo production company. On advice Winfrey has given her, Ray said last month, "She tells me to be myself. She doesn't chime in or call up and say, 'This is how you can be more like Oprah.' She's pretty busy with her own job."

[Cutielb99 0]

TV Guide.comAccording to a Parade magazine poll, 76 percent of respondents believe Oprah Winfrey was wrong to conspicuously exclude Whoopi Goldberg from her Legends Ball....

From Liz Smith, 8.17.06:ONE OF my constant readers, Beth Rimmels (she says she's a constant reader!) points out Whoopi Goldberg wasn't alone in being excluded from Oprah Winfrey's "Legends" gala. What about Nichelle Nichols, who was the gorgeous Lt. Uhura on the original "Star Trek"? Beth opines: "Two years before Diahann Carroll starred in 'Julia,' Nichols was the first black woman featured on a television series and was part of the first interracial kiss on TV, with William Shatner. Ms. Nichols almost left 'Star Trek' after the first season, unsure if being in a science-fiction series really 'mattered.' She stayed when Dr. Martin Luther King overheard her at a party and insisted she stay because her role showed that not only would African-Americans survive and achieve true equality, but thrive . . . how that doesn't qualify as a legend, I don't know! Too few people remember Ms. Nichols . . . much like many people have forgotten what a pioneer Ricardo Montalban was in breaking down barriers for Hispanic actors."OK! Here's to Nichelle Nichols, a legend if there ever was one. And the story of King encouraging her is very like Lena Horne's tale of her misery at MGM, complaining to Count Basie about wanting to leave. "You have to stay, sister," he told her. "We don't get this chance very often. You have to stay and be the best you can be." Lena did return to MGM, and was the very best she was allowed to be. The Lady found her real career, and a measure of equality, on the European and American concert stages, posh supper clubs and Broadway.

[Cutielb99 0]

Oprah Leaves Free School Under Africa’s Chair

Us Weekly

 

 

Talk show host Oprah Winfrey has named the first 73 girls to be admitted to the South African school she has helped build and where she will occasionally teach via satellite, BBC News reports.

 

Winfrey’s charity has contributed $10 million to the Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy for Girls, in Meyerton, which is due to open next year.

 

It will eventually teach 450 girls who show academic talent and leadership but whose families cannot afford schooling. The school aims to utilize advanced communication technology that will allow Winfrey to teach from Chicago.

 

“The school will teach girls to be the best human beings they can ever be,” she has said. “It will train them to become decision-makers and leaders; it will be a model school for the rest of the world.”

Edited August 22, 2006 by Cutielb99

[fykeylicious 1,099]

Oprah Winfrey Scammers Cash In

 

Scammers have used Oprah Winfrey's name to try and con fans out of thousands

of dollars.

 

500 people turned up at Recreation Hall in Grahamstown, South Africa, on

Friday (08.25.06) after being told that if they paid just $1.40 Oprah

Winfrey would pay them $168 a month for 10 years.

 

The organization named on contracts handed out at the venue - The Sebenza

Women's Empowerment Cooperative Ltd - asked for participants' bank details

and other "requirements for the improvements of the applicant's life".

 

South African police explained: "This process is believed to have started

earlier this week.

 

"By word of mouth, the community were informed of this easy way of making

money."

 

Officers have so far questioned eight people in connection with the scam,

however, no one has been arrested or charged.

 

It appears the con artists used a visit by the talk show host, renowned for

her generosity, to the region to prey on locals.

 

Meanwhile, last Friday (08.25.06) Oprah interviewed prospective students for

the newly built Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy for Girls, which she has

helped set up south of Johannesburg.

 

She admitted all 73 applicants to the school, to which her Leadership

Academy Foundation has already contributed $40 million.

 

source: hollywood rag

[fykeylicious 1,099]

Talk show host Oprah Winfrey plans to be in her birthplace of Kosciusko to dedicate a state-of-the-art Boys & Girls Club she helped sponsor.

 

The estimated $5 million facility houses a gymnasium, computer lab and garden.

 

"We know how valuable her time is and happy that she is giving us a little of it to come down here," said Jimmy Cockroft, mayor of the city of 7,334.

 

Paul Powers, vice president of special projects for The Oprah Winfrey Boys & Girls Club of Kosciusko and Attala County, said the facility will be used mainly for after-school activities for boys and girls 5-18 years old. After homework is finished, children can participate in arts programs or take advantage of the building's gymnasium.

 

The facility should open in a few weeks.

 

Construction began in October 2004 on the 32,000-square-foot facility that was funded by The Oprah Winfrey Foundation, said Powers. The facility's garden will be used to teach children to grow their own food.

 

Children can prepare some of the food in a kitchen area, designed by Winfrey's personal chef, Art Smith, who also will be on hand for the dedication Monday. Powers said children will have access to audio and visual equipment to film themselves and other chefs preparing food. The footage could be made into DVDs and sold as a fundraiser, Powers said.

 

The project began in 1998, after the talk-show host visited Kosciusko to dedicate a Habitat for Humanity home she funded, Cockroft said. After meeting with the community, Winfrey decided that a Boys & Girls Club would be the most beneficial thing she could do for young people.

 

Source: Yahoo! News

[Freckles 79]

Winfrey’s charity has contributed $10 million

Winfrey's charity means the charity that Oprah organizes with her viewers' donations, right? I'm not saying it's wrong - I applaud anyone who gets others to donate money to worthy causes. But, then I wish she wouldn't call it "her" charity, and name the school after herself.

[k80cat 0]

I think there is a difference between the Oprah Winfrey Foundation and the Angel Network, although I think the network is a part of the foundation. Usually when it's money from the Angel Network, she says so.

[Cutielb99 0]

Oprah makes visit to Miss. birthplace

Winfrey returns to original hometown to dedicate a new youth center

Associated Press

 

KOSCIUSKO, Miss. - Oprah Winfrey's new youth club opened Tuesday, a day after she returned to her native Kosciusko to dedicate the 32,000-square-foot facility she helped sponsor.

 

"What I have learned is you dream a big dream and you hand that dream over to a power that is greater than yourself. I call it God," Winfrey told some 400 people at the dedication of The Oprah Winfrey Boys & Girls Club of Kosciusko Attala County.

 

"God can dream a bigger dream for you than you can dream for yourself," the 52-year-old host of "The Oprah Winfrey Show" said at Monday's dedication.

 

 

Winfrey thanked her father, Vernon Winfrey, and her grandmother Hattie Mae Lee, who raised her in Kosciusko.

 

"She used to say to me she hoped I would grow up to be able to get some good white folks, like she had some good white folks," Winfrey said of her grandmother. "What I don't think she ever imagined is that I would grow up and get some good white folks working for me."

 

Winfrey said her father understood the importance of education.

 

"Had I not been sent to live with my father I would probably have five or six kids by now," she said, shortly before turning to him. "Without you my life would not have happened nor would this have happened, so thank you, Mr. Winfrey."

 

The center, which was built through Winfrey's foundation, expected to welcome 225 children this week.

[fykeylicious 1,099]

It's hard work being a do-gooder. Oprah traveled all the way to Africa to donate a school for girls (I saw sweat stains under her arms in those pictures) and now she's gone home to Mississippi to dedicate the new Boys and Girls Club she funded and that southern heat almost made her drop!

 

X17

 

 

 

 

[Cutielb99 0]

Oprah & Gayle Heat Things Up

Posted Sep 11th 2006 11:28AM by TMZ Staff

 

Oprah Winfrey nearly fainted from the Mississippi heat on a visit to her hometown last week.

 

 

With temperatures hovering near 90 degrees with 80 percent humidity, Oprah had to sit down and apply a cold compress to keep from passing out.

 

Oprah and her best gal pal, Gayle King, were in the talk show Queen's birthplace of Kosciusko to dedicate a state-of-art Boys & Girls Club, which Winfrey funded.

 

This is the most heated we've seen Ms. Oprah since the whole James Frey debacle back in January.

[Cutielb99 0]

OPRAH: I DON'T WANT TO BE PREZ

Page Six

 

September 17, 2006 -- OPRAH Winfrey is putting the legal kibosh on a grass-roots campaign to put her in the White House. Her lawyers have ordered Kansas City businessman Patrick Crowe, who has spearheaded the effort for years, to cease and desist using a phone Web site that contains the talk-show queen's name and a toll-free number whose last five digits spell out Oprah - because they are allegedly causing "damage and irreparable injury" to her production company, Harpo. They've also told Crowe, a former math teacher, to pull his book, "Oprah for President: Run Oprah Run," for the same reason. Crowe said: "I'm genuinely puzzled . . . How could asking her to run possibly cause [her] damage and irreparable injury? If Oprah asked you to run for president, would that be a compliment or would you threaten her with legal action?" Winfrey's reps confirmed that her lawyers have written to Crowe asking him to stop, but declined to comment further.