Oprah_ A Biography Part 14

Oprah was sufficiently contrite and vowed never again to broadcast a show on devil worship. She agreed to reach out to B'nai B'rith, which fights anti-Semitism and racism, whenever her show focused on those subjects, and she promised to exercise better judgment in selecting guests. The two sides came together over the next three days to work out two statements to be delivered to the press, which had been covering the story nearly every day. Oprah and her executive producer said, "We recognize that The Oprah The Oprah Winfrey Show on May 1 could have contributed to the perpetuation and historical on May 1 could have contributed to the perpetuation and historical misconceptions and canards about Jews, and we regret that any harm may have been done. We are aware of community and group sensibilities and will make every effort to ensure that our program will reflect that concern."

Speaking on behalf of the Jewish community leaders, ADL representative Barry Morrison said, "We were all satisfied that Oprah Winfrey and her staff did not intend to offend anyone and that Oprah was genuinely sorry for any offense or misunderstanding.

During the meeting, constructive recommendations were made and there was an extensive exchange of information which led to a greater understanding of Jewish perspective on the part of Oprah and her staff."

Not everyone was pleased with the outcome. "It's an inadequate response to the harm that may have been done on that broadcast," said Phil Baum, a.s.sociate executive director of the American Jewish Congress. "It's not our sensitivities she ought to be concerned about. It's a question of the integrity of her show. This apology cannot possibly reach anything like the people [7,680,000 homes, according to the A.C. Nielsen Company] who were exposed to these statements."

Oprah refused to make an apology on her show or publicly comment on the program or the statements, but privately she embraced her two major defenders and kept Mrs. Brady and Judge Marovitz close to her for the rest of their lives. Both were invited to all her parties, and because of them she became more involved in Jewish causes.

When Judge Marovitz died in 2001 at the age of ninety-five, the elite of Chicago a.s.sembled in his courtroom on the twenty-fifth floor of the Dirksen Federal Building to remember him as, in Mayor Richard Daley's words, "a true friend and wonderful human being." Covering the memorial for the Chicago Sun-Times, Chicago Sun-Times, Neil Steinberg was surprised Neil Steinberg was surprised to see Oprah in the crowd. "Every man would like a woman of mystery at his memorial,"

he wrote, "and it was fitting that Winfrey filled that role at Marovitz's service."

"I love him," Oprah said. "He was beyond wonderful. He was one of my inspirations. He was a dear friend to me when I most needed him."

"And what exactly did Marovitz do for you?" Steinberg asked.

Winfrey smiled, sphinxlike: "I'm not saying."

Two years later, when Harriet Brady, then eighty-six, was dying in the hospital, Oprah visited her often, and later attended her funeral. They, too, had become close over the years, and it was a relationship Oprah valued because Harriet Brady, wealthy in her own right and socially established, wanted nothing from her. "Oprah feels so ripped off by everyone that she appreciates people who, as she says, 'don't bleed me,' " said Bill Zwecker, the newspaper columnist and television commentator who had been covering the talk show host since she moved to Chicago.

Shortly after making her peace with Jewish America, Oprah was. .h.i.t with a nasty blind item by Ann Gerber in the Chicago Sun-Times Chicago Sun-Times (May 14, 1989): (May 14, 1989): Can it be true that the lover of one of our richest women was found in bed with her hairdresser when she returned early from a trip abroad? The battle that ensued brought her screaming out on to Lake Sh.o.r.e Drive, shocking her staid neighbors.

Although Oprah did not live on Lake Sh.o.r.e Drive, she knew she was the target of the gossip columnist, and she was irate. "She was angrier than I've ever seen her,"

recalled Patricia Lee Lloyd.

Three days later, on May 17, 1989, Ann Gerber responded to the calls she had received from Oprah's staff with another item, this time naming names: Rumors that TV talk show star Oprah Winfrey and the hunk Stedman Graham had a major rift (one version has Oprah shooting him) just aren't true, friends insist.

The media flew into a frenzy, calling Chicago police and area hospitals to try to confirm the story, with no success. Oprah issued an emotional denial on her show (May 19, 1989):.

I have chosen to speak up because this rumor has become so widespread and so vulgar that I just wanted to go on record and let you know that it is not true. There is absolutely no truth whatsoever to any part of it.

She didn't say what the vulgar rumor was, so most of her audience was confused and did not understand why she was so upset. This triggered even more curiosity, proving, as Shakespeare wrote, that "Rumor is a pipe / that the blunt monster with uncounted heads / can play upon."

Oprah had recently hired a new publicist who had moved to Chicago that week to work for her, but in the furor over the rumor, she fired him while he was looking for an apartment to a.s.sume his new job. He later confided that he left Chicago grateful to put distance between himself and Oprah, who "seemed so completely surrounded by evil."

Bill Zwecker recalled that time as turbulent. "Oprah admitted to me that she had made a huge mistake by going on her national television show to denounce the rumor,"

he said. "By doing that she opened Pandora's box and allowed the tabloids to invade her privacy. She said it was a monumental error on her part, but she could not pull back, and Ann got fired over the incident....The day the blind item ran, I saw Oprah at a women's charity event, and cafe society was falling all over her. A week later, when Ann was fired, the same cafe society was blaming Oprah for getting poor little Annie Gerber fired.

I wrote a column about the hypocrisy of it all. Kiss kiss one week; diss diss the next."

Later Zwecker received a note from Oprah: Bill--I shall never forget that when other people were kicking me in the teeth with that rumor you did the kindest thing. You lifted me up. Seeing you the other night with your dad reminded me of what a gracious thing you did. Again I thank you.

Oprah's angry denial of the rumor did not receive much coverage until May 22, 1989, when the Chicago Tribune Chicago Tribune's revered columnist Mike Royko defended her right to be outraged and quoted the irresponsible gossip columnist as saying, "It is a vicious rumor but I wanted to run the item even though there was no way I could verify the rumor." When Ann Gerber was fired the next day, she held a press conference "to clear my name." She said, "I think I was fired because the Sun-Times Sun-Times feared Oprah." feared Oprah."

Considering Oprah's immense influence in the city, most people accepted the statement as obvious, although Kenneth Towers, editor of the Chicago Sun-Times, Chicago Sun-Times, denied receiving denied receiving any pressure from Oprah or her attorney, Jeff Jacobs.

Recalling the trauma later, Oprah said, "I have been hurt and disappointed by things that people have said and tried to do to me, but through it all, even in my moments of great pain--this rumor being the biggest of it--I had the blessed a.s.surance that I am G.o.d's child....And n.o.body else's. That is really the source of my strength, my power. It is the source of all my success.

"The thing that got me through this rumor was the Bible verse Isaiah 54:17, which I have always believed. That is, 'No weapon that is formed against thee shall prosper; and every tongue that shall rise against thee in judgment thou shalt condemn.' And this I know, no matter how difficult things may get, this I know."

Twelve.

ONCE OPRAH became a millionaire, she announced that she was going to become "the richest black woman in the world." At the time, she publicly restricted herself to her race, as if a black woman could not dream of becoming the richest woman in the world, but that might have been in keeping with her efforts then to be seen as "everywoman," not to appear, in her words, "uppity," or "to look grander than anyone else." As she told Fred Griffith, the host of Cleveland's Morning Exchange, Morning Exchange, in 1987, she in 1987, she always knew she would be successful, but she tried to sound modest. "Because [otherwise] people say, 'Look at the c.o.c.ky Negro.' "

To the contrary, people seemed genuinely delighted by Oprah's success and inspired by her gospel: "If I can do it, you can do it." She sparked the imagination, especially of women twenty-five to fifty-four years old, television's most precious demographic. She was heralded for personifying the American Dream with all its honeyed promises of equal opportunity. Yet she told the writer Barbara Grizzuti Harrison she felt hurt by "negativity from black women," obviously forgetting that in 1988 she had told Barbara Walters on national television that as a little girl she had always wanted to be white. "[I]t's the kind of thing that I hesitate to say because when you say it, all the black groups call and say, 'How dare you say it?' But yes, I did [want to be white]."

Understandably some black women felt bruised, but Oprah did not see why. She asked former television correspondent Janet Langhart Cohen if she, too, had the same problem. "Did you have black women calling you up and telling you you weren't black enough and asking why you don't have more blacks on the show?"

"Oh, don't tell me you're having that problem?"

"Oh, yeah," said Oprah. "I've had it in Chicago for two years. It's a small segment.

Once it spreads, though, it becomes an issue. I mean, like on black radio stations--it's like the nighttime discussion. They call in and ask: 'Is Oprah Winfrey black enough?' "

"It's just plain jealousy," said Janet Langhart Cohen.

"That's what it is," said Oprah. "The hardest thing to come to terms with has been the jealousy."

Most of Oprah's worshipful audiences (predominantly white women) enjoyed her enthusiasm over her new riches and relished her reports of shopping and buying and spending, although on the air she carefully confined herself to girlish confessions about not having to buy panty hose at Walgreens anymore rather than discussing her more extravagant purchases, such as the $470,000 she spent at one furniture auction. "She paid two hundred forty thousand dollars for a little Shaker chest of drawers, and it's in her kitchen now," said her decorator Anthony Browne. "Why did she buy it? Because her idol is Bill Cosby [who collects Shaker furniture]. Everything he does, she has to do."

What many people missed in Oprah's rags-to-riches story was the towering ambition that motored her. Her drive was insatiable. Fueled by long days of hard work, she never stopped barreling forward--always reaching, stretching, extending. A selfpropelled whirlwind of industry, she slept only four or five hours a night and rarely relaxed. During one week in 1988, she flew to Mobile, Alabama, to give a speech, then to Nashville, to give another speech. She returned to Chicago to tape back-to-back shows, flew to Cleveland for another speaking engagement, and then flew to Greensboro, North Carolina, to meet Stedman for dinner. She left the next morning for New York to accept an award, flew back to Nashville for a charity baseball game with Stedman, and returned to Chicago the next day. She pushed herself constantly, and she pushed everyone around her, which was probably necessary to achieve her kind of stratospheric success.

After filming The Color Purple she announced her plan to pursue a movie career she announced her plan to pursue a movie career in addition to her talk show. "I want it all....I intend to be a great actress," she told Ladies' Ladies'

Home Journal. "A great actress." "A great actress."

Having undergone tortuous negotiations with WLS to get her the time off to make her first movie, Jeff Jacobs proposed she take ownership of her talk show so that she, and not WLS, could set her schedule for future films. The station had balked at giving her twelve weeks off, and she had threatened to quit if they didn't. So Jacobs forfeited all of her paid vacation and sick leave to get her the time, and the station agreed to bring in guest hosts and show reruns until she returned. At that point he told Oprah she had to think about producing her own show and building her own studio so she would have complete control of her professional life. "He allowed me to see that not even the sky was the limit," she said.

When she received a Golden Globe nomination for Best Supporting Actress, followed by the Academy Award nomination in 1986, she was unstoppable. "I've got to act," she told Good Housekeeping. Good Housekeeping. "I'm a good interviewer largely because I taught "I'm a good interviewer largely because I taught myself how. But I was born born to act." She told Larry King on CNN that she was at her "out to act." She told Larry King on CNN that she was at her "out of my mind happiest" when performing. "I hear people say this about having children.

When their babies just come out of the womb and stuff, but I have those moments when I am acting."

She said she intended to make at least one film a year. In March 1988 she started her second movie, costarring with Geraldine Page, Elizabeth McGovern, and Matt Dillon in Native Son, Native Son, based on the Richard Wright novel about a black man's murderous rage. based on the Richard Wright novel about a black man's murderous rage.

Oprah was cast as the mother who begs for mercy from the parents of the white girl her son has murdered. Her performance failed to impress critics. "She weighs in with an overload of bathos," Julie Salamon wrote in The Wall Street Journal. The Wall Street Journal. Hal Erickson, in the Hal Erickson, in the online database AMG (All-Movie Guide), concurred: "Oprah's excessive histrionics pale in comparison to her brilliant, well-modulated performance in The Color Purple. The Color Purple. " "

Vincent Canby wrote in The New York Times The New York Times that "the film only seems dated when the that "the film only seems dated when the performers, especially Oprah Winfrey, play for sentiment."

Native Son flopped at the box office and was pulled two weeks after release, but flopped at the box office and was pulled two weeks after release, but Oprah rose above the withering reviews. "I should do a comedy," she told the Chicago Chicago Tribune. When she was offered the role of the Manhattan cleaning lady in the film When she was offered the role of the Manhattan cleaning lady in the film version of Truman Capote's short story "A Day's Work," she decided she was becoming typecast as the heavy-set, woebegone woman with a gray bun on her head and support hose rolled down her legs. She told the writer Robert Waldron she was offended by those who accused her of playing only Aunt Jemima characters. "At first I would be very kind,"

she said. "Now I just want to slap them!" She told AdWeek, AdWeek, "I would like to do a "I would like to do a character that has some s.e.xuality. Like Dinah Washington, who was a great black singer who had seven different husbands and used to s.e.xually exhaust her men." Oprah didn't want to play only black women who had problems. "It's important for me to tell our stories, but I refuse to be limited to just that."

Hearing her declarations about becoming a movie star, many a.s.sumed that King World would lose The Oprah Winfrey Show, The Oprah Winfrey Show, its third biggest moneymaker after its third biggest moneymaker after Wheel of Wheel of Fortune and and Jeopardy!, Jeopardy!, but the distributor was not worried. "Oprah is very ambitious," but the distributor was not worried. "Oprah is very ambitious,"

said the chief financial officer, Jeffrey Epstein. "She wants to act in movies and TV shows, [but] there are not many great parts for black women. So she needs to produce shows herself, which cost a lot of money, and the best way to finance all that is to stick with her daytime job." Oprah had recently paid Toni Morrison $1 million for the rights to film her Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, Beloved. Beloved. "I didn't even try to negotiate....I just said, "I didn't even try to negotiate....I just said, 'Name your price,' and I paid it." She believed she had made a $1 million investment in putting her name in lights.

Except for rock stars, movie stars, professional athletes, and Wall Street marauders, few people make more money than a syndicated television talk show host with a number one-rated show carried in two hundred U.S. cities and sixty-four international markets. In her first year of syndication, Oprah made $31 million; in her second year she made $37 million; three years later, she made $55 million and landed in Forbes as the ninth highest paid entertainer in the world. The talk show was the major as the ninth highest paid entertainer in the world. The talk show was the major source of her wealth, and she had no intention of ever giving it up. "It's my bosom, my root, and my foundation," she said. "Without it, nothing else could happen." Nor did she consider moving from Chicago to pursue films. While most of the acting jobs were in New York and Los Angeles, Oprah knew her show could not thrive in either city.

"I think that in the Midwest you can have people who are surprised by some of the experiences that are exhibited on our show," she told Fred Griffith. "If you have someone on my show who says, 'My father was dating a duck for many years,' in the Midwest people say, 'Oh, G.o.d, his father was dating a duck!' In New York they say, 'Oh, my cousin was dating a duck, too.' " Referring to the impressionable studio audiences she could a.s.semble from the area that writer Calvin Trillin once described as a milieu in which "culture did not hang heavily in the air," Oprah told Electronic Media, Electronic Media, "People can "People can still be shocked here."

Her executive producer elaborated. "Our audience definitely takes on the personality of the city," said Debra DiMaio. "They reflect Midwestern values. They are outgoing. And nothing against Los Angeles or New York--their lifestyle is more human."

"It's true that Oprah couldn't do her show anyplace else," said Cheryl L. Reed, former editor of the editorial page of the Chicago Sun-Times. Chicago Sun-Times. "People are too "People are too sophisticated and cynical in New York and Los Angeles, but Chicago is perfect for her kind of television."

The city was grateful to Oprah for staying because she brought international acclaim to Chicago and drew hordes of tourists, filling hotels and restaurants with those who attended her shows every year. They are such a draw that the Chicago Office of Tourism added a special listing of "talk show ticket information" to the brochure it mails out to prospective visitors. Oprah also annually contributes hundreds of thousands of dollars to local organizations, including a children's hospital, educational programs, schools, shelters, and literacy programs. In addition, she's given generously to various museums and arts organizations across the city, including the Shedd Aquarium, the Chicago Academy for the Arts, the Children's Museum in Oak Lawn, and the DuSable Museum of African American History.

A review of Oprah's tax returns for all her charities, plus statements she has made to the press, indicate that from 1987 through 2009 she contributed more than $30 million to various Chicago organizations. Some of these funds came from viewers' contributions to Oprah's Angel Network--money that Oprah collected from others and donated in her name.

By August 1988, Jeff Jacobs had completed negotiating the deal with Capital Cities/ABC to give Oprah total control of her weekday show. In addition, he hammered out a new contract with King World to renew her contract for five years, through 1993, and all seven Capital Cities/ABC stations agreed to carry her through that time. In addition, ABC gave her three network specials. Industry a.n.a.lysts estimated the deals to be worth more than $500 million for Oprah and King World. Twenty years later, they estimated that The Oprah Winfrey Show The Oprah Winfrey Show made $150 million a year, of which Oprah kept made $150 million a year, of which Oprah kept $100 million. In contrast, Ellen DeGeneres, another popular talk show host with high ratings, made $25 million a year, an impressive amount, but one quarter of what Oprah made. The considerable difference is because Oprah owns and produces her show, although she also benefits from having more profitable time slots, when TV viewership is greater. Oprah's show runs at 4:00 P.M. in all cities (except Chicago, where it runs at 9:00 A.M.) and leads in to the news, which makes it more valuable to a station than Ellen's show, which airs in the morning.

After the ownership news was announced in 1988, Oprah sat down with Robert Feder of the Chicago Sun-Times: Chicago Sun-Times: "I had been looking at pictures of Rosa Parks and Leontyne Price," she said, "and I believe I am the resurrection of a lot of my ancestors. I am the resurrected life for them.

I am living the dream. Please, please quote me correctly, 'cause I don't want people thinkin' I'm Jesus....

"All my life, I have done dramatic interpretations of black women. Harriet Tubman, Sojourner Truth, Fannie Lou Hamer are all a part of me. I've always felt that my life is their life fulfilled, that they are bridges that I crossed over on. They never dreamed it could be this good. I still feel that they're all with me, going, 'Go, girl. Go for it.' "

A week later the Sun-Times Sun-Times columnist Daniel Ruth was still sputtering. Declaring columnist Daniel Ruth was still sputtering. Declaring that Oprah's ego had gone on "a Falstaffian, gluttonous binge," he wrote, "Don't worry, Oprah. Just because you can turn pap into cash, you needn't fret too much about comparisons to Christ....I have a hard time believing Sojourner Truth spent a lot of time wrestling with subjects like 'Victims of Freeloaders' (Oprah show: July 5, 1988), 'Soap Opera Stars and Their Fans' (Oprah show: June 29, 1988) or 'Dressing s.e.xy' (Oprah show: July 28, 1988)." To be fair, Ruth gave Oprah credit for covering a few substantial subjects, such as "Race Relations" (August 4, 1988), the controversy over the film The The Last Temptation of Christ (August 16, 1988), and a debate on AIDS (July 15, 1988). But (August 16, 1988), and a debate on AIDS (July 15, 1988). But then he lambasted her: "Please, dearest Oprah, don't presume to place yourself in a cla.s.s with genuine intellects, leaders, and such pioneering black women as Sojouner Truth, Harriet Tubman, Fannie Lou Hamer, Leontyne Price, and especially Rosa Parks, who earned their rightful acclaim through commitment, quality, and courage."

Once Oprah owned her own show, Jeff Jacobs began looking for a production studio, and within months he found a $4 million property (one hundred thousand square feet) on the Near West Side of the city, then a rundown area of scabby storefronts and vacant lots. Realizing that downtown Chicago could expand only in that direction, he advised Oprah to make the investment. He told her it would be her field of dreams. If she built it, they would come. She could produce her talk show there, as well as make movies for herself and others. "It's security," he said. "It's control of our destiny." He told reporters, "Harpo will be the studio between the coasts and enable Oprah to do whatever it is she wants to do, economically and under her own control." Jacobs and King World put up 20 percent of the purchase price, giving Oprah 80 percent ownership. She became chairman of Harpo Productions, Inc., and Jacobs became president and chief operating officer.

This acquisition made her the first African American woman to own her own film studio, and only the third woman in history to do so (the first two were Mary Pickford and Lucille Ball). However, Oprah was the only one to do it completely on her own, without a husband, although she did have the shrewd counsel of her lawyer/agent, who encouraged her to bet on herself. "Don't be talent for hire," Jacobs said. "Own yourself.

Don't take a salary. Take a piece of the action." At that point in her life Oprah described Jeff Jacobs as "a gift" and kept his photo in a sterling-silver frame on her desk, next to pictures of Bill Cosby, Quincy Jones, Stedman, and Gayle. "Jeff released me from slave mentality," she said. "He helped me to see that I really could have control."

Control was vital to Oprah, perhaps because of her terribly vulnerable childhood in Milwaukee, but Jacobs still had to push her into the concept of ownership. He a.s.sured her that her companies need never go public, so she would not have to contend with scrutiny, which she detested. Nor would she have to answer to a board of directors, or trustees, or oversight committees. "My vision of control [then] was not having people tell me what to do," she said. "[Until then] I was still thinking like a slave. I was thinking like talent. You have to go to another level of things to say, 'I want to own it.' " Fortuitously for Jacobs, her wants outweighed her reservations.

He described his job as Oprah's counselor. "I present research, options, and opinions to her. We discuss them, and then she makes the decisions. I work for her and with her, and because of that, we've built an organization where she knows exactly what's going on at all times. She signs the checks, she makes the decisions. I protect her and look at things from a legal as well as business standpoint, but she understands this organization from top to bottom."

Before their acrimonious split in 2002, Jeff Jacobs helped Oprah build her media empire, which included: Harpo Productions, Inc.

SUBSIDIARIES: Harpo Interactive, Harpo Music Publishing, Harpo Sounds Music Publishing, Oprah Music Publishing, Harpo Sounds CREDITS.

INCLUDE:.

No One Dies Alone (1988); (1988); The Oprah Winfrey Show The Oprah Winfrey Show (1988-present); Just Between Friends Just Between Friends (1989); (1989); The Women of Brewster Place The Women of Brewster Place (1989); (1989); Brewster Place (1990); (1990); In the Name of Self-Esteem In the Name of Self-Esteem (1990); ABC Afterschool Specials (1990); ABC Afterschool Specials (1992-1993): Girlfriend, I Hate the Way I Look, Shades of a Single Protein, and Girlfriend, I Hate the Way I Look, Shades of a Single Protein, and Surviving a Break Up; Nine (1992); (1992); Oprah Behind the Scenes Oprah Behind the Scenes (1992); (1992); Overexposed Overexposed (1992); Michael Jackson Talks...to Oprah Michael Jackson Talks...to Oprah (1993); (1993); There Are No Children Here There Are No Children Here (1993); (1993); David and Lisa (1998); (1998); Tuesdays with Morrie Tuesdays with Morrie (1999); (1999); Oprah Goes Online Oprah Goes Online (2000); (2000); Use Use Your Life (2001); (2001); Oprah After the Show Oprah After the Show (2002); (2002); Dr. Phil Dr. Phil (2002-2005); (2002-2005); Oprah Winfrey Oprah Winfrey Legends Ball (2006); (2006); Rachael Ray Rachael Ray (2006-present); (2006-present); Building a Dream Building a Dream (2007); (2007); Oprah Oprah Winfrey Oscar Special (2007); (2007); Oprah's Big Give Oprah's Big Give (2008); (2008); Dr. Oz Dr. Oz (2009-present) (2009-present) Harpo, Inc.

Does administrative and some publicity ch.o.r.es and owns the trademarks OPRAH, The Oprah Winfrey Show, Make the Connection, Oprah's Book Club, Use Your Life, Oprah's Book Club, Use Your Life, Oprah's Favorite Things, Wildest Dreams with Oprah, Oprah Boutique, The Oprah Store, oprah.com, Oprah's Big Give, The Big Give, Give Big or Go Home, Expert Minutes, Oprah & Friends, Oprah Radio, and Live Your Best Life, as well as the Oprah signature and "O" design.

In January 2008, Harpo, Inc., entered into a partnership with Discovery to create the Oprah Winfrey Network, a cable channel that is expected to go on the air in 2011.

Harpo Entertainment Group Administrative umbrella encompa.s.sing Harpo Productions, Inc., Harpo Studios, Inc., and Harpo Films, Inc.

Harpo Studios, Inc.

Production studios for The Oprah Winfrey Show The Oprah Winfrey Show at 1058 West Washington Street; at 1058 West Washington Street; other production facilities, and businesses offices, at 110 N. Carpenter Street Harpo Films, Inc.

CREDITS.

INCLUDE:.

Before Women Had Wings (1997); (1997); Beloved Beloved (1998); (1998); The The Wedding (1998); (1998); Amy and Isabelle Amy and Isabelle (2001); (2001); Their Eyes Were Watching G.o.d Their Eyes Were Watching G.o.d (2005); (2005); For For One More Day (2007); (2007); The Great Debaters The Great Debaters (2007) (2007) In 2008, Harpo Films made a three-year deal to provide programming for HBO.

In January 2009 Harpo Films announced a deal to film The Story of Edgar The Story of Edgar Sawtelle in partnership with Tom Hanks's Playtone. in partnership with Tom Hanks's Playtone.

In February 2009, Oprah announced that she would support the distribution of Sundance Film Festival award winner Push: Based on the Novel by Sapphire, Push: Based on the Novel by Sapphire, later called later called Precious, by releasing it through Harpo Films. by releasing it through Harpo Films.

Harpo Print LLC CREDITS:.

O, The Oprah Magazine, and the now defunct and the now defunct O at Home, O at Home, in in partnership with Hearst Owns the trademark O, The Oprah Magazine. O, The Oprah Magazine.

Harpo Radio Inc.

CREDITS: Programming for the Oprah Radio Network for Sirius XM Harpo Video Inc.

CREDIT:.

Make the Connection OW Licensing Co.

Holder of the rights of publicity of Oprah Winfrey.

Oprah's Studio Merchandise Inc.

Runs the Oprah Store and the Harpo gym and owns a $780,000 condo in Acorn Loftominiums, purchased in 2006.

In addition to purchasing the property for Harpo Studios, Oprah and her partners invested another $16 million in renovating, extending, and equipping the production studio. They worked with architects, engineers, and designers for eighteen months.

"Never in a lifetime, never did I imagine it would be this much work," she said later. "I still would have gone along with it. The reality is that it's work and money. money. I'm really not I'm really not as overwhelmed by the financial responsibility as some people might be....I went in knowing it would cost a lot of money."

Oprah invested fully--emotionally and financially--in creating a studio that would reflect the image she wanted to present to the world. She did the same with all the homes she built. After purchasing one hundred acres in Telluride, Colorado, she hired the renowned firm of Robert A. M. Stern, dean of the Yale School of Architecture.

"First meeting we showed her something natural to the surroundings--alpine timbers and logs," said one of the architects. "She dismissed it entirely. 'I want something that when people drive up they will say WOW.' So we went back to the drawing boards and gave her Tara on a ski slope with marble and white columns and sweeping verandas.

When she came back and saw the plans, she said, 'I wanted a house that would make people say WOW. Not Holy s.h.i.t!' " The house was never built.

Oprah wanted her Harpo Studios to become the major production center in the Midwest, with state-of-the-art facilities for television, commercials, and film production.

"With cost factors being less here than in Hollywood, we hope to keep existing production and attract new production to Chicago, which will create new jobs and other economic benefits," she said. "It is a joy for me to be able to invest in the city whose people have been so supportive of my work."