Entertainment Tonight last night sent its blackest reporter out to interview every African American celebrity he could find. Lucky for him, many of them had converged on Denver's football stadium to watch Obama's speech.
Did you know celebrities are all friends? They are! Oprah was hugging Mary J Blige! Kanye was answering questions for Oprah! And then Forest Whitaker came out of nowhere to use words like "pride," "humanity," "beautiful," "core" and "destiny."
Experts and amateurs have been talking about how Oprah Winfrey’s support of Barack Obama might have hurt her ratings and damaged her standing as the reigning queen of daytime television. If this is true, was her Obama campaigning worth it? Two economists from the University of Maryland say yes — Winfrey apparently has superior mind control over one million of the people who voted for Obama.
That somebody would select James Frey's new book Bright Shiny Morning as a must-read this summer shouldn't be all that surprising — the reviews have been generally positive. That the somebody would be Gayle King, special friend to Oprah, is. When Good Morning America's Diane Sawyer asked her to recommend some sunshine-y reading material, King plugged two books: Scott McClellan's What Happened, and Frey's Morning, adding that she even liked A Million Little Pieces.
Frey spectators would be right to question King's motives.
It's almost impossible she would recommend the scandal-plagued author without first consulting Oprah; even more likely, King was acting as Oprah's agent, following direct orders to bring some appeasement, now that the Frey storyline – a demarcation in book publishing lore – has reversed itself to a degree, painting Oprah as the villain, and Frey as a complicit bystander.
This was not a casual, throwaway recommendation. Almost certainly, it was a calculated move from Oprah's camp to smooth some stones.
The rumor that Susan Lyne, who just stepped down as chief of Martha Stewart Living, was having lunch with Time Inc.'s Ann Moore is false. Actually, Moore only emailed Lyne with a lunch date request; it has yet to take place. It was that supposed sighting that only fueled rumors of the media's self-fulfilling prophecy wish: That Lyne would make good on the long-standing rumors she was to take over the top spot at Time Warner's publishing house. But now she may go a different route, according to the latest scenario: Taking the top spot at OWN, Oprah's new television network. No matter that MTV chief Judy McGrath, who is said to be leaving her post, has been fingered as a front-runner for the Oprah gig. (Lyne, of course, is the one-time head of ABC Entertainment, where she was ousted by Bob Iger just before Desperate Housewives, a show she helped groom, became a hit.) So we can either 1) hope for a cat fight between Lyne and McGrath as they battle it out for the lucrative new gig; or 2) just be pleased these middle-aged ladies as still treated as hot commodities in the industry.
Bill Cosby has made a career out of delivering commencement addresses, usually picking up an honorary degree whenever he stops by a campus. At Stanford's commencement on Sunday, though, it was Oprah fulfilling the celebrity duty, delivering words of wisdom, hope, and virtue. "I like money," she told the nearly 5,000 graduates staring up at her. "It's good for buying things. What you want is money with meaning. Meaning is what brings real richness to your life." Easy for a billionaire to say, sure.
But all was not lost. Though she "really wanted to give you cars, but I just couldn't pull that off," Oprah handed out something she's most famous for: books. Each graduate got a copy of Eckhart Tolle's A New Earth and Daniel Pink's A Whole New Mind, both books about states of mind. Which is perfect for new graduates, whose current state of mind is how they're going to pay off six-figures in loans. Enjoy your summer reading! CONTINUED »
Forbes, the magazine that continues to be published so it can put things in listicle format, released its annual Celebrity 100 ranking, a run down of the most important famous types whose wealth and power far surpass your own special skills, like cutting in line at Shake Shack. In what should come as a surprise to absolutely nobody, Oprah Winfrey reigns atop the list, followed by Tiger Woods, Angelina Jolie, Beyonce Knowles, and David Beckham — which means of the top five are three black people and one transvestite. How progressive..
Judy McGrath, who has been with MTV for 27 years and chiefed the network since July 2004, is said to be in the middle of a courtship from Oprah, who wants her to lead her new OWN channel, launching in 2010. Suggests Nikki Finke: Such a move would also involve McGrath receiving a nice equity stake in the new operation.
Is Oprah going to roll out the red carpet for a certain lesbian blonde with her own TV show? Don't mistake this for Ellen DeGeneres gossip — one rumor we're hearing is that daytime's queen is strengthening her relationship with financial guru Suze Orman. The CNBC talking head and SNL writers room success story is already a business contributor, and pens a column for Oprah's O magazine (where she gets to plug her own products under the guise of fiscal advice). But it's expected Orman will have a bigger presence within the Oprah brand that, according to one informant, means "other female business contributors [on Oprah] will lessen dramatically."
Getting Oprah to shill your goods is "the gold standard" in marketing and PR. So how come an industry built on busting through the clutter of consumer pitches doesn't quite understand the Oprah machine? That's the only reason we could find for AdAge's expose on the matter. Or maybe top-ranking publicists do get the Oprah/Harpo juggernaut, and this primer on landing your book, lotion, or motor vehicle on her talk show, magazine, or satellite radio program is a waste of copy. But perhaps not. The Oprah is, like choosing a Democratic nominee, not an exact science. You can throw money at her, in the form of ad spends, but that does not guarantee you that Oprah will plug your product on the show outside of a 30-second commercial spot. Or you can give her company exactly $0, and she'll send your revenues to the heavens. CONTINUED »
Oprah's daytime ratings are down (7 percent this year). Her magazine circulation is down (10 percent over three years). And she canceled her primetime reality show. Begs the obvious question: Did her endorsement of Barack Obama cause America to start falling out of love with her? [NYT]
Well, maybe, but it's not like her business is faltering.
Her television ratings drop follows the general trend in TV audiences. Same goes for her magazine's numbers. And her reality show? Blame more audience fatigue.
And so what if Oprah lost the spot of America's favorite television personality to Ellen DeGeneres?
While Ellen is rallying around a topic everybody can get behind – uh, gay marriage – Oprah is the one taking real risks. Like endorsing a book about spirituality that might go against traditional Christian teachings.
Wasn't the whole purpose of Tom Cruise's return to Oprah to celebrate the 25th anniversary of Risky Business? Interesting, then, that the movie's director, Paul Brickman, isn't involved in the Oprah special. In fact, producers never even called him. And should fans be suddenly excited about a Cruise movie, too bad: DVDs of Business aren't even available anymore.
On Oprah today, it was Oprah who was sitting on Tom's couch. Cruise gave the talk show host a tour of his Telluride home, where they taped the interview, showing him one special area: where he and Katie lock Suri up when she's not being photographed by magazines. CONTINUED »
You will look back on today's momentous occasion – the one-for-the-history-books return of Tom Cruise to Oprah – and think of but one thing: Tom Cruise is a victim! Everybody has been out to get this cultist zealot, and all those jokes about him brainwashing Katie Holmes and inseminating her with L. Ron Hubbard's semen have been entirely unfair to him and his family. It takes the power of Oprah to set the record straight, even if that's where he shed his veil of normalcy to begin with. So let's get to the defensive mechanisms: CONTINUED »
Oprah would do well to lavish herself in Tom Cruise publicity, since this month's Vanity Fair paints a scathing picture of her. No longer is she the innocent victim of the James Frey scandal, but rather a punch puller, duping publisher Nan Talese and the author into appearing on her show to call them out on the falsified memoir.
As Talese herself argued last year, and the Evgenia Peretz's VF article confirms, Talese originally agreed to appear on Oprah's show to take part in a "Truth in America" panel; she'd deliver the publishing industry's expertise. But when she and Frey arrived at the studio, the show's focus was switched on them, and that they'd be discussing the Frey scandal. According to one source we spoke with, they were alerted to the change as they were walking on to the studio stage, with no advance notice.
Meanwhile, as Jossip relayed last week, Frey never pitched his publisher, Talese/Doubleday, as a memoirist. CONTINUED »
Since Tom Cruise won't leave us alone, we won't leave Tom Cruise alone. So there!
As he marches toward Oprah's broadcast for May sweeps, you're going to need a cheat sheet about his first return to her couch since his infamous June 2005 high-jump. So what can you expect as Oprah grovels for ratings and Cruise commemorates the 25th anniversary of Risky Business? CONTINUED »
Editorial Director
