Category Archives: Oprah

Happy Thanksgiving, Y’all! And What’s Wrong With This Picture?

21 Wednesday Nov 2012

Posted by in News, Oprah, Oprah Winfrey, OUTRAGE, What's Wrong With This Picture?

≈ 32 Comments

What exactly is Oprah trying to perpetrate in this picture she just tweeted? Sweet potatoes with freshly picked rosemary? WTF?  I sure don’t believe she is making that herself in her pretty cashmere sweater dress.  Clearly, her chef is making multiple pans of it and she’s just tweeting a photo. But I refuse to believe Oprah is going to forgo traditional southern sweet potato casserole replete with marshmallows and or sweet potato pie for this ridiculous yankee fancy pants restaurant chef version. Say it ain’t so, Ope!

I’ve been roasting beets for over an hour and they are still hard as rocks! They are the biggest ones I’ve ever roasted. I’ve got three baseball-sized ones in the oven. Tomorrow, I’ll make an organic salad with beets and goat cheese and two pumpkin pies and then my contribution will be done. Continue reading »

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Oprah Winfrey on the Set of The Butler

02 Tuesday Oct 2012

Posted by in Oprah, Oprah Winfrey, OWN, Tyler Perry

≈ 4 Comments

Oprah tweeted this picture from the set of the movie she is working on, The Butler. The movie is based on the life of White House butler Eugene Allen who served in the White House for thirty years. It looks like filming on the movie wrapped today.

In other Oprah news, OWN has struck a deal with Tyler Perry reportedly worth millions to bring two new scripted shows to OWN written by Perry.

Rihanna on Oprah, A Reverse Recap of Sorts…

19 Sunday Aug 2012

Posted by in Oprah, Oprah Winfrey, OWN, Rihanna

≈ 3 Comments

Tonight, after watching a quite ridiculously edited episode of Big Brother and before tonight’s episode ever of The Real Housewives of New Jersey, I found myself flipping around for something good to watch. I happened upon the Oprah interview with Rihanna. I was about ten minutes late, which it seems as though was spent on touching dead grandmother stories. Let’s see if there is anything interesting enough about to happen to make me publish this blog.

This is my first time watching Rihanna speak on TV. I wasn’t expecting a particularly high level of intelligence, but she seems extremely immature. I don’t mean that harshly. She literally seems like a 13-year-old in every sense of the word. It’s amazing to me that with all that she has been through she still has this innocent naiveté about her.

Meanwhile, I got new cable boxes today. They worked great when the guy was here and for the last couple hours I have had my signal drop several times until finally there was none. Now I am trying that reset the box strategy they recommend. Don’t you hate that? /grrrr

The reset didn’t work on the new TV but the bedroom TV has some intermittent connectivity. Rihanna is talking about reconciling with her father. I read something just today about her father calling her fat. She’s actually in Japan with her father now. Why is he living in Japan? I dunno. Anyway, I heard her tell Oprah that she had forgiven Chris Brown and how that doesn’t make her like other victims of domestic violence. But I’ve yet to hear the answer to the question, “Is Chris Brown one of your true loves?” or however inanely Oprah worded the question. It looks like I missed it, because Rihanna is now giving her mother a house and there are four minutes left in the show. So tell me, did I miss anything important? If my fancy new TV every gets along with the new cable box should I watch the interview again? What did O say about the interview before she started? Was there the expected line about how deep and pure Rihanna is and how she is nothing like the nymph she is perceived to be?

Whut I miss? Oh Time for RHONJ and it sounds like the TV is back! Cross your fingers!

What’s Wrong With This Picture? Rihanna Edition

05 Sunday Aug 2012

Posted by in Oprah, Oprah Winfrey, OWN, Rihanna

≈ 18 Comments

So we all know that Oprah has been in Barbados interviewing Rihanna for her Next Chapter show on OWN.  Meh. Whatever. If you watch Oprah’s show on OWN then you know that Oprah has stopped trying to be Barbara Walters and has decided to be an entertainment report instead. She brings in someone like 50 cent and has some transformative interview where just falls in love with the person she is interviewing. You can expect the Rihanna interview to go something like this:

Oprah: Gee I thought Rihanna was some out of control musician who likes tweeting nekkid pictures of herself and dating guys that beat her up, but no! She’s a lovely church girl whose grandmother died recently and through this experience she has grown as a person and she is totally responsible and spends her spare time feeding the homeless adopting orphans.

But Anyway, that’s not the point. I am going to need y’all to help me to understand what is going on with Rihanna’s forehead in this picture. I seriously do not get it. Is there something on her forehead or is that really her forehead???

Oprah Owns Mistakes On CBS This Morning

02 Monday Apr 2012

Posted by in Oprah, Oprah Winfrey, The Rosie Show

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Oprah goes on CBS This Morning to talk about the trials and tribulations of starting a new network, bad publicity and cancelling The Rosie Show.  She says the most painful thing about the struggling network is firing the production people from The Rosie Show. Then she explained that she hired a team to do it for her so that they would all happen at the same time. She says that if she had known how truly difficult the process would be she might have opted to do something else.

Oprah’s appearance on CBS appears to be Gayle King calling in the big guns to help ratings because this week Katie Couric is guest hosting at ABC’s Good Morning America. NBC’s today show has also boosted their morning line up this week with Nikki Minaj, Octomom, Kim Kardashian, Sarah Palin and Bill and Giuliana Rancic.

Oprah Cancels The Rosie Show

17 Saturday Mar 2012

Posted by in Chicago, Oprah, Oprah Winfrey, Rosie O'Donnell, The Rosie Show

≈ 1 Comment

Oprah shows Rosie who decides what city she works in and cancels The Rosie Show. I hate to say I told you so, but I told you so.  Official  PR statements were just released stating that the last episode will air on March 31.  Rosie had wanted to move the show to NYC instead of using the fancy Harpo Studios in Chicago. Oprah did not want to pay to re-establish the show in NYC.  Rosie sells her house. Oprah cancels her show. Simple. Or is it? An interesting question would be who was the buyer on Rosie’s house who made a full offer within 24hrs of it hitting the market? Things that make you go hmmmmm….Meanwhile, here are the fake nice statements to the media. First up Oprah:

“I thank Rosie from the bottom of my heart for joining me on this journey. She has been an incredible partner, working to deliver the best possible show every single day. As I have learned in the last 15 months, a new network launch is always a challenge and ratings grow over time as you continue to gather an audience. I’m grateful to Rosie and the dedicated Rosie Show team for giving it their all.”
And Rosie: 

“I loved working with Oprah in the amazing city of Chicago. I was welcomed with open arms and will never forget the kindness of all I encountered. It was a great year for me – I wish the show was able to attract more viewers – but it did not. So I am headed back to my home in New York – with gratitude. On we go!”
I wonder how long until more details on the real feud come out.

Oprah Interviews Bobbi Kristina Tonight on OWN; Bobbi Kristina Wants to Change Her Name

11 Sunday Mar 2012

Posted by in Bobbi Kristina Brown, Bobby Brown, Gary Houston, Oprah, Oprah Winfrey, OWN, Patricia Houston, Whitney Houston

≈ 7 Comments

Tonight at 9 p.m. Oprah hopes to attract some new viewers to OWN with her interview with Bobbi Kristina Brown, Gary Houston (Whitney’s brother) and his wife Patricia. This interview has received the most publicity of anything on OWN since the network began. Unfortunately, it is up against some really stiff competition against Desperate Housewives on ABC , The Good Wife on CBS, Celebrity Apprentice on NBC, Family Guy on Fox and Bravo’s most successful show, The Real Housewives of Atlanta all airing at the same time. It will be interesting to see how the ratings pan out for tonight.

In the interview, Patricia, who was also Whitney’s manager talks about the substance abuse, and Whitney’s love life saying Whitney was “looking for love in all the wrong places.” Patricia also doesn’t have anything negative to say about Bobby Brown and says that blaming Bobby for introducing Whitney to drugs would not be an accurate assessment of that situation. Patricia also shares her side of what happened on at the pre-grammy party that she attended with Whitney two days before her death. Patricia says she went with Whitney because she was worried. we’ll have to tune in to hear what she says happened at the party to get her all worked up.

In other related news today TMZ is reporting that Bobbi Kristina Brown, who goes by Krissi, wants to officially change her name to Kristina Houston. TMZ’s source says Krissi has wanted the name change since the divorce to avoid the association with her father, but Whitney refused to allow it. Krissi was 14 at the time of the divorce.

Rosie O’Donnell WANTING to Move Her Show to NYC Doesn’t Mean It Is Happening

11 Sunday Mar 2012

Posted by in Chicago, Oprah, Oprah Winfrey, OWN, Rosie O'Donnell, The Rosie Show

≈ 2 Comments

Despite the disjointed article on Huffington Post this morning with the title that proclaims The Rosie Show is moving to New York, there is absolutely nothing other than their “insider” to base that title on. After just five months, The Rosie Show has gone to hell in a handbasket and there is all kinds of behind the scenes drama taking place.

The most important problem is ratings. The show has averaged only 234,000 viewers per episode in the past month,  with episodes dipping as low as 150,000 viewers. That’s baaaaad. Really bad. Bad ratings seem to be making Rosie, Cranky McCrankypants on camera and off. Gone are the days of The Queen of Nice facade that Rosie started out the filming season trying to revive. Back is menopausal Rosie who snaps on the set and seems to have lost interest in the show altogether. There is no greater indicator that Rosie is ready to leave the whole thing behind than putting her stunning Chicago home on the market resulting in an immediate sale.

So what is the real tea?

It does seem true that Rosie would love to be living full-time in NYC with her kids again. However, it is Oprah Winfrey’s call on whether that will happen. With ratings in the toilet Oprah would prefer Rosie stay in the expensive Chicago studio she owns rather than sinking more money into studio space in New York. Oprah has an entire team of longtime employees in Chicago who she is loyal to and she does not want to put them all out of work only to replace them with a NYC crew.  Oprah’s employees are extremely loyal to Oprah and not so loyal to Rosie. Word is there is tension on the set between the few employees brought on by Rosie and the rest of the staff who are solidly Team Oprah. Without any kind of ratings at all to use as leverage, Rosie is pretty much stuck in Chicago or even more likely out of luck all together.

According to GoErie.com who interviewed several staffers of the show off the record, the staff only learned that Rosie wanted the show to relocate to NYC when Rosie made a comment to a guest during a commercial break. That caused a lot of ill will between the staff and Rosie. Staffers on the show have recently been told that their services will no longer be needed after this season wraps in May. Rosie has a contract through 2013. It seems more and more likely that Harpo will decide to buy out Rosie’s contract as the less expensive solution to the current situation. There is further speculation that the time has come to shut down the Chicago location of Harpo Studios altogether.  In fact, Mayor Rahm Emanuel already has his eye on the studios location to build a “cultural and entertainment center.”

The Rosie Show did not really fit into the Harpo production style used for Oprah Winfrey. This caused producers to try a variety of formats to try to work with Rosie’s more  off the cuff style. Rosie herself claims to have come up with the current format after being a guest on Bravo’s Watch What Happens Live. She moved into a smaller auxiliary studio, got rid of the audience, the live band and the silly games at the end of each episode. The more intimate setting is actually a pretty good fit for Rosie, but it seems to be too little to late. Nobody is watching OWN in general, so unless they advertise the show on other cable stations, viewers are not going to just magically reappear.

So that one little article in the Huffington Post has everyone convinced that The Rosie Show is moving to NYC.  I say it will never happen and The Rosie Show will film its last episode in the very new future. It may even been the last filming in Harpo Studios.

Bobbi Kristina to Give Interview

03 Saturday Mar 2012

Posted by in Aretha Franklin, Bobbi Kristina Brown, Bobby Brown, Oprah, Oprah Winfrey, OWN, Paula Deen, Whitney Houston

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Oprah Winfrey’s OWN channel has certainly not risen to the level of success that she expected. We may have all tuned in to the final episode and felt a bit wistful that it was the end of an era, but we didn’t really go dashing off to OWN to maintain a connection with her.  Mostly because Oprah wasn’t really on camera much for the first year. I tried to catch an occasional behind the scenes show about the last season of The Oprah Winfrey Show, but other than that, there was not much there to watch. Her life classes were more pompous than enlightening and the boring reality shows were always on against more established and interesting shows on other channels.


Now Oprah has a new show she hopes will boost the network ratings. In January, Oprah premiered, Oprah’s Next Chapter. It’s probably a great show, but it’s on on Sunday nights on a network everyone forgets to check.  Tomorrow night’s episode is a pajama party with Paula Deen at her house in Savannah. A quick look at her website lets you know that most of the shows have been in the can for weeks. 

Oprah is inserting a new show into the lineup on March 11th when she will be interviewing Bobbi Kristina, Whitney Houston’s brother, Gary and his wife Patricia.  According to the press release, “Bobbi Kristina shares personal memories of her mom and how she would like the iconic superstar to be remembered. The family also addresses the rumours and speculation surrounding Houston’s death.”It will be interesting to see if Oprah addresses the rumors of Bobbi’s own drug use, the Bobby Brown Funeral debacle,and  Aretha Franklin’s lack of attendance.  Before the show airs OWN will re-air Remembering Whitney: The Oprah Interview, which includes her 2009 interview along with her personal memories.  It seems to me like this entire interview was probably filmed just a day or two after the burial for it to be fully edited to air in a week. It will be interesting to see what is included in the show…if we can remember to watch.