Since coming on the scene with her hit show, talk show Qeen Oprah Winfrey has had a very public struggle with her weight. Winfrey became the butt of many comedian’s jokes. One of the most memorable comedic digs at Winfrey was a skit done on the comedy show “In Living Color” where Kim Wayans portrayed Oprah doing her talk show and eating throughout the show until she exploded. Her weight issues have definitely been a problem for her and she recently opened up about her current situation:

Oprah Winfrey continues the honesty, saying in the January issue of “O” magazine out Tuesday that she now weighs 200 pounds and has “fallen off the wagon” when it comes to healthy living.

“I’m mad at myself,” Winfrey writes in an article provided early to The Associated Press by Harpo Productions.

“I’m embarrassed,” she writes. “I can’t believe that after all these years, all the things I know how to do, I’m still talking about my weight. I look at my thinner self and think, `How did I let this happen again?’”

In the piece, Winfrey, 54, details her recent struggles with an out-of-balance thyroid and how the condition made her develop “a fear of working out.” She says she’s added 40 pounds to her frame since she weighed 160 pounds in 2006.

“Yes, you’re adding correctly; that means the dreaded 2-0-0,” Winfrey writes. “I was so frustrated I started eating whatever I wanted - and that’s never good.”

Winfrey also writes that her goal is no longer to be thin; instead, she wants to be strong, healthy and fit. She hopes to get started with her upcoming “Best Life Week,” starting Jan. 5 with an episode of “The Oprah Winfrey Show” during which she is expected to talk candidly about her weight.

Winfrey famously wheeled a wagon loaded with fat onto the set of her talk show in 1988 to represent a 67-pound weight loss while wearing a pair of size 10 Calvin Klein jeans. She had lost the pounds with a liquid protein diet.

“I had literally starved myself for four months - not a morsel of food,” Winfrey recalled in 2005. “Two hours after that show, I started eating to celebrate - of course, within two days those jeans no longer fit!”

Winfrey’s weight has yo-yoed to the delight of the tabloid press ever since. She weighed as many as 237 pounds and by late 1990 admitted she had regained most of the 67 pounds, saying “I’ll never diet again.”

In 1994, she finished the Marine Corps Marathon and by 1996 hired personal trainer Bob Greene, saying her roller-coaster weight saga was over.

But now, 20 years since the Calvin Klein jeans episode, Winfrey finds herself tipping the scales again, telling AP Television last week that she has yet to chose a gown for President-elect Barack Obama’s inaugural ball next month.

“I had a dress on the vision board, but I’m not sure that’s gonna fit,” Winfrey said. “So I have to work on something else.”

In the latest “O” magazine article, Winfrey writes that she hit rock bottom when she wanted to skip out on an April 26 taping with Cher and Tina Turner in Las Vegas.

“I felt like a fat cow,” Winfrey writes. “I wanted to disappear.”

Winfrey’s weight and height put her body mass index at 31.8, which is obese, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The CDC says people who are obese are “at higher risk for chronic conditions such as high blood pressure, diabetes and high cholesterol.”

It seems Winfrey is aware of the health risks, inviting both Greene and Dr. Mehmet Oz to her show during the first week of January, along with spirituality experts, sex therapists and financial expert Suze Orman.

Winfrey also is expected to discuss her weight on her XM satellite radio station’s “The Gayle King Show” on Jan. 5 and will host interactive live Web casts at Oprah.com the week of Jan. 12 to 16 every night at 9 p.m. EST.

Winfrey, an admitted food addict, sounds almost apologetic in her article.

“I definitely wasn’t setting an example,” she writes. “I was talking the talk, but I wasn’t walking the walk. And that was very disappointing to me.”

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During the presidential campaign, talk show Queen Oprah Winfrey refused to have Sarah Palin on her show but made it clear that she was welcome after the elections were over. Since, Palin has given Winfrey the cold shoulder:

Oprah Winfrey has slammed failed Republican vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin - after she snubbed offers to be interviewed on the TV titan’s show.

Palin discussed her unsuccessful bid to reach the White House with US hosts Greta Van Susteren, Matt Lauer and Larry King, but failed to appear as a guest on Winfrey’s popular daytime TV show - despite being invited.

Winfrey is bitter about being ignored by Palin and insists the Alaskan governor will be desperate to talk to her when she releases her memoirs.

Winfrey says, “I said I would be happy to talk to Sarah Palin when the election was over… I went and tried to talk to Sarah Palin and instead she talked to Greta. She talked to Matt. She talked to Larry. But she didn’t talk to me. Maybe she’ll talk to me now that she has a (multi-million dollar) book deal.”

Oprah was a very vocal supporter of Obama and will be moving her show to Washington during the inauguration.

Oprah Winfrey was probably Barack Obama’s biggest supporter and she worked very hard to help the former Senator win the election to become the US’s 44th President, but Winfrey says that is where it ends:

“I have a few full-time jobs already and a few full-time commitments, you know - contractual commitments that say I have to be where I am,” Winfrey told AP Television. “So, it never ever occurred to me, not even occurred to me.”

Winfrey said she would stay put, even if the president-elect came calling.

“Even if I was offered, I still have contractual commitments and what could I do?” Winfrey said. “I do what I do best on TV every day.”

Earlier this week, Winfrey’s production company confirmed she would host her Chicago-based talk show to Washington for at least two episodes during inauguration week. She’ll have a live show from the Kennedy Center Opera House one day before the ceremony, and tape another one on Jan. 21.

One plan she hasn’t yet thought out was her dress for the inaugural ball, despite rumors to the contrary.

“I actually haven’t picked it,” Winfrey said. “I had a dress on the vision board, but I’m not sure that’s gonna fit, so I have to work on something else.”

With Winfrey’s communication skills and business savy, she could have been a prime candidate for several jobs within the cabinet. It’s probably best that she not be a part of the team because FOX News would turn her appointment into something negative.

Oprah Winfrey tops The Hollywood Reporter’s Power 100 list, an annual ranking of the most influential women in the entertainment industry.

The chairman of Harpo Inc. was selected “based on her dizzying array of Oprah-branded media and her immense cultural influence,” editor-in-chief Elizabeth Guider said in a statement Friday.

The Hollywood Reporter also ranks the industry’s highest-paid actresses each year. Angelina Jolie is No. 1, commanding more than $15 million a movie, followed by Julia Roberts and last year’s top earner, Reese Witherspoon.

The honorees were chosen by Hollywood Reporter editors, based on overall media influence and ability to greenlight projects. The actresses were ranked by asking-price salary.

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Oprah Winfrey wants a court to dismiss a defamation lawsuit filed by the ex-headmistress of her girls school in South Africa.

Nomvuyo Mzamane (num-VOO’-yo m-zah-MAH’-neez) is suing Winfrey in federal court in Pennsylvania over remarks she made on her Chicago-based talk show about a sex-abuse case at the school.

A dorm matron who worked under Mzamane is charged in South Africa with abusing six students at the school for poor girls. The ex-headmistress lives in the Philadelphia area and says she cannot find work because of Winfrey’s comments.

Winfrey says she and her defendant companies have no business ties to Pennsylvania and should not be sued there.

Winfrey also says the school contract calls for arbitration in such cases.

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Oprah Winfrey may be in Chicago taping her show, but her thoughts are thousands of miles away, in Southern California.

The talk-show queen is among a handful of celebrities, including Rob Lowe, Michael Douglas, Ellen DeGeneres, Kevin Costner and Jeff Bridges, whose homes are threatened by a fast-growing wildfire that broke out in exclusive Montecito, Calif., in the hills above Santa Barbara.

During today’s episode of The Oprah Winfrey Show aired live in Chicago, Winfrey addressed the conflagration: “The first thing I wanted to talk about is the raging fire burning right now in my neighborhood of Montecito, Calif.

“All our prayers are with all the folks and neighbors in Santa Barbara. Hope you’re well today. And those of you who lost your homes, our hearts go out to you.”

Her rep told E! News that “at this point, Oprah Winfrey’s property has not been affected by the fire.”

Calling in to The Oprah Winfrey Show, Lowe recounted evacuating his home. “We got in the car, pulled out of the driveway and the entire mountain behind us was flames, 200 feet high, shooting into the air…This thing came on so fast, you just can’t believe it.

“I’m very lucky,” he continued. “My house is fine. Although I’m looking-I’m talking to you right now and I’m looking out of my office and I can see the smoke billowing still…

“I’ve lived out here since 1976 and seen a lot of fires, but last night…I mean, I watched 12, 13 homes burn to the ground. It’s so tragic. It’s so sad. And this is the worst I have ever seen by far.”

Both Lowe’s and Winfrey’s homes are less than a mile from several homes devastated in the blaze, and Winfrey’s estate is within several hundred yards of the mandatory evacuation zone.

A dispatcher for the Montecito Fire Department told E! News the neighborhood around San Ysidro Road and East Valley Road, where Winfrey and Lowe live, has not yet been included in the mandatory evacuation area. While the area is “not in danger” right now, “anything is possible,” the dispatcher said.

Officials are expecting up to 70 mph winds and zero humidity later today to stoke the fire further.

Flames broke out about 6 p.m. Thursday and have so far burned more than 100 residences and scorched 2,500 acres; 1,500 additional homes, including those of the aforementioned celebs, could be in trouble if firefighters can’t get the blaze under control.

MIchael Douglas’ rep told the Los Angeles Times that the actor’s multimillion-dollar digs have so far avoided the inferno.

No word yet from DeGeneres, Costner or Bridges or their Montecito neighbors Steve Martin, Ivan Reitman, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Eva Marie Saint, Carol Burnett, Jonathan Winters and John Cleese.

The ritzy area is a favorite for solitude-seeking celebrities. An average home sells for around $3 million.

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Talk show host Oprah Winfrey is set to join US Presidential candidate Barack Obama at his Election Night rally next week.

Winfrey made her endorsement of the Democrat last December - the first time she has ever publicly backed a presidential candidate.

She later turned up to rally around the Illinois senator at August’s Democratic National Convention, but has avoided using her celebrity in the election campaign since.

A spokesperson for Winfrey confirms: “Oprah will be attending the party.”

The politician, who boasts a host of celebrity supporters, has yet to release the A-list guests and performers who’ve confirmed their attendance at the event.

The nation’s history-making election will be held on 4 November.

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Talk show host Oprah Winfrey has denied reports that she has been courted by US presidential candidate Barack Obama to become the country’s UK ambassador if he is elected into office.

Winfrey made her endorsement of the Democrat last December - the first time she has ever publicly backed a presidential candidate.

According to Britain’s The Times newspaper, Winfrey’s name rests among the top contenders for the post in an Obama administration which would mark the first time a TV personality would be appointed to the position.

Former UK ambassador to the US Peter Jay tells the publication: “You need someone who is close enough to the president to interpret events and get a message back to Washington. It would send a clear message about the new administration.”

A rep for Winfrey’s Harpo Studios says: “Oprah hasn’t been approached.”

Talk show Queen Oprah Winfrey is being sued by Keifer Bonvillain for $180m claiming she and her attorney made false statements that led to his arrest.

According to tmz.com, Bonvillain was first arrested in 2006 for allegedly recording telephone conversations with an employee of Winfrey’s production company and then selling them to publishers and tabloids.

The case against Bonvillain was dismissed after he performed 50 hours of community service, was tested and paid back $3,000 he took from a company that agreed to buy the tapes.

Bonvillain is now suing Winfrey and the attorney for making false statements that led to his arrest.

His lawyer said: “The whole incident started when the plaintiff wiretapped one of Harpo’s California employees. We advised him this wiretap was illegal, and now we’re gonna get the chance to determine whether we were right or not.”

Just another idiot trying to get rich off of Oprah. SMH.

It’s sad how people today will do anything to keep from having to work. The civil court system today is filled with frivolous lawsuits filed by people who are just looking for a way to cash in on someone elses success:

Nomvuyo Mzamane, the former headmistress of Oprah Winfrey’s South African Leadership Academy for Girls, filed a defamation lawsuit against Winfrey in Philadelphia Common Pleas Court in an attempt to salvage her professional reputation.

The suit, filed by attorney Tim McGowan, says Ms. Winfrey “launched what amounted to a defamatory campaign” against Mzamane late last year by implying that Mzamane is “untrustworthy, failed the students of the academy, did not care about the students at the academy, knew of alleged physical and sexual abuse at the academy and participated in a cover-up of the alleged abuse.”

The suit cites comments to the media the TV star made last October and November in the wake of a dorm matron at the school being charged with assaulting and abusing students.

Mzamane, 39, also filed a defamation suit against the blog the Huffington Post and publicity expert Joan Stewart for a Nov. 19, 2007, posting by Stewart saying Mzamane was charged in connection with the scandal. Mzamane has said there was no cover-up at the school and she knew nothing about the allegations, which she learned about while on a business trip to the U.S.

Seeking Quarter Million, Plus Damages
Mzamane was the assistant head of operations at a private school in Philadelphia when she says Winfrey recruited her to run the Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy for Girls. She started work on Dec. 31, 2006.

Since her termination, Mzamane has not been able to find comparable work and suffers from “depression, anxiety and insomnia,” the suit states. She is asking for $50,000 for each of five different claims, including defamation by innuendo and intentional infliction of emotional distress, plus unspecified punitive damages.

A trial for the accused dorm matron, Virginia Makopo, will resume on Wednesday, Oct. 8. She has pleaded not guilty to abusing and assaulting six girls.

SMH !!!

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