Oprah Winfrey will take a stab at the Oscar’s this year when her OWN network airs original Oscar coverage nearly one week leading up to the Academy Awards ceremony. The event is expected to become a yearly franchise for the network.

In the past Oprah has hosted the “After-Oscar Party” which aired live from the Kodak Theater on the Monday following the Academy Awards.

The move back into Oscar territory may pay off for Oprah as her post-Oscar shows in the past have been some of her highest rating attractions. During those shows Oprah sat down with the nights biggest winners including the Best Actor and Best Actress winners.

On the OWN network Winfrey plans to now interview nominees before the big night and she has already lined up The Help actresses Viola Davis and Octavia Spencer along with Moneyball’s Jonah Hill (pictured above), those interviews will air on Oprah’s February 15 Oscar special.

Before his interview with Oprah on Tuesday Jonah Hill tweeted:

“On my way to get interviewed by Oprah at the coffee shop I went to growing up with my family.#weirdestsentenceihaveeversaid“

In the meantime ABC announced last week that ”Live! With Kelly” is taking over where Oprah left off by hosting an “After the Oscars” live event from the Kodak Theater this year.

With her own talk show bombing in the ratings and most other OWN network shows struggling to attract new viewers the move to familiar territory could be exactly what the OWN network needs to succeed because obviously Oprah’s attempting at creating a new “brand” around herself simply isn’t working.

Do you think Oprah’s OWN network can benefit from pre-Oscar interviews the same way Oprah has in the past with her “After the Oscars” live broadcast or will Kelly fill in her shoes by taking over the post show?

Oprah Announces Oscar Special For OWN Network is a post from: The Inquisitr

Oprah Hangs Out With Hassidic Jews in Brooklyn is a post from: The Inquisitr

Both Jay-Z and Beyonce have appeared on ‘The Oprah Winfrey Show’. Oprah did also send a trunk of children’s baby books to Jay-Z and Beyonce. Guess she was more highly thought of by the couple than anyone realized.

The public have not yet seen baby Blue Ivy, but Kelly Rowland has, saying:

“She’s just more precious than a diamond. She’s just so stunning… She’s beautiful.”

What do you make of it, folks? Would Oprah make the perfect godmother?

Source: AceShowbiz.com

Oprah, Godmother to Jay-Z and Beyonce’s Baby? [Rumor] is a post from: The Inquisitr

Oprah’s new talk show Oprah’s Next Chapter debuts on Sunday night to lackluster ratings as her OWN network continues to stumble since debuting in mid-2011.

The show still managed to pull in the second highest ratings of any show on the OWN network but fell well short of the 6.5 million viewers who tuned in on average for the last season of The Oprah Winfrey Show.

Those lackluster ratings came as Oprah visited the lakefront New Hampshire home of Aerosmith frontman and American Idol judge Steven Tyler. The show is expected to include more visits to remote locations as Oprah interviews her guests in their homes and other areas, forgoing the studio for more intimate settings.

Putting that number in comparison Piers Morgan when he took over for Larry King only managed a 2.1 million viewership which was still considered abysmal. On the other hand Pawn Stars regularly attracts more than 5 million viewers per episode.

The OWN network no doubt has a long way to go, in fact Oprah Winfrey had to step in as the companies chief executive recently in order to steady the ship. As one analyst tells the Wall Street Journal:

 ”With her coming on, now is the time they will really be judged,” and ”This is where they will have to prove that an Oprah network is a feasible idea.”

Perhaps Oprah needs her studio to thrive, it was always that setting that brought out the enthusiasm in her guests and showed just how good she could be when taping live.

Did you want the first episode of Oprah’s Next Chapter? If you did what did you think?

Oprah’s New Talk Show Bombs In The Ratings is a post from: The Inquisitr

Stop the presses, everyone- Oprah is not vomiting rainbows right now!

Talk show host Oprah Winfrey- who is, among other things, a bit prone to bursts of irritating optimism- has had a bit of difficulty transitioning from her mega successful talk show to her new network, OWN. The inspiration and happy thoughts junkie has been trying to strike out on her OWN (heh, heh) for a while now, and while things haven’t been terrible, it hasn’t been a stunning success for the previously teflon media personality.

But Oprah not only realizes this, she says that she feels it’s still possible to turn OWN around and make it a success. The media mogul says looking back, there are things she would change- but that she learned from them:

“Yes, some mistakes were made. Who hasn’t made mistakes? The real beauty is you can say, ‘I learned from that. I don’t worry about failure. I worry about, ‘Did I do all I could do?’”

Winfrey acknowledges there has been some negative buzz, but she says many who went before her have assured her that building a successful network takes time. Oprah explains:

“Everybody has told me- Ted Turner has told me, Barry Diller has told me, Lorne Michaels has told me, David Geffen has told me- anybody who’s ever worked with a channel, who’s ever done anything, has said it takes three to five year. You have to do the work… You do not have to pay attention to the criticism.”

You can read more of Oprah Winfrey’s comments on OWN in 2012 here.

Oprah Winfrey Admits OWN’s First Year Was Rough is a post from: The Inquisitr

Oprah’s OWN cable network has struggled to find it’s voice and ultimately an audience but that could all change on January 1st, 2012 when Oprah launches her new TV show “Oprah’s Next Chapter.”

Much like her former network TV show the Queen of daytime talk will feature interviewers with today’s top “newsmakers, celebrities, thought leaders and real-life families.”

Already signed up to appear on the show are the likes of Joel Osteen, Tony Robbins, Deepak Chopra, Sean Penn, George Lucas and Paula Deen

Speaking about the shows format Oprah offered one hint:

“We’re not sitting on ‘The Oprah Winfrey Show’ in those chairs anymore, people.”

It’s still unclear exactly what direction Oprah’s new show will take, one thing is for certain, if her “favorite things” continue to exist it will give millions of women a reason to tune in and attempt to get their hands on tickets for the show.

Will you be tuning in for Oprah Winfrey’s newest daytime talk show?

[Image via Helga Esteb / Shutterstock.com]

Oprah Winfrey Announces Premiere Date For New Show is a post from: The Inquisitr

Oprah Winfrey on Friday accepted an honorary degree from a central South African university that had turned itself around after race relations fell apart at the university in the past. According to Oprah the university had turned an ugly experience into a model in “confronting the challenges of reconciliation and remorse.”

Five years ago four white students at the university had made a humiliating video about black housekeeping staff where they were highlighted eating a stew the students had mimed they were peeing in.

In 2009 Jonathan Jansen became the university’s first black rector and asked that the four white students involved in the video be forgiven and rehabilitated.

Oprah Winfrey Receives South African Honorary Doctorate is a post from: The Inquisitr

Rumors began circulating yesterday that OJ Simpson would be appearing on Oprah to confess to the murder of his wife Nicole Brown Simpson and her companion.

If you’re too young to remember, Brown Simpson’s death and that of Ron Goldman sparked off a massive police chase in Los Angeles. The subsequent trial of OJ Simpson was the forerunner of media circus trials today, with wall to wall coverage of the proceedings in their entirety. Although it was widely believed Simpson was guilty of the crime, he was acquitted, and the verdict was racially divisive and controversial. He was later found civilly liable in the murders.

A new round of rumors about Simpson’s guilt were sparked by a Daily Mail article suggesting Simpson would confess to the murders on Oprah’s show. However, reps for Winfrey deny that OJ plans to confess on the program:

..representatives for Harpo, Oprah’s company, flatly told the Hollywood Reporter, “that’s not true.”

…During an appearance at a cable convention earlier this month, she said that her dream is to have Simpson confess to her.

“And I am going to make that happen people,” she said. “I don’t just want the interview. I want the interview on the condition that you are ready, Mr. Simpson.”

Simpson was later jailed for an unrelated offense but is currently free.

OJ Simpson Confession to Oprah Not Likely, Reps Say is a post from: The Inquisitr

Oprah’s Final Show Sees Biggest Ratings in 17 Years is a post from: The Inquisitr

Oprah Winfrey loved to give things away on her talk show, from free trips to giveaways, there was always a good chance that an airing of her show would include a gift for someone, however it was her “favorite things” shows that drew the biggest and most expensive giveaways.

According to site Jezebel:

“Oprah’s Favorite Things” giveaways alone cost a total of around $23.8 million.

That price includes basic items from $4 croissants and $12 Josh Groban CDs to more extravagant gifts including $22,000 VW Beetles and $2,400 diamond watches.

The $23.8 million price was estimated by understanding the cost of each item (retail) and then multiplying that number by the 300 audience members in attendance for each show.

Nearly half of that $23.8 million estimate is said to come from 2010 when some of her most lavish gifts were given to audience members.

What was your favorite Oprah Winfrey giveaway?

Oprah’s ‘Favorite Things’ Segments Cost Nearly $24 Million is a post from: The Inquisitr

Robert Spearing and his wife traveled from Canada to Chicago where they hoped to watch the final taping of the Oprah Winfrey Show, when the couple arrived in Chicago Robert was not able to obtain the tickets and concocted a mugging story to his wife to cover up his actions.

Spearing told police that he was mugged and his tickets were stolen, to make his story convincing Robert cut his own forehead with a rock and scratched his hands on the sidewalk.

The 44-Year-old Canadian who eventually confessed to his actions now faces a felony charge for filing a fake police report and must appear in court next Tuesday.

Man Fakes Own Mugging After Failing To Obtain Oprah Tickets For His Wife is a post from: The Inquisitr

When James Frey deceived Oprah Winfrey and her audience by releasing an exaggerated account of his life in the biography A Million Little Pieces he forced Oprah to invite him back on her show and destroy his career, now five years after that incident Frey will sit down with Oprah on two of her final shows.

Frey will talk to the Queen of talk on May 16 and May 17 and more than likely the interviews will once again turn to how he deceived readers with his wild tales of cop-hitting and jail time.

According to Oprah’s show announcer, they chose to interview Frey two more times because he is “the biggest controversy in Oprah show history.”

Oprah in 2009 said in Vanity Fair that she had already apologized to Frey for her demeanor during their lie revealing interview, it will be interesting to see what they still have left to talk about, especially for two shows in a row.

Oprah Winfrey To Interview James Frey Two More Times is a post from: The Inquisitr

After 25 seasons hosting the Oprah Winfrey Show it looks like Oprah could be taking a smaller gig, this time on the Great White Way.

Oprah told The Chicago Tribune that she was thinking about taking a turn on Broadway once her shows production ends on May 25:

“I have a stack of plays in my bag right now that I am reading. And just this past weekend, I was in New York meeting with producers. We were just talking about what would be the best route to take. But yes, this is really going to happen. … Life is too short.”

Oprah has always been a fan of Broadway and in 2006 she produced the musical for The Color Purple the same show she earned an Oscar nomination for when she portrayed Sofia in the 1985 Steven Spielberg film.

Oprah Winfrey Headed To Broadway After Show Ends is a post from: The Inquisitr

When Marie-Anne didn’t respond according to Shania she took further measures:

“By not understanding and not knowing the details your imagination is left to run wild,” she explained to Oprah. “I never got the details. I phoned Marie-Anne and did everything I could to get the details out of her and she changed her number and that was it.”

In an odd twist Twain eventually fell for Marie-Anne’s ex-husband Frédéric Nicolas Thiébaud who helped her come to grips with the situation and the couple fell in love and wed on New Year’s Day 2011.

Shania Twain Opens Up To Oprah About Ex-Husbands Affair is a post from: The Inquisitr

While Oprah Winfrey may have discovered Dr. Phil McGraw, there appears at least in one case to be no love lost between the pair.

TMZ has learned that Dr. Phil tried to steal away the Natalee Holloway interview from Oprah once he learned that his boss (she owns Harpo Productions which owns his show) was getting ready to interview Natalee’s mother Beth.

According to documents obtained from the Dr. Phil production team, Beth was set to interview with Oprah on Sept. 20, 2005, however Dr. Phil wanted to snag her away for a “first interview” before she could get to Oprah.

In one of the documents, using his initials (DPM – Dr. Phil McGraw) a producer said:

“But we can OUT SCOOP Oprah & do the show w/ her first no matter what we find tomorrow we still have an interesting show – plus only YOU can really help.”

To which Dr. Phil responded:

“WE DEFINITELY NEED TO SCOOP THE DEAL SO IF WE NEED TO SHOOT THIS WEEK THEN LETS DO IT.”  to which Phil added:  “IF SHE [Beth] TELLS THE OPRAH PEOPLE ABOUT US THEY WILL LIKELY ATTEMPT TO DERAIL IT BY MOVING UP THEIR SCHEDULE.”

Finally his producer ended the conversation with:

“Grea[t] & she won’t say anything to oprahs peeps she knows it would jeopardize what we are doing – I’ll email you both tomorrow as soon as I talk to jamie & we can go from there!! Yippie scoopen the big O!!”

We’re not sure if this is a “love lost” type of scenario or just a friendly game of “who can get the big scoop” first, in any case if I were Dr. Phil I would be treading lightly around Harpo Productions.

Dr. Phil Tried To Stab Oprah In The Back is a post from: The Inquisitr

If you missed it, Oprah Winfrey featured Microsoft’s new Xbox 360 Kinect device on her show earlier this month, before giving her entire audience a Kinect each and reducing them to giggling, screaming prats. It was cringe. Don’t believe me? Here’s the groan-worthy video:

Anyway, surprise surprise: since Kinect got its mention, sales of the hardware have gone potty, with Amazon reporting a 42% leap in pre-orders. Proof again that (a) Easily swayed idiots will always walk amongst us and (b) Everything Oprah even blinks in the direction of automatically turns to golden unicorn poo.

See also: [VIDEO] The future of videogaming makes me want to cry

[Via Joystick Division]

Microsoft Kinect sales jump after appearance on Oprah is a post from: The Inquisitr

If you’ve been following the whole Zach Anner/Oprah vote rigging scandal, you might enjoy this interview between Reddit and Anner.

It’s pretty funny, and insightful, and worth watching. (I actually started to compile some quotes, but there were a million decent ones, so just watch the damn thing.) What do you think? Is this dude getting a show regardless? Another screenshot, and the video below.

[Video] Zach Anner answers Reddit’s questions, is awesome is a post from: The Inquisitr

The internet rumor mill is in full swing today with the suggestion that Oprah may be rigging votes against popular reality TV show contestant Zach Anner.

The rumors surfaced when another contestant by the name of Dr. Phyllis mysteriously gained more than 300,000 votes, surpassing the previously first placed Anner in 20 minutes.

A screenshot doing the rounds (above) is being used as evidence of vote rigging.

There is no proof that Oprah is rigging votes against Zach Anner, but it would be sad to see Anner lose. The self professed “wheelchair bound lady magnet” has been a viral sensation, and would make a worthy winner of the contest.

Oprah Accused Of Rigging Votes Against Zach Anner is a post from: The Inquisitr

Kitty Kelley is back with another ‘shocking’ biography of a treasured icon, this time turning her poison pen toward the normally above reproach daytime diva Oprah Winfrey.

Oprah, also known as Pope-rah, is alleged in the book to have engaged in some diva-like behavior that runs contrary to her everywoman image. Chicago antiques dealer/gallery owner Peter Colasante gabbed to Kelley about a tightly scheduled meeting with Winfrey a few years back that didn’t go very well. Colasante says Oprah kept him waiting and refused to walk or climb stairs:

On the appointed day and time, two limos pulled up and Oprah went into Deborah Gore Dean’s shop across Wisconsin Avenue. After waiting 30 minutes, Colasante walked over and found his famous client berating Dean. He told Oprah and her entourage (secretary, pilot, hairdresser, makeup man, guards) that he had other appointments scheduled and she needed to honor her timetable.

“Oprah does not walk,” she told him, referring to herself in the third person. “Who is this guy?” Then she started screaming at her staff, but finally agreed to cross the street and come through his front door.

“I just don’t feel it,” she told him. “The vibrations aren’t right.”

“You’ll feel them once you see the paintings we’ve assembled for you,” he said, pointing up the stairs where Court’s art was hanging.

“Oprah does not do stairs,” she said.

Kelley also reveals that the daytime talk queen briefly dallianced with then-fellow anchorperson John Tesh. The New York Daily News says that the pair briefly had a romantic relationship, but that Tesh ultimately wasn’t comfortable with dating a black woman:

The towering 6-foot-6 Tesh and a barely out-of-her-teens Winfrey shared her Nashville apartment until he bolted in the middle of the night, according to the first-ever look inside the book, obtained by the Daily News.

According to Kelley, the “social pressure” on an interracial couple in Tennessee at that time proved too much for Tesh to handle.

“He said one night he looked down and saw his white body next to her black body and couldn’t take it anymore,” another Tesh ex-paramour told Kelley.

“He walked out in the middle of the night. … He told me he later felt very guilty about it.”

Well, I’m sure that Oprah’s over that whole episode by now. Kelley also claims that promoting her new Oprah tell-all has been difficult, and many media outlets won’t cover her book for fear of reprisals from the massively powerful Winfrey.

Kitty Kelley dishes on Oprah’s divadom, John Tesh tryst is a post from: The Inquisitr

In a shocking turn of events, Howard Stern has said something sort of racist, undeniably misogynistic and totally dick.

Stern, not known for his charitable feelings toward the fairer sex, blasted the praise heaped upon breakout actress Gabourey Sidibe on his show yesterday. For lack of a better term, Stern seems to think that Sidibe is a bit of a one trick pony, and won’t work again due to being “the size of a planet” and, ostensibly, “black.” (Someone should tell this year’s fat black Oscar winner Mo’Nique that fat black women don’t have futures in entertainment because she’s probably under the opposite impression, having won an Academy Award and all.)

Stern railed:

“There’s the most enormous, fat black chick I’ve ever seen. She is enormous. Everyone’s pretending she’s a part of show business and she’s never going to be in another movie,” he said. “She should have gotten the Best Actress award because she’s never going to have another shot. What movie is she gonna be in?”

Well, Howard, considering there are women in our society who are fat, black or both, perhaps she could portray one on the stage or screen? Yes, Sidibe doesn’t have the marketability of say, Jessica Alba, but “never going to have another shot” is a bit dramatic, isn’t it? Howard wasn’t the only Sidibe detractor though- formerly fat, still black Robin Quivers seemed to agree with Stern:

“And Oprah’s lying and saying you’re going to have a brilliant career,” said Robin.

“Oprah’s another liar, a filthy liar,” said Stern. “She’s telling an enormous woman the size of a planet that she’s going to have a career.”

Indeed! Where would Oprah get the preposterous notion that a black woman of size could ever become successful? That’s like saying a fat black lady could become the richest woman in our society, wield enormous influence over American women and cause books to sell out like they have crack cocaine embedded in the pages. Silly Oprah. What redonkulous claim will she make next, that a fat black woman could get a job as a sidekick to a cranky, misogynistic, plastic obsessed radio host with a giant ego? People are so delusional.

Unemployable Gabby is set to appear in “Yelling to the Sky” and a new Showtime series, “The C Word.”

[HuffPo]

Howard Stern: ‘Enormous’ Sidibe will never work again is a post from: The Inquisitr