Oprah Winfrey is to receive an Oscar. The 57-year-old chat show queen will receive the coveted Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award for her off-screen philanthropy at the Governors Awards in November. Joining Winfrey in collecting special statuettes at the Academy’s 3rd Annual Governors Awards on Nov. 12 will be actor James Earl Jones and legendary makeup artist Dick Smith. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Board of Governors voted Tuesday to recognise the three entertainment industry veterans. Winfrey previously picked up an Oscar nomination for her performance in The Color Purple. The Academy specifically cited such good deeds as her eponymous foundation, her Angel Network, and her South African girls’ school as the reason behind the new gong. Jones and Smith will receive honorary Oscars for their outstanding careers. Jones has acted in more than 50 films and is one of the industry’s most recognisable voices including Darth Vader in Star Wars. Smith’s credits include The Exorcist and The Godfather.
Oprah Winfrey has revealed why she decided to end her iconic chat show after 25 years – a dying 12-year-old boy told her to. The media mogul makes the astonishing revelation in the latest issue of O, The Oprah Magazine. In a touching editorial in the June issue Winfrey says that Mattie Stepanek – a child author who had a rare form of muscular dystrophy – told her that she should end the Oprah show only after it had been on the air for 25 years. He sent her the e-mail in May 2003, 13 months before he died at the age of 13. Winfrey, 57, says: “At the 20-year mark, I was almost certain that the time was finally right to call it a day (although I was uncertain about what to do next.) “That’s when I received an e-mail from Mattie Stepanek. “In May 2003, as I was in the throes of deciding to bring the show to an end, he was a singular force in changing my mind.” Winfrey has published the entire e-mail that Stepanek wrote to her from his hospital bed. In it he told the millionaire: “I know that you are planning to retire your show on its 20th anniversary. “It is my opinion that you should wait to stop your daytime show on its 25th anniversary. Let me explain why. “Twenty-five makes more sense to me, partially because I am a bit OCD and 25 is a perfect number.” Winfrey says she took the child’s advice admitting that her “gut told me to pay attention to this angel boy who I believe was a messenger for our time.”
Oprah Winfrey has tearfully reunited with Whoopi Goldberg revealing that for years she thought her Color Purple co-star was mad at her. The emotional reunion happened at a taping of the chat show queen’s show, which will be broadcast in the US in full on Monday, November 15. In a recently released clip the 56-year-old holds the Oscar-winning actress’s hand and says: “Whoopi came up to me and she said: ‘Can I just ask you something?’ “She said: ‘Did I do something to you?’” Winfrey chokes up and cries as she retells the story to her audience. Goldberg, 55, holds her hand as the chat show host goes on to say: “I said: ‘What are you talking about?’ “[Whoopi] says: ‘All these years, you know, we’ve been disconnected and I just want to know, did I do something?’ “I said: ‘All these years I thought you were mad at me’.” The Oprah Show audience can be heard sympathetically sighing in the background as Goldberg then says: “It’s crazy.” Winfrey then admits that for years the two women have not talked to each other because of an imaginary disagreement that in fact never took place.
Oprah Winfrey’s long-term partner Stedman Graham thinks the talk show host is “a prophet”, according to reports.
Winfrey is set to relocate from Chicago to Los Angeles when she launches her TV network, OWN after she finishes her 25-year run hosting her famous talk show.
“I think they take her for granted a lot,” Graham commented.
“I’m just saying, from an insider’s point of view, that I don’t think she gets the just due based on who she really is and what she’s done for the Chicagoland area … she’s a great humanitarian, a great leader.
“I don’t think they understand the value of who she is as a human being and what she’s done.
“Because a prophet has no honour in his own town.”
Gabourey Sidibe’s Precious audition tape has been shown on US TV.
The 26-year-old actress sobs on camera as she reads the part of the sexually abused teenager.
Wearing a pink hoodie, blue T-shirt and white headband, Sidibe looked very different to the groomed Hollywood star who has been pictured gracing the red carpets recently.
But director Lee Daniels said he immediately knew she was the right person for the role.
He said: “I always look for the truth, so I’d been to 7/11s and bus stops. Then Gabby came in and she just started talking like this white girl.
“After the audition, I said, ‘This is the truth’ and – unlike the girls I was going to cast – Gabby can articulate this role.”
Sidibe, who beat more than 400 girls to the role of Precious, is nominated in the Best Actress category at this year’s Academy Awards.
The film has five other Oscar nominations, including Best Picture, Best Supporting Actress for Mo’Nique and Best Director for Daniels.
But Daniels confessed he was shocked by the film’s success.
He said: “I thought it was going to go straight to DVD.”
Oprah Winfrey’s company told their personal trainers to keep their mouths shut about all things Oprah, according to new court documents.
Unicus Performance Training, which is suing Harpo Inc. and the chatshow queen, claims that it was made to sign a confidentiality agreement, prohibiting it from using “Harpo’s name, Oprah.com’s name or Ms. Winfrey’s name” for advertising or promotional purposes.
The trainers say they were fired for violating the terms of the agreement, after they sent out a mass e-mail promoting an upcoming appearance on Oprah’s radio show.
They have now filed a lawsuit, claiming they were never paid for a workout programme they were developing for the talkshow host’s company.
The confidentiality agreement told UPT not to say anything about Oprah and Harpo without “express, written permission”.
Tyler Perry showed off his DIY skills on Extreme Makeover: Home Edition on US TV Sunday night.
The actor/producer helped rebuild a home of a couple who assists underprivileged children in a new episode that pulled at the heart strings.
The lucky beneficiaries of the makeover, the Tripp family, run The Fishing School, a youth development organisation that offers after school and summer programs for kids in Washington DC.
A science room, art room, technology spaces, classrooms and a kitchen were all newly installed in the home for the benefit of the kids who go there, and the final results moved the Tripp family and The Fishing School pioneer Mr Lewis to tears in emotional scenes.
Perry, 40, was so moved by Mr Lewis and the mission of the Fishing School that he announced on the show that he was going to form a foundation to support the school.
Perry, who has acting, directing, screenwriting, producer and author credits to his name, has starred in films such as Meet The Browns, Madea Goes To Jail and Star Trek.
Perry’s films are said to have earned him nearly $400million worldwide.
Retiring talk show queen Oprah Winfrey has set her sights on a steamy new project.
Oprah’s production company is developing a new TV series about a sexually curious Los Angeles housewife.
The HBO series is centered on a married woman who leaves her husband and children to live out her wildest sexual fantasies, according to US reports.
The news comes just days after Oprah announced she is quitting her famed talk show in 2011 after 25 years to focus on new projects with Harpo Productions.
Erin Cressida Wilson, who wrote the steamy Maggie Gyllenhaal movie Secretary, is writing the unnamed project.
“It’s a very erotic mystery about a woman and her secret desires that are, in fact, rather pure,” said Wilson.
“She acts out in pretty extraordinary ways. It’s all about an unfolding mystery.”
The Informant star Matt Damon said he still has to ‘digest’ the news that Oprah Winfrey is quitting her talk show.
Winfrey, 55, recently announced that she is to end her chat show in 2011 after 20 years on the air.
Damon, 39, was at a screening of his new documentary in New York when he was asked about Winfrey’s decision to quit the show.
He said: “I just heard that and I’m shocked… But I’m sure that whatever she does will have a lasting and positive impact on American culture.
“She’s just an incredible human being, and I don’t think she’s going to disappear. It would be amazing to not have her in front of you every day in your living room.
“I still have to digest it. She’s done quite a bit, to say the least, over the last 25 years. She’s got to do what feels right for her. She’s certainly earned that right.”
Ellen DeGeneres and Oprah Winfrey feature on four special Christmas covers of O Magazine.
DeGeneres, 51, told Winfrey, 55, why she wanted to be on the cover. She said: “It got started because I was in a CoverGirl ad that was on the inside cover of your magazine.
“I held it up on my show and said: ‘I’m on the cover of O! I’m on the inside cover, but I’m on the cover.’
“And that rolled into: ‘Well, if I’m that close, I might as well be on the cover’, and I started the campaign.”
Winfrey, who personally interviewed DeGeneres for the December issue of her magazine said: “You started your campaign and I was like: ‘Well, is she really serous?’ So we waited a couple of weeks and I decided you were.”
Posted by: Chatterbug 
Filled in: 
