Oprah_ A Biography Part 22

When Whoopi Goldberg appeared at Harvard for a campus event a few weeks after the film was released, she was asked whether Oprah represented all of black womanhood. Goldberg giggled, wrinkled her face, and joked that something "flew up my nose." The crowd in Sanders Theatre laughed.

"It's great to see that someone can create a frenzy the way Oprah has," Whoopi said, "but it's unfortunate it sort of backfired on the movie."

Sitting in the front row that day, Henry Louis ("Skip") Gates, Jr., asked Goldberg why she thought Beloved Beloved had failed at the box office. had failed at the box office.

"I don't think people are there yet. I believe you have to be very careful when you're as big as Oprah that your audience doesn't get lost." Then she said, "I know if I answer you truthfully I'll have to answer for it [later] and I don't want to get into that with her."

Unfortunately, Whoopi's remarks were reported in 1998, and seven years later Oprah was still so angry she would not invite Whoopi to the "Legends Weekend" she hosted in 2005 to celebrate the accomplishments of African American women. The rebuke was stunning, considering that few African American women had won more artistic awards than Whoopi Goldberg. She is one of only ten artists to receive the five major entertainment awards: an Academy Award ( Ghost Ghost), two Golden Globes ( The The Color Purple and and Ghost Ghost), an Emmy ( Beyond Tara: The Extraordinary Life of Hattie Beyond Tara: The Extraordinary Life of Hattie McDaniel), a Tony for producer ( Thoroughly Modern Millie Thoroughly Modern Millie), and a Grammy ( Whoopi Whoopi Goldberg Direct from Broadway). In addition, she has won a BAFTA award and four People's Choice Awards, and has been honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Her exclusion from Oprah's Legends Weekend seemed petty.

After the debacle of Beloved Beloved and the collapse of her dream to become a grand and the collapse of her dream to become a grand movie star, Oprah fell into a deep depression. "I was beyond hurt. I was stunned. I was devastated by the reaction....I've been so in synch with the way people think and I've never been wrong. This was a first. The first time in my life...I felt rejected and it was a public rejection...." She vowed: "I will never do another film about slavery. I won't try to touch race again in this form." She said she turned to food for comfort. "Like a heroin addict goes to heroin, I went to carbs," she said, explaining her macaroni and cheese binges. "I tried praying about it and I gave myself a 30-day limit: If I didn't feel better, I was heading to a psychiatrist. I asked G.o.d what this experience was supposed to teach me. Eventually I realized I was allowing myself to feel bad because of my attachment to an expectation that 60 million people would see the film. When I let go of that, I was healed."

Making matters worse at the time was losing her status as the country's number one talk show host. For twenty-five straight weeks Jerry Springer had beaten her in the ratings, and Oprah was reeling. The previous summer she began hinting that she might give up her show, saying she was tired of the grind, but she always made this kind of feint right before contract negotiations.

"I'm not so much saddened by the way [my ratings are] going as stunned," she said at the time. "Unless you are going to kill people on the air--and not just hit them on the head with chairs--and unless you are going to have s.e.xual intercourse--and not just, as I saw the other day [on Jerry Springer], a guy pulling down his pants and pulling out his p.e.n.i.s--then there comes a time when you have oversaturated yourself." By then what she called Springer's "vulgarity circus" had beaten her in the ratings forty-six of the previous forty-seven weeks. "I can understand how you can get beaten in the ratings," she said.

"I'm introducing books and they've got p.e.n.i.ses."

Oprah had come a long way from the days when she, too, loved to shock her audiences. But she no longer wanted to be seen as a vulgarian, hosting shows for nudists and shouting "p.e.n.i.s, p.e.n.i.s, p.e.n.i.s." She believed that Beloved Beloved had transported her to a had transported her to a higher level. "It changed my life," she said. She told her producers that she felt she now had a moral obligation to change the lives of others. "I want to bring meaning to people's lives." She framed a huge photograph of herself as Sethe with "the tree" lashed across her back and hung it outside her Harpo office alongside a big leather whip as a reminder to her staff of her new vision for herself and her show. When Oprah's protegee Rachael Ray saw the photograph and the whip, she was reported to have said to friends, "Why is she wearing slave drag? She obviously has problems being black." Ray's publicist later denied that the TV chef had made the comment.

Oprah announced she would renew her contract with King World through the 1999/2000 and 2000/2001 seasons and begin a new kind of television. She received $130 million in cash advances and 450,000 King World stock options, in addition to the 1,395,000 options she already had from deals made in 1991, 1994, and 1995. By the time CBS took over King World in 1999, Oprah, whose fortune was then worth $725 million, had options on 4.4 million shares, worth $100 million.

Newly enriched and enlightened, she launched what she called "Change Your Life" television. She opened her 1998/1999 season with a new theme song based on an old spiritual, which she sang herself: "I believe I will run on and see what the end will be....Come on and run with me. O-O-O-Oprah!" She introduced New Age guides such as the author John Gray ( Men Are from Mars, Women Are from Venus Men Are from Mars, Women Are from Venus) to instruct her audience "to determine for yourself your true soul's desire and to be on purpose with your life." He taught her viewers to meditate by saying, "O glorious future, my heart is open to you. Come into my life." Using colorful props in his presentations, he handed a big stick to one woman, who closed her eyes and sobbed when he said, "I'd like you to go back to your inner child. I want you to imagine Mommy and Daddy coming to you, and I want you to express your feelings to them."

Believing in spiritual empowerment, Oprah presented the Yoruba priestess and inspirational author Iyanla Vanzant ( Acts of Faith Acts of Faith) to counsel women on finding love and purpose in their lives. Vanzant advised viewers "to surrender to the G.o.d of your understanding." One audience member asked, "I want to know how do you find total and complete peace?"

"Get naked with yourself," said Iyanla Vanzant.

Oprah also introduced the financial author Suze Orman ( The 9 Steps to Financial The 9 Steps to Financial Freedom), who preached that "money is a living ent.i.ty and responds to energy, including yours." Orman told Oprah's audience, "Your self-worth equals your net worth." She said they needed to get rid of their bad emotions and start believing they were destined for wealth in order to become wealthy.

Another regular "life coach" was Gary Zukav, who wrote The Seat of the Soul, The Seat of the Soul, which Oprah said was her second favorite book, next to the Bible. She introduced him as a onetime Green Beret and former s.e.x addict who lived on a mountain without television.

His purpose was to help Oprah and her audience "delve into their souls" and resolve their fears. "Your feelings are the force field of your soul," he said, emphasizing that fear is the cause of everything from violence to meanness.

"So," Oprah said, "fear is the opposite of love?"

"Fear is the opposite of love," he said.

"And anything that isn't love is fear?"

"Correct," he said. "When you really look at your fears and you heal them, you can look at yourself and you'll be beautiful."

He and Oprah devoted one entire show to karma. "Energy is energy," he said, "and you cannot escape it."

Oprah also embraced Sarah Ban Breathnach, the author of Simple Abundance, Simple Abundance, a a spiritual self-help book, from which she advised her viewers to keep grat.i.tude journals.

"Every night I write down five things in my journal I'm grateful for," Oprah said. "If you concentrate on what you have, you'll end up having more. If you constantly focus on what you don't have, you'll end up having less."

One of her most colorful "life strategy experts" was Dr. Phil, who had guided her through the cattlemen's lawsuit. She introduced him as "the deepest well of common sense I've ever encountered." At first the big, bald, blunt pract.i.tioner of tell-it-like-it-is therapy jolted her audience by telling them they were "way wrong," "full of c.r.a.p," and "wimpin' out." He didn't spare Oprah, either. In a segment about weight, he said, "We don't use food, we abuse food. It's not what you eat, but why you eat that has you in the problem you're in."

"Well, there are some people who are just genetically disposed to being smaller,"

said Oprah.

"But the fact is that ain't you!"

He told one member of the audience, "You talked about flowers and cake and wedding and dress. You're preparing for the wedding but not for the marriage."

"Mercy," said Oprah. "That is a good statement. That is so good!"

Dr. Phil said, "People say, 'time heals all wounds.' Let me tell you, time heals nothing. You can do the wrong thing for ten years, and it doesn't equal the right thing for one day. And the fact that--"

"Whooo," yelled Oprah. "That's good, Phil! Whooo! That's a good Phil-ism."

Soon Dr. Phil owned Tuesdays on The Oprah Winfrey Show, The Oprah Winfrey Show, where he appeared where he appeared for three years before entering into negotiations with Harpo to have his own talk show, which started in 2002.

Oprah concluded her "Change Your Life" shows with a segment called "Remembering Your Spirit," which she introduced with soft lights and New Age music, saying, "I am defined by the world as a talk show host, but I know that I am much more. I am spirit connected to the greater spirit." She ended one segment sitting in a bubble bath, surrounded by candles. "The bathroom is my favorite room in the house," she told Newsweek, which reported her bathtub sits like a small pond with water pouring out of which reported her bathtub sits like a small pond with water pouring out of the rocks that surround it. "I had this structure added on," she explained, "and the tub was sculpted to fit my body. My favorite thing to do is take a bath." On the air she sat in her marble tub filled with bubbles and recited a mantra to the spirits; then she addressed the camera. She urged her viewers to sit in their bathtubs for fifteen minutes every day.

"Your day will undoubtedly be more focused, more centered," she said. "Things tend to fall in line." She talked about her spirit in interviews, saying, "I think I'm just becoming more of myself, which is better than anybody can imagine. By 50, 52, I just can't wait to see me."

The bubble bath segment unleashed a torrent of "Deepak Oprah" criticism, comparing her to New Age guru Deepak Chopra. There was a severe media backlash, especially in Chicago. "[A]s I stand in the eye of this latest hurricane of national [self-]

worship, may I point out one thing," wrote Richard Roeper in the Chicago Sun-Times. Chicago Sun-Times.

"She's getting really goofy with all the spiritual questing." Oprah had told TV Guide TV Guide she she was so happy she was "splendiferous," but Roeper disagreed. "It seems to me we're watching a woman go through an almost frantic search for spiritual bliss and higher consciousness."

The Sun-Times later reported that a seventy-three-year-old woman following later reported that a seventy-three-year-old woman following Oprah's advice to light scented candles and "be reminded of the essential qualities of your light" had accidentally set fire to her retirement high-rise, sending a dozen people to the hospital.

The Chicago Tribune's TV critic, Steve Johnson, advised Oprah-holics to draw a bubble bath for their guru. "Her spirit--battered of late by indifference, criticism and the befuddlement on the faces of all those devotees who don't even know what she means when she preaches 'remembering your spirit' on her show every day--just might need it."

He p.r.o.nounced Oprah's "Change Your Life" television "a fairly skin-crawling thing.

"Winfrey, by giving it a label, was not just saying 'I want to help you change your life,' but making a more aggressive suggestion: 'You need to change your life.' And coming from a woman who can snap her fingers and get what she wants, who just signed a $150 million contract to do her talk show through 2002 and whose personal fortune has been estimated at closer to $1 billion than $0, it rings a little patronizing."

He also took aim at her for presenting blatant medical quackery by endorsing a woman who described herself as a "medical intuitive," who Oprah said was genuine because the woman had intuited that Oprah was worried about joint pain. As if a medical psychic, this woman diagnosed members of Oprah's audience simply by having them stand and give their first names and ages. She told a man with chronic migraine headaches: "Life owes me an explanation. That thought is in your liver and so it's burning. And what happens from the liver is there's an energetic circuit and it goes right up to the brain channel. And that starts the fire neurologically and that's why you have migraines."

Oprah soon became a moving target for the mainstream media. Psychology Today Psychology Today lambasted her for contributing to lunacy. "It is apparently arrogant to think that psychiatrists, physicists, evolutionary scientists, and epidemiologists might know more about their areas of expertise than say, Oprah," wrote Gad Saad, PhD, in an article about narcissistic celebrities who play doctor. A decade later Newsweek Newsweek put Oprah on the cover put Oprah on the cover (June 8, 2009), with an eleven-page article that castigated her for "crazy talk" and "wacky cures." Like the Pardoner in The Canterbury Tales The Canterbury Tales who sold fake relics and spurious who sold fake relics and spurious indulgences, Oprah was blasted as irresponsible for not knowing the difference between useful medical information and New Age nonsense. This was a complete turnaround for the magazine that had lauded her eight years before with a breathless cover story proclaiming "The Age of Oprah," saying, "She's changing more lives than ever." During her "Change Your Life" phase the magazine nicked her with a "Periscope" item t.i.tled "Oprah-Di, Oprah Da," giving five takes on "The Big O": 1. Good Riddance. It's Springer time! Oprah's feel-good blab is pa.s.se. What we require now is fights and s.l.u.ts. Jerry! Jerry!

2. She's a Ratings Martyr. She knew she'd lose fans with her self-help focus, and knew Beloved Beloved was a tough sell. But she needs to better us! was a tough sell. But she needs to better us!

3. O Is for Get Over Yourself. Oprah gets preachier every year. She's a cult leader, a self-proclaimed guru. And besides...

4. She's Telling Us How to Live? Can't keep the fat off? Can't tie the knot? Girl, your life's a mess.

5. Don't You Say That About Oprah! Survived poverty and abuse, saved the book biz, uses TV for good, cares about her fans and looks fly! You go, Oprah.

It was not just the Chicago critics who came down on Oprah for presuming her viewers needed their lives changed. She took it on the chin from the Orlando Sentinel Orlando Sentinel's Hal Boedeker, who said her bubble-bath segment screamed for a parody on Sat.u.r.day Sat.u.r.day Night Live. He suggested an appropriate topic for her next show would be "Celebrity Run He suggested an appropriate topic for her next show would be "Celebrity Run Amok" with a new theme song, "You're So Vain," which, he said, Oprah could sing to herself. "Her confident style has given way to arrogance."

Perhaps the cruelest blow came when Wiley A. Hall III compared Louis Farrakhan to Oprah in the Afro-American Red Star. Afro-American Red Star. Hall wrote that with his "feel-good" Hall wrote that with his "feel-good"

Million Man March on Washington in 2000, the Nation of Islam leader was "trying to position himself as another Oprah Winfrey....[Like Oprah] he's become a master of the obvious, earnestly stated, pa.s.sionately put....With Oprah Winfrey and her new clone Louis Farrakhan, I have this strong sense that we're being manipulated. I just can't tell whether it's for good or ill." The kicker came the following week, when Hall reported that followers of Farrakhan, known for race-baiting and virulent anti-Semitism, felt he was being insulted to be compared to Oprah.

In The New York Times, the newspaper she cared most about, Jeff MacGregor the newspaper she cared most about, Jeff MacGregor dismissed Oprah's "Change Your Life" television as "host worship," filled with "mind numbing cliches of personal improvement." He said that "like many gurus and circuit riders before her, Oprah has found a way to shamelessly market the history of her own misery and confusion as a form of worship."

Yet what sounded loopy to critics resonated with many in Oprah's audience, who shared her hunger for greater meaning in their lives. "I was a rural mail carrier in Stem, North Carolina," said Susan Karns, who runs the beauty shop at Hillcrest Convalescent Center in Durham, "and if it wasn't for Oprah and her 'Change Your Life' television, I would never have gone to beauty school at night and gotten this great job....It was scary to change my life but I'm so glad I did. I love what I do now because I make people feel good every day and they are so grateful."

While some questioned Oprah's common sense, none doubted her sincerity. "I want people to see things on our show that makes them think differently about their lives," she said. "To be a light for people. To make a difference...to open their minds and see things differently...how to get in touch with the spiritual part of their life." However, she disliked being called a "New Ager." She told one woman in her audience, "I am not New Age anything and I resent being called that. I am just trying to open a door so that people can see themselves more clearly and perhaps be the light to get them to G.o.d, whatever they may call that. I don't see spirits in the trees and I don't sit in the room with crystals."

"Oh, but she does invoke spirits," insisted Peter A. Colasante, owner of L'Enfant Gallery in Washington, D.C. He then added facetiously, "She probably speaks in tongues, too....I do know she waves her hands above her head like a Pentecostal when she says she feels vibrations. At least that's been my personal experience with her."

After buying some oil paintings through her decorator Anthony Browne, Oprah wanted to purchase more by the same artist [John Kirthian Court], so she contacted the L'Enfant Gallery directly. "Her people from Harpo called endlessly to set up an appointment on the same day she was going to Deborah Gore Dean's shop, across the street from mine in Georgetown. We were both told to deliver photos of what Oprah wanted to see, and the photos were to be awaiting her arrival at the Four Season Hotel the night before. We were told to have our galleries ready for her arrival and her viewing because she did not have much time...We were told that Oprah is micromanaged to the minute, like the president of the United States. We received a partial schedule: 2:17 P.M.: Oprah's limousine arrives at L'Enfant Gallery 2:20 P.M.: Oprah walks into gallery 2:30 P.M.: Oprah views paintings 3:00 P.M.: Oprah leaves L'Enfant Gallery "Well, you don't just consign a few paintings by John Kirthian Court for a viewing. He's the grand-nephew of James McNeill Whistler two times removed and is considered a great painter and portraitist in his own right. He lives in San Miguel. You must buy his paintings outright [$60,000-$80,000 average price] and then sell them after you've air-freighted them from Portugal and insured their transport for hundreds of thousands of dollars. That's what I did: I purchased three paintings for Oprah's two thirty viewing." The gallery owner admitted feeling tentative about the investment because he'd had "trouble getting paid for the first three paintings" he had sold to Oprah a year or so before. "But I went ahead and did it," he said.

"Because her secretaries told me she only had a few minutes and would be gone by three P.M., I made a three thirty P.M. appointment with another client. The day arrived and we waited and waited and waited for Oprah. Finally, we saw her two limousines pull up to Deborah's shop at two thirty-five P.M. Time was pa.s.sing, so around two fifty-five P.M. I went across the street, where Oprah was bellowing at Deborah for not having had her photos delivered to the hotel the night before. Apparently, when she walked into the shop, she said to Deborah, 'Are you Anthony's girl?' Deborah, who owns her own store, naturally got a little huffy. 'No. I'm not not Anthony's girl. I'm not anybody's Anthony's girl. I'm not anybody's girl.' Oprah berated her for not having anything ready and kept yelling about how precious her time was. That's when I interrupted.

" 'Hey. You've kept me waiting for over thirty minutes.' Her security guards moved in, and Deborah started laughing. 'C'mon,' I said to Oprah. 'I need to show you your paintings so I can get to my own appointment.' With that I started to walk her out of the shop.

" 'Oprah does not walk,' she said.

" 'Aw, c'mon. It's only a few yards,' I said with my hand on her shoulder, steering her across the street. She started screaming at her secretary.

" 'Who is this guy? I don't know this guy. Who is he? Tell me what's going on here.'

"I said, 'Your people made appointments for you, insisted on absolute times, and said that we all had to be ready for your arrival and let nothing interfere, so I'm doing exactly what your people told me to do.'

"The secretary was so frightened she couldn't speak and she started shaking so hard her notebook bobbed up and down. This only incensed Oprah more. I thought she was going to swat the secretary and then decapitate me. Just as this was happening, a busload of kids pa.s.sed by. They immediately recognized Oprah and started screaming.

Then the most amazing thing happened: Oprah stopped hissing and spitting, and her serpent eyes softened as she waved and beamed. 'Hi, y'all.'...She actually turned from screeching harridan to sweet G.o.ddess in less time than it takes to blink. I swear I thought I was in the middle of an alien attack....Then I marched her into my gallery, trailed by her pilot, her secretary, her hairdresser, her makeup man, and two big security guards. She walked through the front door and started waving her hands over her head like she was doing a very slow St. Vitus' dance.

" 'I just don't feel it,' she said, shaking her head. 'I just don't feel it. The vibrations aren't right...they're not speaking to me....'

" 'You'll feel 'em once you see the paintings we've a.s.sembled for you,' I said, pointing up the stairs where the Court oils had been hung.

" 'Oprah does not do stairs,' she said. Before I could even respond to this one, my a.s.sistant let her have it."

"Yes, I'm afraid I did," recalled Maureen Taylor. "She had been so impossible to deal with even before she arrived, and then after all the trouble she had put Peter to for that appointment, she came in here waving her hands like some kind of mumbo jumbo mystic, saying, 'I just don't feel it....I just don't feel it.' When she said, 'Stairs? Stairs?

Oprah does not do stairs,' I lost it. I said, 'Well, maybe you should try them, sister. You certainly could use the exercise.' "

"That did it," said Colasante. "Oprah flounced out of the gallery, and I followed her down the street to her limousines. She yelled at her pilot. 'Get the plane...Get the plane. We're leaving.' And that was the end of Oprah Winfrey and her spirits and her vibrations."

To reporters, Oprah tried to dismiss the avalanche of criticism about her "Change Your Life" shows by suggesting it might be a matter of overexposure. "Was it too much Beloved publicity? Was the so-called backlash because I did the [theme] song the same publicity? Was the so-called backlash because I did the [theme] song the same year I was on the Vogue Vogue cover?" Most of that "so-called backlash" came from white male cover?" Most of that "so-called backlash" came from white male critics, who had trouble understanding the increasing "Oprahfication" of female America.

As the comic Jimmy Kimmel joked when introducing The Man Show The Man Show on Comedy on Comedy Central, "We're here because we have a serious problem in this country--and her name is Oprah. Millions and millions of women are under Oprah's spell. This woman has half of America brainwashed."

Several critics, some within her own family, took Oprah to task when, in 2007, she promoted The Secret, The Secret, a DVD and book by Rhonda Byrne, as the answer to living a a DVD and book by Rhonda Byrne, as the answer to living a good life. "I took G.o.d out of the box," Oprah told her viewers before pushing The Secret, The Secret, which describes Jesus Christ not as divine or as the son of G.o.d, but merely as one of the "prosperity teachers" in the Bible.

"That is not the way I raised Oprah Gail," said Vernon Winfrey, who was so disgusted by his daughter's embrace of New Age beliefs that he no longer watched her show. "I need her show like a hog needs a holiday," he said. "Besides, the show is not that good anymore."

Oprah's "aunt" Katharine, who keeps a Bible by her bedside, was horrified by Oprah's embrace of "that New Age nonsense," as was Katharine's daughter, Jo Baldwin, Oprah's cousin, who was once vice president of Harpo. Baldwin now teaches English at Mississippi Valley State University and preaches in church on Sundays in Centobia, Mississippi. "I brought Katharine a copy of The Secret, The Secret, and Jo wouldn't get near the and Jo wouldn't get near the book--wouldn't touch it," said Jewette Battles.

When Oprah introduced the self-help philosophy of The Secret The Secret to her viewers, she to her viewers, she promised they would learn "the secret" to making more money, losing weight, finding the love of their life, and achieving job success, simply by visualizing. They could have it all, just like she had it all. She then introduced the author, who explained that The Secret The Secret espouses "the law of attraction": If you think positively, you attract good things to yourself; if you think negatively, you attract bad things. She later cited, as an outrageous example, the ma.s.sacre in Rwanda, and said the victims' feelings of fear and powerlessness had led to the carnage.

"The message of The Secret The Secret is the message that I've been trying to share with the is the message that I've been trying to share with the world on my show for the past twenty-one years," Oprah told Larry King on CNN. She presented two shows on The Secret, The Secret, sending the book to the top of the bestseller list, sending the book to the top of the bestseller list, where it sold more than three million copies and sp.a.w.ned "Secret" clubs around the world. She was promptly ridiculed for peddling what Peter Birkenhead described on Salon.com as "minty-fresh snake oil." Comedian/talk show host Bill Maher declared the book "insane," and The Washington Post The Washington Post characterized it as "slimy." characterized it as "slimy." Sat.u.r.day Night Live Sat.u.r.day Night Live poked fun at Oprah's obsession with The Secret The Secret in a skit in which she interviewed a poor in a skit in which she interviewed a poor starving man in Darfur. Putting on a deep Old Testament voice, Oprah, played by Maya Rudolph, asked, "Why do you think things are going so bad?" When the poor man couldn't answer, Oprah scolded him, saying the atrocities were the result of his negative att.i.tude. "When we come back, John Travolta!"

Shortly after, Oprah "clarified" her views on "the law of attraction." She did not apologize for endorsing The Secret, The Secret, but she now said it was not the answer to everything. but she now said it was not the answer to everything.

"It is not the answer to atrocities or every tragedy. It is just one law. Not the only law.

And certainly, certainly, certainly not a get-rich-quick scheme." Interestingly, in 2009, Oprah declared in court papers that her "reputation depends, in part, on the quality of the products she recommends, which she does only after careful consideration and vetting to make sure such products meet her standards and approval."

She certainly paid attention to her critics, especially when they reported her viewers were complaining about her meddling with their religious beliefs. Stung by articles about "The Church of Oprah" and "The Gospel According to Oprah," she dropped "Change Your Life" television and renamed it "Live Your Best Life" television.

She changed "Remembering Your Spirit" to "Remembering Your Joy."

WHILE SOME CRITICS were writing her obituary in 1999, she was empirebuilding with a media move that would leave them all speechless. Joining with Hearst in April 2000, she launched O, The Oprah Magazine, O, The Oprah Magazine, which became the most successful which became the most successful start-up in magazine history. She put herself on the cover of every issue for the next nine years, which further inflamed her critics to produce long essays on her narcissism. They carped about "The Cult of Oprah," because each issue of O O carried "The O List" of things carried "The O List" of things Oprah liked (e.g., Burberry dog collars, Fendi sungla.s.ses, Ralph Lauren mules, Rocket ebooks), plus two pages t.i.tled "Oprah: Here We Go" and "Oprah: What I Know for Sure,"

in addition to recipes by Oprah's personal chef, diet tips from Oprah's personal trainer, and advice from Oprah experts such as Dr. Phil and Suze Orman, plus ads for upcoming Oprah personal growth summits. In addition, there is an Oprah interview with a highprofile celebrity such as the Dalai Lama, Madeleine Albright, Jane Fonda, Phil Donahue, Laura Bush, Muhammad Ali, Meryl Streep, Martha Stewart, Ralph Lauren.

In her interview with Nelson Mandela, he talked about how he had changed himself in prison and learned to train his brain to dominate his emotions so that he could negotiate with South Africa's racist white leadership. That interview, published in April 2001, should have been hailed as a journalistic coup for Oprah, but one Chicago critic saw it only as Oprah crowing.

"Sometimes self-esteem can look a lot like pathological narcissism," wrote Carina Chocano in the Chicago Sun-Times. Chicago Sun-Times. "The cover of this month's "The cover of this month's O O reads: 'O PRAH talks reads: 'O PRAH talks to H ER H ERO, the awesome, inspiring, n.o.ble N ELSON M ANDELA.' ( OPRAH and H ER H ERO are [in] noticeably larger [type] than N ELSON M ANDELA.) Other articles include 'O: What I Know for Sure,' 'Oprah on Setting Yourself Free,' and 'Five Things Oprah Thinks Are Great.' (These include faux apples and pears, $18 each; a set of Murano gla.s.ses, $40 each; and a book called 'Spiritual Literacy: Reading the Sacred Truth in Everyday Life,' which helps Oprah 'see the extraordinary in ordinary experiences.')"

Editorially, the magazine presented Oprah's commandments for Living Your Best Life: Keeping It Off Forever: 10 Rules 12 Strategies for Getting the Best Health Care 9 Rules for Writing a Good Ad 12 Things a Stepmother Should Never Say 10 Easy Food Switches for an Extra 10 Good Years 9 Things Weight Loss Winners Know (that you don't) Once again David Letterman took a poke at Oprah on his late-night show by announcing "The Top Ten Articles from Oprah's New Magazine": No. 10.P, R, A and H. The Four Runner-up t.i.tles for This Magazine.No. 9.Do What I Say or I'll Make Another Movie.No. 8.Funerals and Meetings with the Pope: Occasions Not to Use "You Go, Girl."No. 7.While You're Reading This, I Made 50 Million Dollars.No. 6.The Night I Nailed Deepak ChopraNo. 5.The Million-Dollar Bill: A Convenience That's Long OverdueNo. 4.My Love Affair with Oprah, by OprahNo.

3.You Suckers Will Never Know What It's Like to Live in a Solid Gold MansionNo.

2.Ricki Lake's Home Phone Number and How She Hates 3 A.M. Calls No. 1.The Time I Had to Wait 5 Minutes for a Skim Half-Decaf Latte Oprah filled her "personal growth guide," as she called her beautifully produced magazine, with advice pages from some of her "Change Your Life" gurus, to give "confident, smart women the tools they need to reach for their dreams, to express their individual style and to make choices that will lead to a happier, more fulfilling life." She advertised O, The Oprah Magazine, O, The Oprah Magazine, on her website, Oprah.com: on her website, Oprah.com: O offers compelling stories and empowering ideas stamped with Oprah's unique offers compelling stories and empowering ideas stamped with Oprah's unique vision of everything from health and fitness, careers, relationships and self-discovery issues to beauty, fashion, home design, books and food.

Within a year she had a paid circulation of 2.5 million and had raked in more than $140 million in annual revenues. Her critics were dumbfounded by the spectacular success of her new venture, which enlarged her media conglomerate. But when Chicago reporters tried to interview her about her new magazine, she turned them down cold, still smarting from their negative coverage of her "Change Your Life" television. "I flew to New York for the magazine launch," said Tim Jones, the business reporter for the Chicago Tribune, "and I was desperately trying to get an interview with her. After all, we "and I was desperately trying to get an interview with her. After all, we are her hometown newspaper....She wouldn't talk to me, but she sure as h.e.l.l talked to The The New York Times. " In fact, Oprah called the " In fact, Oprah called the Times Times's media reporter, Alex Kuczynski, at home to thank her for a story about the success of O O magazine. "It was about seven A.M. magazine. "It was about seven A.M.

and I said, 'Oprah. Wow. This is like getting a phone call from Jesus Christ or Santa Claus,' " joked Kuczynski.

Soon Oprah would put herself well beyond the reach of all her critics by becoming an international philanthropist whose giving would enshrine her as a global icon.

Eighteen WHEN OPRAH appeared on the Forbes Forbes list of the world's 476 billionaires in list of the world's 476 billionaires in February 2003, she became what she had set out to be: the richest black woman in the world. "From the very beginning--as early as 1985," recalled her friend Nancy Stoddart, "she always said she was going to be a billionaire."

Two years earlier Robert L. Johnson, founder of BET (Black Entertainment Television), had become the first African American man to make the Forbes Forbes billionaire billionaire list. Interestingly, he and Oprah were both born in Kosciusko, Mississippi, eight years apart, and both made their fortunes in television. Beyond that and their dreams, there is no logical explanation for the extraordinary coincidence of these two individuals, born poor in Attala County during segregation, defying all odds to become media t.i.tans. Mr.

Johnson fell off the billionaire list the year he divorced and split his fortune with his ex-wife, Sheila Crump Johnson. Oprah has remained on the list.

She reveled in her riches as a blessing from G.o.d. When she returned to Kosciusko in 1998 to promote Beloved Beloved and to dedicate a house that she had financed through Habitat and to dedicate a house that she had financed through Habitat for Humanity, she quoted Psalms 37:4 to the hometown crowd: "Delight thyself in the Lord and he shall give thee the desires of thine heart." Her visit was trumpeted by The The Star-Herald with a front-page headline: "Oprah Comes Home." Wearing a brown with a front-page headline: "Oprah Comes Home." Wearing a brown turtleneck sweater, a long tweed skirt, and high-heel boots, plus a big gold Rolex watch and a pinkie ring, she stood in the rain to address the crowd while her bodyguard held an umbrella over her head. "I'm most proud of the fact that I'm one black woman from Kosciusko, Mississippi, with my hand still in G.o.d's hand," she said. During that visit she told reporters that being one of the most powerful people in television and having great wealth was no problem for her. "You receive in proportion to how big your heart is and how willing you are to extend yourself to other people."

Deconstructing that statement might lead some to conclude that Oprah believed she was a billionaire because she had more humanity than most, but she softened the impression, if not clarifying it, by adding, "It is why you have to give that comes back to you."

Always generous, she began giving in earnest in 1997, donating $12 million to the Oprah Winfrey Foundation and forming Oprah's Angel Network to collect donations from her viewers. "I want you to open your hearts and see the world in a different way,"

she told them. "I promise this will change your life for the better." She started by asking for spare change to create "the world's largest piggy bank" to fund college scholarships for needy students. In less than six months her viewers had donated more than $3.5 million in coins and bills to send 150 students to college, 3 students from every state.

Even the White House contributed, and First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton flew to Chicago to appear on Oprah's show with a piggy bank full of coins she had collected from employees.