Oprah Winfrey
Oprah Gail Winfrey (born January 29, 1954) is the multiple Emmy-winning host of The Oprah Winfrey Show — the highest rated talk show in television history, an influential book critic, an Academy Award-nominated actress, and a best-selling magazine publisher. According to Forbes magazine, she was the richest African-American of the 20th century and the world's only black billionaire by 2004.[1]
Early life
Winfrey was born in Kosciusko, Mississippi to a Baptist family. Her parents were unmarried teenagers. She was originally named Orpah Gail Winfrey, after the Bible's Book of Ruth. There are conflicting reports as to how her name became "Oprah". According to a 1991 interview with the Academy of Achievement, Oprah said that when she was born, people didn't know how to pronounce "Orpah", so they put the "P" before the "R" in every place else other than the birth certificate.[2] However, there is the account that the midwife transposed letters while filling out the newborn's birth certificate.[3] Her mother, Vernita Lee, was a housemaid, and her father, Vernon Winfrey, was a coal miner and later worked as a barber before becoming a city councilperson. Winfrey's father was in the Armed Forces when she was born. After her birth, Oprah's mother travelled north and Winfrey spent her first six years living in rural poverty with her Grandma Hattie Mae. Winfrey's grandmother taught her to read before the age of three and took her to the local church, where she was nicknamed "The Preacher" for her ability to recite Bible verses. When Oprah was little her grandmother would take a switch and would hit her with it when she didn't do chores or if she misbehaved in any way.
At age six, Winfrey moved to a Milwaukee inner city ghetto with her mother, who was less supportive and encouraging than her grandmother. Winfrey has stated that she was raped by her cousin, uncle, and a family friend. Despite her dysfunctional home life, Oprah skipped two of her earliest grades, became the teacher's pet, and by the time she was thirteen received a scholarship to attend a prestigious all white high school in the suburbs. Although Winfrey was very popular, she couldn't afford to go out on the town as frequently as her rich classmates. Like a lot of teenagers at the end of the 1960s, Oprah rebelled, ran way from home, and ran the streets. At age 14 her frustrated mother sent her to live with her father in Nashville, Tennessee. Vernon was strict but encouraging, and made her education a priority. Winfrey became an honors student, was voted "Most Popular Girl" and joined her High School Speech Team, and she placed 2nd in the nation in Dramatic interpretation. She won an oratory contest which secured her a full scholarship to Tennessee State University, a historically Black institution, where she studied communications. At age 18, Winfrey won the Miss Black Tennessee beauty pageant.
Winfrey's grandmother has said that ever since Oprah could talk, she was "on stage". In her youth she played games interviewing her corncob doll and the crows on the fence of her family's property. But her true media career began at age seventeen, working at a local radio station while attending Tennessee State University.
Working in local media, she was both the youngest news anchor and the first black female news anchor at Nashville's WTVF-TV. She moved to Baltimore's WJZ-TV in 1976 to co-anchor the six o'clock news. She was then recruited to join Richard Sher as co-host of WJZ's local talk show, People Are Talking, which premiered on August 14, 1978. She also hosted Dialing for Dollars there as well.
Career and success
Television
In 1983, Winfrey relocated to Chicago, Illinois to host WLS-TV's low-rated half-hour morning talk show, AM Chicago. The first episode aired on January 2, 1984. Within months after Winfrey took over, the show went from last place in the ratings to overtaking Donahue as the highest rated talk show in Chicago, was renamed The Oprah Winfrey Show, expanded to a full hour and broadcast nationally beginning September 8, 1986. Having surpassed Donahue in the local market Winfrey quickly doubled her national audience, her show replacing his as the number one day-time talk show in America. Their much publicised contest was the subject of enormous scrutiny.
Time magazine wrote, "Few people would have bet on Oprah Winfrey's swift rise to host of the most popular talk show on TV. In a field dominated by white males, she is a black female of ample bulk. As interviewers go, she is no match for, say, Phil Donahue...What she lacks in journalistic toughness, she makes up for in plainspoken curiosity, robust humor and, above all empathy. Guests with sad stories to tell are apt to rouse a tear in Oprah's eye....They, in turn, often find themselves revealing things they would not imagine telling anyone, much less a national TV audience. It is the talk show as a group therapy session."
TV columnist Howard Rosenberg said "She's a roundhouse, a full course meal, big, brassy, loud, aggressive, hyper, laughable, lovable, soulful, tender, low-down, earthy and hungry. And she may know the way to Phil Donahue's jugular."
Newsday's Les Payne observed, "Oprah Winfrey is sharper than Donahue, wittier, more genuine, and far better attuned to her audience, if not the world."
Martha Bayles of the Wall Street Journal wrote, "It's a relief to see a garbmonger with a fond but realistic assessment of her own cultural and religious roots."
In the mid-1990s Winfrey adopted a much less tabloid format doing shows about heart-disease in women, geopolitics with Lisa Ling, spirituality and meditation, and gift-giving and home decorating shows. She often interviews celebrities on issues that directly involve them in some way, such as cancer, charity work, or substance abuse. In addition, she interviews ordinary people who have done extraordinary things or been involved in important current issues.
During a lawsuit against Winfrey (see Influence), she hired Dr. Phil McGraw's company Courtroom Sciences, Inc. to help her analyze and read the jury. Dr. Phil made such an impression on Winfrey that she invited him to appear on her show. He accepted the invitation and was a resounding success. McGraw appeared on The Oprah Winfrey Show for several years before launching his own show, Dr. Phil, in 2002, which was created by Winfrey's production company, Harpo Productions in partnership with Paramount which produced the show.
Perhaps Oprah's most famous recent show was the first episode of the nineteenth season of The Oprah Winfrey Show in the fall of 2004. During the show each member of the audience received a new G6 sedan; the 276 cars were donated by Pontiac as part of a publicity stunt.
Winfrey recently made a deal to extend her show until the 2010 – 2011 season, by which time it will have been on the air for twenty-five years. She plans to host 140 episodes per season, until her final season, when it will return to its current number, 130. [1]
The 2004 Nobel Peace Prize Concert was hosted by Oprah and Tom Cruise. There were musical performances by Cyndi Lauper, Andrea Bocelli, Joss Stone, Chris Botti, Diana Krall, Tony Bennett and others. The concert was broadcasted in the United States on Dec. 23, 2004 by E!. An unofficial Oprah fanclub, also organized a petition drive [2] in 2005, to nominate Oprah for the Nobel Peace Prize.
As well as hosting and appearing on television shows, Winfrey co-founded the women's cable television network Oxygen. She is also the president of Harpo Productions (Oprah spelled backwards).
Film
In 1985, Winfrey co-starred in Steven Spielberg's epic film adaptation of Alice Walker's award-winning novel The Color Purple. She earned immediate acclaim as Sofia, the distraught housewife. The following year Winfrey was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress, but she lost to Anjelica Huston. Many believe this was due in part to the Academy's "anti-Spielberg" bias, thinking the film would have been better directed by an African-American. The Color Purple has now been made into a Broadway musical and opened late 2005, with Oprah credited as a producer.
In October 1998, Oprah produced and starred in the film Beloved, based upon Toni Morrison's Pulitzer Prize winning novel of the same name. To prepare for her role as Sethe, the protagonist and former slave, Oprah experienced a 24-hour simulation of the experience of slavery, which included being tied up and blindfolded and left alone in the woods. Critics said this would not even come close to the experience. Despite major advertising, including two episodes of her talk show dedicated solely to the film, and good critical reviews, Beloved opened to poor box-office results, losing approximately $30 million. Many have suggested that the film was too long and complex for the movie going public, and the subject matter too politically sensitive. Despite the films depressing themes, Oprah managed to keep the cast motivated and inspired. "Here we were working on this project with the heavy underbelly of political and social realism, and she managed to lighten things up," said costar Thandie Newton. "I've worked with a lot of good actors, and I know Oprah hasn't made many films. I was stunned. She's a very strong technical actress and it's because she's so smart. She's acute. She's got a mind like a razor blade." (Vogue Magazine Oct, 1998)
In 2005, Harpo Productions released another film adaptation of a famous American novel, Zora Neale Hurston's Their Eyes Were Watching God (1937). The made-for-television film Their Eyes Were Watching God was based upon a teleplay by Suzan-Lori Parks, and starred Halle Berry in the lead female role.
Books and magazines
Winfrey publishes two magazines: O, The Oprah Magazine and O at Home. She has co-authored five books; at the announcement of her future weight loss book (to be co-authored with her personal trainer Bob Greene), it was said that her undisclosed advance fee had broken the record for the world's highest book advance fee, previously held by former U.S. President Bill Clinton for his autobiography My Life.[4]. In 2002 Fortune Magazine called O, the Oprah Magazine the most successful start up ever in the industry. [3]
Online
Oprah.com is a premiere women's lifestyle website, offering advice on everything from the mind, body and spirit to food, home and relationships. It provides comprehensive resources related to The Oprah Winfrey Show and exclusive interactive content based on O, The Oprah Magazine. In addition, the website has unique original content, including Oprah's Book Club, which offers free in-depth reading guides for each book selection, online discussion groups and Q&A sessions with literary experts. In 2003, Winfrey relaunched Oprah's Book Club with an online component and it quickly became the largest book club in the world, attracting more than 670,000 members. That same year, Oprah.com also launched Live Your Best Life, an interactive multimedia workshop based on her sold-out national speaking tour that features Oprah's personal life stories and life lessons along with a workbook of thought-provoking exercises.
Since then, Winfrey has also used Oprah.com to continue her crusade to help those in need and against pedophiles by raising over 3 million dollars for Katrina victims and helping to capture 4 convicted child predators. Oprah.com averages more than 100 million page views and more than three million users per month. The book club has since grown to over 800,000 members.
Radio
On February 9, 2006 it was announced that Oprah signed a $55 million, 3-year contract with XM Satellite Radio to establish a new radio channel. The channel will be called Oprah & Friends and will feature popular contributors to The Oprah Winfrey Show and 'O' Magazine including Nate Berkus, Dr. Mehmet Oz, Bob Greene, Dr. Robin Smith and Marianne Williamson. Oprah & Friends will air 24/7 on XM Radio Channel 156. Oprah's contract requires her to be on air 30 minutes a week, 39 weeks a year. The 30-minute weekly show will feature Oprah with friend Gayle King. Winfrey's audience is extremely loyal and XM hopes that the "Oprah Effect" can have the same effect on XM subscription sales that she does on the New York Times Best Seller list, thanks to her book club. The channel will be broadcast from a new studio at Oprah's Chicago headquarters and is set to air in September 2006.
Future projects
Winfrey's latest television project will be developing and producing a new talk show for popular Food Network celebrity chef, Rachael Ray, which will begin airing sometime in 2006.
Recently, Winfrey has been interviewed several times by Anderson Cooper, with whom she has completed several side projects. This has fueled a rumour that Winfrey and Cooper are planning to make a movie together. These rumors have not been substantiated.
Winfrey is going to voice the part of Gussy the goose in the upcoming Charlotte's Web movie.
There is increasing evidence that Oprah is about to host her biggest and probably most rewarding show of her illustrious career. The show will focus world attention on Zimbabwe, the landlocked Southern African country. Ravaged by HIV/AIDS, with inflation set to reach 2000% by year end (already the highest in the world), recurrent droughts, fuel and food shortages; this will be a compelling show. Reputable institutions such as the University of Zimbabwe will take centre stage as the United States Government has labelled the country an outpost of tyranny. It is anticipated that educating and retaining the country’s best students will halt the looming humanitarian disaster. About two million Zimbabweans have sought economic refuge in neighbouring South Africa, the United Kingdom, Australia, Canada and the United States. A success for the charismatic Winfrey could win her the Noble Prize for peace, as Kofi Annan, Nelson Mandela, Tony Blair and George Bush among others, have failed to resolve the Zimbabwe situation.
Personal life
Winfrey currently lives on "The Promised Land", her 42 acre (170,000 m²) ocean and mountain view estate in Montecito, California, outside of Santa Barbara. Rumors state that Winfrey was at a party the previous owners were throwing and so fell in love with the estate that she was reported to have purchased it by writing a personal check for $50,000,000 USD, although it was not for sale. Winfrey also owns a house in Lavallette, New Jersey.
Winfrey has never married, but it is widely assumed that she has lived with her partner Stedman Graham for almost twenty years and is the mother of adopted orphans who live in Africa. She previously dated movie critic Roger Ebert who she credits with advising her to take her show into syndication. The relationship of Oprah and Stedman has been documented through the years with numerous romantic tabloid articles often accompanied by color spreads of the couple at home and on lavish vacations. Prior to meeting Graham, Winfrey's love life was a lot less stable. A self-described promiscuous teen who was a victim of sexual abuse, Winfrey became a mother at the age of 14, though her son died while still in infancy. A relationship with a married man caused Winfrey to contemplate suicide in her twenties and an ex-lover from that same period tried to write a tell-all book in which he claimed that he and Winfrey smoked crack together.
Her celebrity status notwithstanding, the billionaire Winfrey served in 2004 on a murder-trial jury. The trial was held in Chicago, Illinois, and involved a man accused of murder after an argument over a counterfeit fifty-dollar bill. The jury voted to convict the man of murder.[4] [5]
In June 2005, Winfrey was denied access to the Hermès company's flagship store in Paris, France. Winfrey arrived fifteen minutes after the store's formal closing time, though the store was still very active and high end stores routinely extend hours for VIP customers. Winfrey believed she would have been allowed in the store if she were a white celebrity. "I know the difference between a store that is closed and a store that is closed to me," explained Winfrey. In September 2005, Hermès USA CEO Robert Chavez was a guest on The Oprah Winfrey Show and sincerely apologized for a rude employee.
On December 1, 2005, Oprah appeared on The Late Show with David Letterman to promote the new Broadway musical The Color Purple, of which she was a producer, joining the host for the first time in sixteen years. The episode was hailed by some as the "television event of the decade" and helped Letterman attract his largest audience in more than 11 years: 13.45 million viewers.[6] Although a much-rumored feud was said to have been the cause of the rift, both Winfrey and Letterman balked at such talk. "I want you to know, it's really over, whatever you thought was happening," said Winfrey.
Oprah's show is based in Chicago, Illinois, so she spends time there, specifically in the neighborhood of Streeterville, but otherwise resides in California. Reportedly, she has recently purchased several properties on Maui, Hawaii.
For the 2006 PBS program, African American Lives, Oprah had her DNA tested. This genetic test determined that her maternal line originated among the Kpelle ethnic group, in the area that today is Liberia. It was also determined that she is part Native American (about 8 % according to the test) and East Asian (about 3% according to the test).
Legends Weekend
Legends Weekend was an event created and hosted by Winfrey to help celebrate the achievement of African American women. She was inspired to create the event after receiving a present for her 50th birthday from the actress Cicely Tyson. Winfrey had been touched by the gift, but embarrassed because she had not invited her to her birthday party. To make up for it, Winfrey decided to invite the actress to lunch. After much thinking, she also wanted to invite other guests. She then decided that the event should be on a grand scale and that she should invite other African American women who had been an inspiration to her.
The first event of the weekend was a luncheon held at Winfrey's personal estate, the next night, a formal ball was hosted by Winfrey, and the third event was a gospel brunch with live music. Guests who attended were put into categories of "Legends" and "Youngins".
The 26 legends invited were Maya Angelou, Shirley Caesar, Diahann Carroll, Elizabeth Catlett, Ruby Dee, Katherine Dunham, Roberta Flack, Aretha Franklin, Nikki Giovanni, Dorothy Height, Lena Horne, Coretta Scott King, Gladys Knight, Patti LaBelle, Toni Morrison, Rosa Parks, Leontyne Price, Phylicia Rashad, Della Reese, Diana Ross, Naomi Sims, Tina Turner, Cicely Tyson,Alice Walker, Dionne Warwick and Nancy Wilson
Some of the 45 youngins invited were Ashanti,Tyra Banks,Brandy,Mariah Carey,Natalie Cole,Janet Jackson,Chaka Khan,Halle Berry,Naomi Campbell,Alicia Keysand Mary J. Blige
Each legend was given a pair of diamond earrings, reportedly worth $200,000.[7]
Other prominent guests on hand to join the celebration included Dianne Sawyer, Barbara Walters, Star Jones, Barack Obama, Barbra Streisand, and Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes
Wealth and philanthropy
Born in rural poverty, then raised by a welfare mother in the ghetto, Winfrey became a millionaire at age 32 when her talk show went national. Because of the amount of revenue the show generated, Winfrey was in a position to negotiate ownership of the show and start her own production company. By 1994 the show's ratings were still thriving and Winfrey negotiated a contract that earned her nine figures a year. Considered the richest woman in entertainment by the early 1990s, at age 41 Winfrey's wealth crossed another milestone when with a net worth of $340 million, she replaced Bill Cosby as the only African American on the Forbes 400. Although blacks are 12% of the U.S. population, Winfrey has remained the only black wealthy enough to rank among America's 400 richest people nearly every year since 1995 (BET founder Bob Johnson briefly joined her on the list from 2001-2003 before his ex-wife reportedly acquired part of his fortune [8]).
With a 2000 net-worth of $800 million, Winfrey is believed to have been the richest African American of the 20th century. To celebrate her status as a historical figure, Professor Juliet E.K. Walker of the University of Illinois created the course "Oprah the tycoon".[9]
Forbes' international rich list has listed Winfrey as the world's only black billionaire[10] for the past three straight years and as the first black woman billionaire in world history.[11] Winfrey's 2006 net-worth of $1.4 billion USD placed her as the 562nd richest person in the world.
In 1998, Oprah began Oprah's Angel Network, a charity aimed at encouraging people around the world to make a difference in the lives of underprivileged others. Accordingly, Oprah's Angel Network supports charitable projects and provides grants to nonprofit organizations around the world that share this vision. To date, Oprah's Angel Network has raised more than (US)$51,000,000. (1 Million dollars donated by Jon Bon Jovi on 6/21/06) Oprah personally covers all administrative costs associated with the charity, so 100% of all funds raised go to charity programs. The Angel Network
Although Winfrey's show is known for raising money through her public charity and the cars and gifts she gives away on TV are often donated by corporations in exchange for publicity, behind the scenes Winfrey personally donates more of her own money to charity than any other show business celebrity in America. In 2005 she became the first black listed by Business Week as one of America's top 50 most generous philanthropists, having given an estimated $250 million. [12]. Despite being the 235th richest American in 2005,[13] Winfrey was the 32nd most philanthropic.
Winfrey was the recipient of the first Bob Hope Humanitarian Award at the 2002 Emmy Awards for services to television and film. In 2004, Oprah and her team filmed an episode of her show entitled Oprah's Christmas Kindness, in which Oprah, her best friend Gayle, her partner Stedman Graham, and some crew members travelled to South Africa to bring attention to the plight of young children affected by poverty and AIDS. During the 21-day whirlwind trip, Oprah and her crew visited schools and orphanages in poverty-stricken areas, and at different set-up points in the areas distributed Christmas presents to 50,000 children, with dolls for the girls and soccer balls for the boys. In addition, each child was given a backpack full of school supplies and received two sets of school uniforms for their sex, in addition to two sets of socks, two sets of underwear, and a pair of shoes. Throughout the show, Oprah appealed to viewers to donate money to Oprah's Angel Network for poverty-stricken and AIDS-affected children in Africa, and pledged that she personally would oversee [14] where that money was spent. From that show alone, viewers around the world donated over (US)$7,000,000.
Influence
The Most Influential Woman on the Planet
Oprah Winfrey was called "arguably the world's most powerful woman" by CNN and Time.com [15].Time Magazine named Winfrey one of the 100 people who most influenced the 20th century, as well as one of the 100 most influential people of 2004, 2005, and again in 2006. Winfrey and Bill Gates are the only two people in the world to make all four lists. At the end of the 20th century Life magazine listed Oprah as both the most influential woman and the most influential black of her generation [16] and also called her "America's most powerful woman" in a cover profile. Ladies Home Journal also ranked Oprah number one in their list of the most powerful women in America. In 2003 Winfrey edged out both Superman and Elvis to be named the greatest pop culture icon of all time by VH1. In 2005 Forbes magazine named her the world's most powerful celebrity. Pulitzer Prize winning columnist Maureen Dowd seems to agree with such asessments:
"She is the top alpha female in this country. She has more credibility than the president. Other successful women, such as Hillary Clinton and Martha Stewart, had to be publicly slapped down before they could move forward. Even Condi has had to play the protege with Bush. None of this happened to Oprah - she is a straight ahead success story"[[17]]
Vanity Fair magazine wrote:
"Oprah Winfrey arguably has more influence on the culture than any university president, politician, or religious leader, except perhaps the Pope.[[18]]"
Winfrey's influence reaches far beyond pop-culture and into unrelated industries where many believe she has the power to cause enormous market swings and radical price changes with a single comment. During a show about mad cow disease with Howard Lyman (aired on April 16 1996), Winfrey exclaimed, "It has just stopped me cold from eating another burger!" Texas cattlemen sued her and Lyman in early 1998 for "false defamation of perishable food" and "business disparagement," claiming that Winfrey's remarks subsequently sent cattle prices tumbling, costing beef producers some USD$12 million. On February 26, after a trial spanning over two months in an Amarillo, Texas court in the thick of cattle country, a jury found Winfrey and Lyman not guilty, that they did not act with malice, and were not liable for damages. After the trial, she received a postcard from Rosanne Barr reading, "Congratulations, you beat the meat!" In June 2005 the first case of mad cow disease in a cow native to the United States was detected in Texas. The USDA concluded that it was most likely infected in Texas prior to 1997.[19]
By 2005, Oprah's influence over the public was so great that the American people elected her the greatest woman in American history.[[20]]
Media Counterculture
While Phil Donahue pioneered the tabloid talk show genre, the warmth, intimacy and personal confession Oprah brought to the format both popularized and revolutionized it. In the scholarly text Freaks Talk Back[21], Yale sociology professor Joshua Gamson credits the tabloid talk show genre with providing much needed high impact media visibility for gays, bisexuals, transsexuals, and transgender people and doing more to make them mainstream and socially acceptable than any other development of the 20th century. In the book's editorial review Michael Bronski wrote "In the recent past, lesbians, gay men, bisexuals, and transgendered people had almost no presence on television. With the invention and propagation of tabloid talk shows such as Jerry Springer, Jenny Jones, Oprah, and Geraldo, people outside the sexual mainstream now appear in living rooms across America almost every day of the week."[22]
One of Winfrey's most taboo-breaking shows occurred in the 1980s where for the entire hour, members of the studio audience stood up one by one, gave their name and announced that they were gay. Also in the 1980s Winfrey took her show to West Virgina to confront a town gripped by AIDS paranoia because a gay man living in the town had HIV. Winfrey interviewed the man who had become a social outcast, the town's mayor who drained the swimming pool because the man had gone swimming, and debated the town's hostile residents. "But I hear this is a God fearing town" Winfrey scolded the homophobic studio audience, "where's all that Christian love and understanding?" During a show on gay marriage in the 1990s, a woman in Winfrey's audience stood up to complain that gays were constantly flaunting their sex lives and she announced that she was tired of it. "You know what I'm tired of," replied Winfrey, "heterosexual males raping and sodomizing young girls. That's what I'm tired of." Her rebuttal inspired a screaming standing ovation from that show's mostly gay studio audience.
Following the success of tabloid talk shows, early 21st century gays were coming out of the closet younger and younger, gay suicide rates had dropped, and gays were embraced on mainstream shows like Will & Grace and Queer Eye for the Straight Guy and films like Brokeback Mountain. While having changed with the times from her tabloid talk show roots, Winfrey continues to empower the gay community by using her show to promote openly gay personalities like her hairdresser, makeup artist, and decorator Nate Berkus who inspired an outpouring of sympathy from middle America after grieving the loss of his partner in the Tsunami on The Oprah Winfrey Show. Winfrey's intimate therapeutic hosting style and the tabloid talk show genre she popularized has been credited or blamed for leading the media counterculture of the 1980s and 1990s which broke 20th century taboos, led to America's self-help obsession, and created confession culture. The Wall Street Journal coined the term Oprahfication which means public confession as a form of therapy.
In April 1997, Winfrey played the therapist on the sitcom Ellen to whom the character (and the real life Ellen DeGeneres in an ironic twist of humor as the actress playing herself on the show) confessed she was a lesbian. In 1998, Mark Steyn in the National Review wrote of Winfrey "Today, no truly epochal moment in the history of the Republic occurs unless it is validated by her presence. When Ellen said, 'Yep! I'm gay,' Oprah was by her side, guesting on the sitcom as (what else?) the star's therapist. She is, of course, therapist to an entire nation. If only it weren't so hard for the rest of us to get an appointment. Asked to explain the cause of the 1992 riots, one angry black looter from South Central said: 'We had to do something to get Oprah to Los Angeles'"
Influence on gay culture
Much like Madonna and Judy Garland, Oprah's support for the gay community has earned her a large gay male following. Many gay men are attracted to Oprah's theatrical touchy-feely personality, her over the top facial expressions, her flamboyant body language, her church-free spirituality, her broadway musical The Color Purple, her enthusiastic support for the Oscars and share her admiration for Mary Tyler Moore, Barbra Streisand and Meryl Streep. One of the stars of the reality TV show The Benefactor was a gay African American man named Kevin who was so obsessed with Winfrey that he would ask "what would Oprah do?" before making any strategic decision. Another gay man included Oprah on his published list of women worshipped by gay men and asked "what gay man hasn't watched at least 1,000 episodes of The Oprah Winfrey Show?"[23]
Intimate Communication Style
By confessing intimate details about her weight problems, tumultuous love life, and sexual abuse, and crying along side her guests, Time Magazine credits Winfrey with creating a new form of media communication known as "rapport talk" as distinguished from the "report talk" of Phil Donahue:
Winfrey saw television's power to blend public and private; while it links strangers and conveys information over public airwaves, TV is most often viewed in the privacy of our homes. Like a family member, it sits down to meals with us and talks to us in the lonely afternoons. Grasping this paradox, ...She makes people care because she cares. That is Winfrey's genius, and will be her legacy, as the changes she has wrought in the talk show continue to permeate our culture and shape our lives.
Observers even noted the Oprahfication of politics by noting Oprah-Style Debates and Bill Clinton's empathetic speaking style. Columnist Maureen Dowd commented on the symbolism of Bill Clinton seeking an Oprah-style talk show when he left the presidency:
There is a delicious symmetry in Clinton's exploring the idea of a daytime syndicated talk show: the man who brought Oprah-style psychobabble and misty confessions to politics taking the next step and actually transmogrifying into Oprah.[[24]]
Oprah's intimate confessions about her weight (which peaked at 108 kg (238 lb), also paved the way for other plus sized women in media such as Roseanne Barr, Rosie O'Donnell and Star Jones. The November 1988 Ms. magazine observed that "in a society where fat is taboo, she made it in a medium that worships thin and celebrates a bland, white-bread prettiness of body and personality...But Winfrey made fat sexy, elegant-damned near gorgeous-with her drop-dead wardrobe, easy body language, and cheerful sensuality."
Literary Revolution
In the late 1990s, Winfrey introduced a new segment on her television show: Oprah's Book Club. The segment focused on new books and classics, and often brought obscure novels to popular attention. The book club became such a powerful force that whenever Winfrey introduced a new book as her book-club selection, it instantly became a best-seller (known as the Oprah Effect); for example, when she selected the classic John Steinbeck novel East of Eden, it soared to the top of the book charts. Being recognized by Oprah often means a million additional book sales for an author.[25]
In Reading with Oprah: The book club that changed America, Kathleen Rooney describes Winfrey as "a serious American intellectual who pioneered the use of electronic media, specifically television and the Internet, to take reading-a decidedly non-technological and highly individual act-and highlight its social elements and uses in such a way to motivate millions of erstwhile non-readers to pick up books."
Oprah's Book Club is so powerful that, when she selected his memoir Night in 2006, just a few months later Time Magazine named author Elie Wiesel as one of the 100 most influential people on the planet. Oprah and Wiesel travelled together back to the Auschwitz death camp with Wiesel telling Oprah that he would not have made the trip with just anyone and that it was probably his last trip there. "What you did was so respectful," Wiesel told Oprah. 50,000 high school students competed to be part of a follow-up show in which only 50 winners of an essay contest were selected to meet Oprah and Wiesel. Consistent with the book's theme, many of the winning students had endured their own forms of discrimination including homophobia and surviving the Rwanda Genocide (and being reunited with lost family on the show). The students were surprised to learn that AT&T had given them all a $5000 scholarship to the college of their choice, and even more surprised when Oprah decided to double their scholarships herself by adding an additional $5000.
Spiritual Icon
In 2002, Christianity Today published an article called The Church of O in which they concluded that Winfrey had emerged as an influential spiritual leader. "Since 1994, when she abandoned traditional talk-show fare for more edifying content, and 1998, when she began 'Change Your Life TV,' Oprah's most significant role has become that of spiritual leader. To her audience of more than 22 million mostly female viewers, she has become a postmodern priestess—an icon of church-free spirituality."[26] The sentiment was seconded by Marcia Z. Nelson in her book The Gospel According to Oprah.[27] On the season premier of Oprah's 13th season Rosanne Barr told Oprah "you're the African Mother Goddess of us all" inspiring much enthusiasm from the studio audience.
Criticisms and controversies
Though since the mid 1990s Winfrey has changed the focus of her show, her success has been blamed for popularizing the "tabloid talk show" genre and turning it into thriving industry that has included Ricki Lake, The Jenny Jones Show, and The Jerry Springer Show. Sociologist Vicki Abt criticised tabloid talk shows for redefining social norms. In her book Coming After Oprah: Cultural Fallout in the Age of the TV talk show, Abt warned that the media revolution that followed Oprah's success was blurring the lines between normal and deviant behavior.
Leading up to the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, Oprah's show received criticism for having an anti-war bias. Ben Shapiro of Townhall.com wrote:
"Oprah Winfrey is the most powerful woman in America. She decides what makes the New York Times best-seller lists. Her touchy-feely style sucks in audiences at the rate of 14 million viewers per day. But Oprah is far more than a cultural force -- she's a dangerous political force as well, a woman with unpredictable and mercurial attitudes toward the major issues of the day."[5]
In 2006, rappers Ludacris, 50 Cent and Ice Cube criticized Winfrey for what they perceived as an anti-hip hop bias. In an interview with GQ magazine, Ludacris said that Winfrey gave him "hard time" about his lyrics and edited comments he made during an appearance on her show with the cast of the film Crash. He also claimed that he wasn't initially invited on the show with the rest of the cast. Winfrey responded by saying that she's opposed to rap lyrics that "marginalize women," but enjoys some artists, including Kanye West, who appeared on her show. She said she spoke with Ludracris backstage after his appearance to explain her position and said she understood that his music was for entertainment purposes, but that some of his listeners might take it literally.
Oprah's Book Club
Oprah's Book Club has occasionally chosen books which have proven to be controversial. Most notably, one of its selectees, Jonathan Franzen felt conflicted about his book The Corrections being chosen, believing that its selection as an Oprah's Book Club book would demean his literary reputation and scare away male readers. "She's picked some good books, but she's picked enough schmaltzy, one dimensional ones that I cringe myself, even though I think she's really smart and really fighting the good fight" he said in a 2001 interview.[6]
In a more recent controversy, Winfrey's selection of the drug rehab book A Million Little Pieces received heavy scrutiny, with the online publication The Smoking Gun arguing that its author James Frey was guilty of fabricating crucial details of his memoir, including a three month jail term that never occurred.[7] Winfrey initially defended the essence of Frey's book during an impromptu phone call during Frey's interview on Larry King's cable TV talk show, but reversed her position ten days later, inviting Frey back on her show and holding him accountable for misleading her audience. She also expressed dismay with the publisher for not reliably assessing the book's authenticity. Winfrey removed the references to Frey's work on the main page of her webpage but left references in the Oprah's Book Club section earlier in the week. The controversy has received widespread media attention, and was parodied by the animated television series South Park in an episode entitled "A Million Little Fibers".
Works
Television
| Year | Title | Role | Other notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1997 | Before Women Had Wings | Miss Zora | (also producer) |
| 1993 | There Are No Children Here | LaJoe Rivers | |
| 1992 | Lincoln | Narrator | (documentary) |
| 1990 - 1991 | Brewster Place | Mattie Michael | |
| 1989 | The Women of Brewster Place | Mattie Michael | (also executive producer) |
| 1986 - present | The Oprah Winfrey Show | Herself |
Movies
| Year | Title | Role | Other notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2006 | Charlotte's Web | Gussy | |
| 2005 | Emmanuel's Gift | Narrator | (documentary) |
| 2004 | Brothers of the Borderland | Narrator | (short subject) |
| 2003 | Unchained Memories: Readings from the Slave Narratives | Narrator | (documentary) |
| 1998 | Beloved | Sethe | |
| 1990 | Listen Up: The Lives of Quincy Jones | (documentary) | |
| 1987 | Throw Momma from the Train | (cameo) | |
| 1986 | Native Son | Janet Thomason | |
| 1985 | The Color Purple | Sofia |
Books
- Make the Connection : Ten Steps to a Better Body and a Better Life, by Bob Greene and Oprah Winfrey, 1999; ISBN 0786882980.
- Journey to Beloved, by Oprah Winfrey and Ken Regan, 1998; 0786864583.
- The Uncommon Wisdom of Oprah Winfrey : A Portrait in Her Own Words, by Bill Adler (ed) and Oprah Winfrey, 1997; ISBN 1559724196.
- A Journal of Daily Renewal : The Companion to Make the Connection, by Bob Greene and Oprah Winfrey, 1996; ISBN 0786882158.
- In The Kitchen With Rosie: Oprah's Favorite Recipes, by Rosie Daley and Oprah Winfrey, 1994; ISBN 0679434046.
Books written by others
- The Gospel According To Oprah, by Marcia Z. Nelson, 2005; ISBN 0664229425.
References
- ^ Forbes (2006). The World's Richest People: Oprah Winfrey. Retrieved June 22, 2006.
- ^ "Oprah Winfrey". Interview with Oprah Winfrey. Academy of Achievement. February 21, 1991. Retrieved 2006-06-09.
{{cite web}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter:|coauthors=(help) - ^ "Biography for Oprah Winfrey". IMDb.com. Amazon.com. Retrieved 2006-06-09.
- ^ Glaister, Dan (22 May 2006). "Oprah Winfrey book deal tops Clinton's $12m". The Guardian.
{{cite news}}: Check date values in:|date=(help) - ^ Shapiro, Ben (19 March 2003). "The Oprah schnook club". Townhall.com.
{{cite news}}: Check date values in:|date=(help) - ^ Powells.com (2006). Author Interviews. Retrieved June 24, 2006.
- ^ The Smoking Gun (2006). A Million Little Lies. Retrieved June 24, 2006.
See also
External links
- 1954 births
- Living people
- African Americans
- American television talk show hosts
- Baltimore television anchors
- Chicago television anchors
- African-American television producers
- Self-help writers
- Magazine publishers (people)
- American philanthropists
- Mass media owners
- Daytime Emmy Award winners
- Best Supporting Actress Oscar Nominee
- Peabody Award winners