Oprah Winfrey has settled a defamation suit filed against her by the former headmistress of her Leadership Academy in South Africa.

Lawyers for both Winfrey and the former headmistress, Lerato Nomvuyo Mzamane, told ET Tuesday, “The two parties met woman to woman without their lawyers and are happy that they could resolve this dispute peacefully to their mutual satisfaction. Ms. Winfrey testified in her deposition that she did not intend the implications placed on her words by the plaintiff. Ms. Mzamane testified in her deposition that she has no evidence that Ms. Winfrey knowingly made a false statement about her or entertained serious doubt about the truth of what she said. We are pleased both parties have reached a conclusion.”

Mzamane sued Winfrey after she was dismissed following accusations that a dorm matron named Tiny Virginia Makopo had abused six girls at the Leadership Academy, according to the Associated Press. The AP reports that Winfrey said in 2007 that she had “lost confidence” in Mzamane as a result of the scandal. Mzamane claimed she had no knowledge of sexual abuse at the school, and had trouble finding a new job, according to the news agency.

Source, Fame Pictures

Round Two!

Jay Leno told Oprah Winfrey on Thursday that he felt “sucker-punched” by Jimmy Kimmel – and hours later, the ABC comedian came out swinging again.

“[Leno] went on Oprah and rats me out,” Kimmel said during his Jimmy Kimmel Live! monologue Thursday night. “That’s a sucker-punch right there. You don’t go to Oprah and say that. He’s a tattle-tale.”

Kimmel added: “Oprah and I had a wonderful relationship, and now it’s ruined because of Jay.” (Click here to see Kimmel’s monologue.)

Kimmel, of course, was kidding. But in his sharp five-minute monologue, the comedian defended his recent appearance on The Jay Leno Show in which he let loose about shakeups at NBC that ultimately led to Leno reclaiming his post as the host of The Tonight Show and ousting Conan O’Brien in the process.

Explaining that Leno’s producers called him in advance to discuss the questions for the “10@10″ segment, Kimmel says that he expected to be commenting on the late-night controversy, since it was newsy – and funny to him. Instead, Leno wanted to chat about other things like, Kimmel said, “What’s your junk food weakness?”

“I figured I’d start in, he’d get into it and we’d mix it up,” Kimmel said. “You know, at one time [Leno] was a comedian. But he didn’t do that. He stood there and he just kind of read through the questions like a robot.”

For his part, Leno told Winfrey that he was taken aback by Kimmel’s remarks but ultimately decided not to edit them out of his show. “I said, ‘No. Put it out there. I walked into it,’ ” Leno told her, explaining that when you get hit, “You get right up again. You don’t whine and complain.”

But at the end of his monologue Thursday night, Kimmel had the last laugh – for now. “Watch out Oprah,” he said, “don’t think he won’t take your show next.”

Source, Fame Pictures

Sharing his feelings publicly for the first time about the behind-the-scenes machinations that eventually led to this month’s NBC late-night debacle, Jay Leno admitted on Thursday that being asked six years ago to step aside so Conan O’Brien could take over the Tonight Show came as a crushing blow.

“It broke my heart, it really did,” the TV host, 59, said in an interview airing on Thursday’s The Oprah Winfrey Show. “I was devastated.”

Leno said that NBC executives told him in 2004 that they didn’t want to lose O’Brien and were going to ask him take over Leno’s spot as host in 2009. “That was pretty shocking,” Leno said. “I most certainly did,” feel disrespected.

Saying that the Tonight gig was a job “every comic aspires to,” Leno told Winfrey he didn’t think the move made much sense, as the show was still No. 1 in late night.

Leno asked the brass to wait at least until he dropped in the ratings and then “that would be the reason” for the switch, but O’Brien’s contract was due to expire and the powers-that-be didn’t want him leaving the network.

To explain the shakeup, Leno said, “I told a little white lie on the air,” saying he was going to retire. “It made it easier that way.”

Had Plans to Jump
Leno did plan to leave the network, he said, even asking to be let out of his contract so he could take his show elsewhere, but NBC declined and, in fall 2008, came up with the idea for The Jay Leno Show, in prime time. “I said, okay, let’s try it.” Not only did he love the job, he said, but it would be a way to keep his 175 show staffers employed.

But the new show wasn’t doing well, dropping 14 points in the ratings. “The show failed because it was basically doing a late-night talk show at 10 o’clock,” said. “I was given enough time,” he said, but, “I got fired this time because my show did not perform.”

Under O’Brien, however, The Tonight Show was doing much worse, falling 49 percent since the former Late Night host took over, Leno said. It was the ratings, Leno said, not a selfish move on his part, which prompted NBC to ask Leno to come back to his show on late-night TV. At the same time, they wanted to move O’Brien’s show to midnight, a move Conan rejected and which touched off a firestorm of bad press against Leno.

‘Sucker-Punched’ by Kimmel
In another candid admission, Leno said he was taken aback when Jimmy Kimmel took the opportunity to slam him during a Leno show appearance a few weeks ago. “I got sucker-punched,” he said. Leno said he could have edited the interview, “but I said, ‘No. Put it out there. I walked into it.’” He said when you get hit, “You get right up again. You don’t whine and complain.”

As for David Letterman, another late-night host who jumped into the fray with shots at Jay, Leno said it was only fair to punch back, as he did with a joke about Letterman’s blackmail scandal. Though Winfrey (who has had her own testy moments with Letterman) said she thought it was beneath him, Leno responded that “I did one joke. I had a cheap shot thrown at me and I threw one cheap shot back.”

Leno also said he was surprised at all the attention the late-night war has generated and blasted NBC for the way in which they handled the negotiations, but doesn’t blame himself for O’Brien losing his job. “It all comes down to numbers in show business,” he said. “If the numbers had been there, this wouldn’t have happened.”

Rebuilding Image
Leno, who said the jabs he and O’Brien took at each other during the fallout was to be expected from two comedians, called O’Brien’s finale a “great show.” He said he doesn’t feel any animosity, but, acknowledging that he has been portrayed as the bad guy, said when he returns to Tonight on March 1, “I’m going to work hard to rehabilitate that image.”

He said, “a lot of damage control” must take place, but he plans to “do good shows and not be bitter.” He also hopes O’Brien does well elsewhere. “I hope Conan gets a job somewhere else and we all compete together. And the best man wins.”

Source, Fame Pictures

On the heels of the success of her # 1 album I Dreamed a Dream, Susan Boyle is gearing up for another big year in 2010. The songstress will make her first appearance of the new year on The Oprah Winfrey Show on Jan. 19 where she will belt out her new single “Who I Was Born To Be.”

SuBo was pegged as one of OK!’s breakout stars of 2009, and she will discuss with Oprah her whirlwind success and being coined “Boylemania” by Entertainment Weekly.

Susan is still shocked by the media frenzy that followed her performance on Britain’s Got Talent and finds the prais, “astounding and humbling.”

I Dreamed A Dream held the #1 spot on the Billboard 200 for six weeks in a row, broke numerous Soundscan records and has sold over 8 million copies worldwide.

“It was important that I could feel everything I was singing,” Susan says.

The album features 12 tracks with Susan singing signature songs such as “I Dreamed A Dream”, “Cry Me A River,” as well as covers of The Rolling Stones’ “Wild Horses,” Madonna’s “You’ll See,” The Monkees’ “Daydream Believer,” and “Who I Was Born To Be.”

Source, Bauer-Griffin

I don’t know why, but I’m totally surprised! I wonder what she’s got up her sleeve…

Oprah Winfrey will end her show after its 25th season wraps in 2011, according to publicists for her production company, Harpo.

This confirmation comes after speculation that Winfrey could be moving the popular syndicated talk show, which currently films in Chicago, to her new cable network, OWN, which is based in Los Angeles.

According to an employee, Winfrey told her staff about the plans during a meeting Thursday morning.

Winfrey also reportedly said that severance packages will be given to all employees with three or more years of experience  if they aren’t placed elsewhere in positions within Harpo.

Winfrey is expected to discuss the ending of her show in more detail during tomorrow’s show, which will taped live in Chicago.

Source

A flight attendant on Oprah Winfrey’s private jet filed a lawsuit Friday denying allegations that she had sex on board.

In the suit, Corrine Gehrls, 39, claims that fellow flight attendants Myron Gooch and Kirby Bumpus — who is the daughter of Winfrey’s best friend Gayle King and is Winfrey’s goddaughter — made the accusation that caused her to be fired.

The lawsuit claims that Gooch made the accusation — that Gehrls engaged in intercourse with chief pilot Terry Pansing, 57, during a flight in which the talk show host and other passengers slept “following their ingestion of sleeping pills” — after Pansing reportedly complained about his work schedule and demanded that he stay in nicer hotels than the rest of the flight crew.

Gehrls and Pansing passed polygraph tests after the accusation but were not rehired, the suit says.

Gehrls is seeking more than $75,000 in damages from Gooch, Bumpus and Harpo Inc., Winfrey’s production company.

A spokesperson for Harpo Inc. had no comment.

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It was a gesture designed to show the world how in love they were, but Mariah Carey didn’t think much of Nick Cannon’s attempts to kiss her on Oprah.

The singer was being interviewed by talk show host Oprah Winfrey when her husband came onstage and gave his wife a peck on the cheek.

But Oprah complained: ‘Oh you did that “We’ve been married a long time kiss”. You didn’t give the real kiss, come on.’

They shared an exaggerated smooch as Nick bent her over, before an uncomfortable looking Mariah stopped him, saying: ‘Don’t drop me!’

Then she pushed him away.

Mariah, 39, wed R’n'B singer Nick, 28, in April 2008 after they met at the Teen Choice Awards in 2005.

Nick said of their marriage: ‘I wake up feeling like the luckiest, most blessed man every morning.’

And when Oprah asked about the 11-year age difference between them, he said: ‘Age ain’t nothing but a number.’

Nick, who said he had always had a crush on Mariah growing up, said he told her: ‘I’m like, ‘Give me a chance.”

He also revealed that he had proposed by hiding a ring inside a lavender pink lollipop, saying he popped the question as they looked the Empire State Building from her New York apartment roof.

It had been lit up in lavender pink colours to mark her 18th number one record.

Mariah also showed Oprah how to apply her perfume, Forever – by squeezing a few drops between her breasts, and told her that she could learn from her moves.

And she also showed off her wedding ring.

Mariah said: ‘He [Nick] designed it and I’m very proud of him.’

The pair appeared on The Oprah Winfrey Show live from New York’s Central Park.

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