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The newest unlikely superstar, Susan Boyle of Britan’s Got Talent fame, whose beautiful rendition of I Dreamed a Dream from Les Miserables suprised and stunned both the judges and viewers is slated to appear on Oprah. Simon Cowell will visit the set of the show on Monday, while Susan will welcome Oprah’s cameras into her Scotland home.
photo: fame
On Friday’s The Oprah Winfrey Show, the talk show host gave a stern warning to Rihanna, who has taken back Chris Brown (who has been charged with two felonies for assaulting her last month).
“Both Chris Brown and Rihanna, if I were your friend, I’d call you up and say, ‘Give it some time. Get yourself some counseling. Take care of yourself. Heal yourself first,’” said Winfrey, who will dedicate a program this week to discussing domestic violence for “all the Rihannas of the world.”
Looking directly into the camera, Winfrey added, “If a man hits you once, he will hit you again. He will hit you again.”
Echoed Gayle King, “If you guys want to get back together, I’m OK with that. But at least take some time. I am so worried she is sending the wrong message to the young fans. And him, too!”
On Friday, Usmagazine.com reported that Rihanna will testify in the Brown case, if required.
“She is planning to do everything that the law requires her to do,” her lawyer Donald Etra told Us. “If she is required to testify, she will do so.”
He added that she is “doing fine. She really appreciates the love and support of her fans.”
Brown, who remains free on $50,000 bail, is to be arraigned April 6.
If convicted, he faces anywhere from probation to four years and eight months in state prison.
In an upcoming interview on The Oprah Winfrey Show, the grandfather of the newborn octuplets calls the actions of his daughter and her doctor “absolutely irresponsible.”
Speaking candidly about Nadya Suleman and her decision to have eight babies on top of the six others she is raising, Ed Doud says, “I’m no psychiatrist, but I question her mental situation.”
When Winfrey asks about the now defunct Web site she had launched seeking donations, Doud says, “You know what? She needs help. I say to everybody now — people — we do need help.
“Do not punish my daughter for what she had done and do not punish the babies, because they were given by God,” he continues.
A California-based nonprofit called Angels in Waiting has offered Nadya round-the-clock care and a place to stay with her 14 children. It would cost about $135,000 a month to provide the 12 caretakers necessary for the children.
The money, the Associated Press reports, would have to come from public donations, founder Linda West Conforti says.
Asked what his greatest hope is, Doud tells Winfrey, “[To] stay healthy and have my grandchildren – all of them to be healthy – and the mother to finish her schooling and start working, and we all could support this family.”
Doud’s entire interview airs Tuesday.
Having packed 40 pounds onto her former 160-pound self, Oprah Winfrey is declaring, “I’m mad at myself” because she’s “fallen off the wagon.”
As the media mogul, 54, writes in the January issue of her O magazine hitting newsstands Tuesday (and provided in advance to the Associated Press by Winfrey’s Harpo Productions): “I’m embarrassed … I can’t believe that after all these years, all the things I know how to do, I’m still talking about my weight. I look at my thinner self and think, ‘How did I let this happen again?’ ”
For starters, the fact that her thyroid was out-of-balance gave her “a fear of working out,” she says. “I was so frustrated I started eating whatever I wanted – and that’s never good.”
Having slimmed down to 160 in 2006, she admits, “Yes, you’re adding correctly. That means the dreaded 2-0-0.”
Winfrey memorably revealed her new look on her show in 1988 – by wheeling out a wagon loaded with fat to represent the 67 pounds she had shed. On that episode, she sported a pair of size 10 Calvin Klein jeans.
“My greatest failure was in believing that the weight issue was just about the weight,” Winfrey told PEOPLE in 1991. “It’s about not handling stress properly.”
But when it came to slipping into those jeans, “I had literally starved myself for four months [on a liquid-protein diet] – not a morsel of food,” Winfrey, an admitted food addict, said in 2005. “Two hours after that show, I started eating to celebrate – of course, within two days those jeans no longer fit!”
Winfrey’s weight has long been a topic on her show – and even for late-night hosts. In 1990, she hit 237 pounds, eventually prompting her in 1996 to enlist personal trainer Bob Greene. At the time, she said she had wanted to bring an end to her roller-coaster weight saga.
Choosing a gown for the Barack Obama inauguration coming up in January, however, made Winfrey realize her self-image was no longer jibed with the person standing on the scales – though the real low point occurred last April.
“I felt like a fat cow,” Winfrey writes of the occasion when she sought to skip out on a Las Vegas show taping with Cher and Tina Turner. “I wanted to disappear.”
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Winfrey’s weight and height rank her as obese, with a body mass index of 31.8 – putting her at “at higher risk for chronic conditions such as high blood pressure, diabetes and high cholesterol,” says the CDC.
Winfrey intends to address the issue on The Oprah Winfrey Show, which will kick off “Best Life Week” Jan. 5.
She is also expected to discuss her weight that same day on her XM satellite radio station’s The Gayle King Show. Winfrey will also host interactive live Web casts at Oprah.com the week of Jan. 12 to 16, nightly at 9 p.m. ET.
Oprah Winfrey has long been Barack Obama’s No. 1 fan, so it’s no surprise she wasted little time in speaking out about the Democrat’s historic victory Tuesday night.
“It feels like hope won,” the TV icon told Britain’s BBC. “It feels like there’s a shift in consciousness. It feels like something really big and bold has happened here, like nothing ever in our lifetimes did we expect this to happen.”
The talk-show host was on hand in Chicago to watch Obama’s victory speech, along with Brad Pitt and Jesse Jackson.
Meanwhile, in Los Angeles, Courteney Cox and hubby David Arquette hosted a Barack Obama victory party Tuesday night at their Beverly Hills home, E! Online reports. Jennifer Aniston, Sacha Baron Cohen and Isla Fisher were reportedly among the guests.
Celebrities React
Other celebrities were also quick to sing the praises of the President-elect, who won a decisive victory over John McCain, becoming the first-ever African-American to claim the White House. Here’s a sampling:
• Actor George Clooney: “I congratulate President-elect Obama on his historic victory, and now it’s time to begin unifying the country so we can take on the extraordinary challenges that this generation faces.”
• Singer Usher: “This will go down in history, in black history, for all of the sacrifices that the great Joseph Lowery and Martin Luther King made, this actually pays off for their sacrifice. … I’m speechless. I don’t even know what to say.”
• Music mogul Diddy: “I felt like my vote was the vote that put him into office. … And that may not be true but that’s how much power it felt like I had.”
• Fall Out Boy’s Pete Wentz to PEOPLE: “My parents met working for [Obama's running mate on one of his early campaigns]. If it weren’t for Joe Biden, I would not exist as a human being. … I am proud to be a part of history in the making.”
• Former Secretary of State Colin Powell: “We’re very, very proud to have a new American President who also happens to be African-American … As I watched [the news anchors call the election] – pretty moving moment. Everybody cried … I am overjoyed.”
Talk show host and media mogul Oprah Winfrey tops the list of Parade magazine’s most generous celebrities, with a whopping $50.2 million in charitable donations last year.
Winfrey, 54, contributed the funds to various charities, including her own Oprah’s Angel Network, which provides education, health care and advocacy for women and children worldwide. Parade’s list was compiled by The Giving Back Fund from public records of donations given during 2007.
The list’s No. 2 most generous celebrity was 73-year-old bandleader Herb Alpert, who dispensed $13 million to charity, including his music foundation.
Singer Barbra Streisand gave away $11 million to causes concerned with improving the environment, women’s issues, civil rights and AIDS research.
Hollywood icon Paul Newman is No. 4 on the list, with a $10 million donation to Kenyon College, his alma mater, in Gambier, OH.
Actor Mel Gibson gave away $9.9 million to his Holy Family Church in Malibu, CA, while celeb power couple Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie provided $8.4 million to their foundation to benefit New Orleans reconstruction, refugee aid and cross-cultural understanding.
Three athletes – cycling champion Lance Armstrong basketball legend Michael Jordan and hockey star Eric Lindros – tied for seventh place on the list, each donating $5 million to their favorite charities.
WENN
Kid Rock has hit out at talk show queen Oprah Winfrey – because he “doesn’t believe” in her politics.
Chatshow host Winfrey has urged her viewers to vote for Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama, turning up at last week’s Democratic National Convention in Denver, Colorado to support the politician.
But Rock insists the media mogul’s rally around the Illinois senator has caused him to question his own vote.
He says, “When they all go, ‘I’m voting for this guy,’ I go, ‘That’s not who I’m voting for!’ …I love Barack Obama. I hate Oprah Winfrey. (No), I don’t hate her. I just don’t believe in her.”
WENN
