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Oprah Winfrey Announces the End of Her Show

Hollywood Grind — Sat, 21 Nov 2009 06:13:44 +0000

Oprah Winfrey held back tears today as she announced she is ending her show in 2011. Oprah told viewers:

"After much prayer and careful thought, I decided that next season, season 25 will be the last season. I love this show. This show has been my life and I love it enough to know when it’s time to say goodbye."

Oprah’s reason for ending her show on its 25th anniversary is because "It’s time. It feels right."

Oprah’s ratings have been falling over the years, with an average audience cut in half from 12.6 million in 1991-92 to 6.2 million in 2008-2009. Even with 6.8 million viewers on average in the last couple months, Oprah is still on top as far as talk show compared to Dr. Phil with 3.8 million, Ellen at 2.8 million, and Dr. Oz with 3.5 million, according to The Nielsen Co.

Bye Good Oprah. I’m sure we’ll see you working on other business projects since financial negotiations fell through on the renewal of your Oprah show.

Oprah Might Get a Pay Cut

Hollywood Grind — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 20:06:41 +0000

Oprah Winfrey has finally met her match, the economic recession. CBS says they won’t renew Oprah’s contract in 2011 unless he takes a big pay cut. Variety described the situation:

“Stations have made it clear to Winfrey’s production company Harpo that if she does come back, they’ll significantly reduce the license fees they pay. Station revenues are down 40 percent to 50 percent, but they’re paying license fees projected on revenue remaining the same. Plus, her ratings are going down. She’s still the queen, but that’s an enormous problem.”

CBS itself has problems of their own aside from Winfrey. Maybe FOX will pay Oprah’s hefty pay check.

Gayle King Denies Lesbian Affair with Oprah Again

Hollywood Grind — Sat, 14 Nov 2009 02:14:19 +0000

Gayle King was asked once again if she and Oprah Winfrey were involved in a lesbian relationship to which Gayle said:

"The thing is, if we were gay, we would tell you. We would so tell you. We wouldn’t try to keep that a secret because there’s nothing wrong with being gay. So if we were, we would tell you. The truth of the matter is we’re not. It’s hard enough for me to get a date on a Saturday night as it is.

"This isn’t a rumor I’m trying to continue to explore, but no there’s nothing, there’s nothing wrong with it. I love that question. That never bothers me because it’s so silly."

That was a long denial. The more Gayle denies it, the less I see them with men and more with each other, the more I see the connection, as in more than friends. When Gayle and Oprah are together they remind me of an old married couple.

Charla Nash Shows Face on Oprah after Chimp Attack

Hollywood Grind — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 17:39:33 +0000

Charla Nash (56) is the Conneticut woman who was mauled by her friend’s 200 pound chimpanzee in February 2009. Nash appeared on Oprah on Wednesday to reveal what is left of her face after the viscious attack that forced animal control to kill the chimpanzee.

Nash told Oprah that she feels no pain but that she tries not to touch her face so as to avoid knowing the full extent of her injuries.

"I don’t ask a whole lot about my injuries… I know that I have my forehead," she said. She now drinks her meals "with a straw through a small hole where her mouth used to be," ABC added.

Nash lost both her hands in the attack, as well as her nose, an eyelid, and lips. Doctors removed her eyes due to an infection, and only recently did she learn she’ll no longer be able to see.

"Only . . . in the past couple of weeks did she realize that she no longer had eyes, because she had been saying that she was hoping to be able to see at some point," Oprah said, according to the New York Post.

says she wears a veil "so I don’t scare people. And sometimes other people might insult you."

It’s difficult to even imagine what life must be like for Nash after such a horrible attack. Besides her face being torn off, she also lost both her hands.

Oprah Winfrey to interview Sarah Palin

Hollywood Grind — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 05:12:07 +0000

Sarah Palin will finally be interviewed by Oprah Winfrey more than a year after Palin was the Republican Vice Presidential running mate.

Harpo Productions announced Tuesday that the former governor of Alaska and Republican vice presidential candidate will appear on The Oprah Winfrey Show on Monday, November 16.

According to Harpo, the interview will be Palin’s first about her new book, Going Rogue: An American Life, and it will be the first time Palin and Winfrey will meet.

Palin’s book was No. 4 on Amazon.com’s best-seller list on Tuesday. It’s slated to be released Tuesday, Nov. 17, the day after Palin’s interview with Winfrey.

Palin should just getting a reality TV show deal, because it will give her the publicity she needs for whatever it is she is planning to do.

Boy Does Deep Fried Butter Dance

Hollywood Grind — Sat, 17 Oct 2009 00:59:42 +0000

This little boy tasted deep fried butter for the first time at his first state fair, and how did he feel about it. He felt like dancing!

Oprah probably does the same thing when the first day off her latest diet.

Mackenzie Phillips Had Sex With Her Own Father

Hollywood Grind — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 21:58:55 +0000

Mackenzie Phillips (49) says in her new tell-all book High on Arrival, which goes on sale Wednesday:

"I slept with my own father. Don’t hate my father."

Why, because Phillips says the sex she had with her father, John Phillips, was a long-term consensual incestuous relationship that lasted 10 years.

John Phillips co-founded the Mamas and the Papas and wrote its biggest hits, including California Dreamin’ and Monday Monday. He also helped organize the 1967 Monterey Pop Festival, which helped introduce Jimi Hendrix to American audiences.

Mackenzie who has survived drug addiction, arrests and divorce, writes in the book High on Arrival that she was already a star playing a boy-crazy teen on the TV sitcom One Day at a Time when her father had sex with her on the night before she was to marry Jeff Sessler, a member of the Rolling Stones entourage, in 1979.

"On the eve of my wedding, my father showed up, determined to stop it. I had tons of pills, and Dad had tons of everything too. Eventually I passed out on Dad’s bed."

"My father was not a man with boundaries. He was full of love, and he was sick with drugs. I woke up that night from a blackout to find myself having sex with my own father."

"Had this happened before? I didn’t know. All I can say is it was the first time I was aware of it."

Phillips’ life began to spiral out of control. In 1980, she was fired from One Day at a Time because of her constant drug use. That same year, she went to rehab, with her father. Her sexual relationship with him had become consensual.

Mackenzie told The Oprah Winfrey Show in an interview that aired Wednesday that her siblings "definitely have a problem with this."

Winfrey also read a statement from Genevieve Waite, John Phillips’ wife at the time of the alleged abuse and Mackenzie’s stepmother:

"I am stunned by Mackenzie’s terrible allegations about her father. I would often complain about her overly familiar attitudes towards him, and he said it was just her way. John was a good man. He was incapable, no matter how drunk or drugged he was, to have sexual relations with his own child."

Mackenzie said the sexual relationship with her father lasted a decade and ended when she became pregnant and didn’t know who had fathered the child. She had an abortion, which her father paid for, and "and I never let him touch me again."

Phillips told Winfrey that she first tried cocaine when she was 11 years old. Her father did drugs with her, taught her to roll joints and injected her with cocaine. Phillips said she’s been clean for a year after pleading guilty to possessing cocaine and entering a drug treatment program.

She said she confronted her father in the early stages of the abuse, which she described as rape.

"My dad said, ’Raped you? Don’t you mean when we made love?’ And in that moment I thought, ’Wow, I’m really on my own here,’" Phillips said. She learned to turn her anger toward herself and "boxed it away" rather than think about the drug-fueled incest, she said.

Phillips said she doesn’t hate her father, who died in 2001 of heart failure at the age of 65.

"I understand that he was a very tortured man and … passed that torture down to me."

Phillips said the sexual relationship, although she believes it eventually became consensual, was "an abuse of power" and "a betrayal" on her father’s part. She said she forgave John Phillips on his deathbed

"I can’t be the only one this has happened to," Phillips said. "Someone needs to put a face on consensual incest."

Mackenzie’s half-sister Chynna Phillips of the hit 90s group Wilson Phillips shared her side of the story.

Chynna (41) said she remembers getting the call from Mackenzie in 1997, 11 years after the affair had ended, while she was between flights at LaGuardia Airport in New York City.

"She said, ’I don’t know why, but I just really felt the need to call you and tell you something that I think you need to know.’ She went on to tell me that she had had an incestuous relationship with our dad for about 10 years."

When the affair began, John was married to his third wife, model Genevieve Waïte. Chynna’s reaction, naturally, was complete shock.

"Somebody could have dropped a piano on my head and I probably wouldn’t have felt it, but I knew it was true. I mean, who in their right mind would make such a claim if it wasn’t true?"

She says the news sent her into "a deep, deep sadness and depression for about 10 days. A part of me died when I found out."

Mackenzie, who, in 2008, pleaded guilty to one count of felony cocaine possession and agreed to enter an 18-month drug deferment program, also told Oprah Winfrey in an interview Wednesday:

"My father shot me up for the first time."

If you are going to sell a book make shocking statements about people close to you like your parents, and don’t worry about alienating them if they’re dead. There is no question Mackenzie has a lot of debts she needs to pay, so a best selling book would bring in some much needed cash.

I’m not sure if I believe any of the claims Mackenzie makes about her father, except that he did a lot of drugs, even with her half sister backing up the story. Both sisters have something to gain. It seems like all the female celebrities today, once their fame begins to fade, suddenly allege they were abused, even Oprah has made that claim. Abuse happens, but why talk about it only to sell a book, or to get publicity. If the abuse happened talk to your family, don’t share it with the world, unless you’re going to start a foundation to help abused kids that are now fully grown adults.

We were discussing giving up a child the other day for adoption for some much needed money to survive. Today we are discussing a child who might be destroying her father’s good name for some much needed money to survive.

Taylor Swift on Oprah

Hollywood Grind — Tue, 19 May 2009 15:42:51 +0000

Taylor Swift gave a guitar to a young lady named Jordan who helped Oprah host the show.

Jordan appears to have Kate Gosselin’s hair-do. I hope this isn’t some kind of fad.

Taylor gave fans some great advice they should practice every day in their lives. Be kind to other people, and to yourself.

Oprah Apologizes to James Frey

Hollywood Grind — Fri, 15 May 2009 04:33:32 +0000

Oprah Winfrey finally apologized to A Million Little Pieces author James Frey for publicly humiliating him on her show after it was revealed that parts of his book were fabricated. Oprah had first put Frey’s book on his recommended list, which helped the book become a best seller, then later Oprah tore him a new one on her show. Frey’s publisher then dropped the author, and refunded unsatisfied purchasers of the book.

Frey said he was "grateful" for Oprah’s gesture.

Frey said Winfrey called him last fall to tell him "I felt I owe you an apology," and she explained that her lambasting of him sprang from her sense of feeling betrayed, according to the Vanity Fair report.

"It was a nice surprise to hear from her, and I really appreciated the call and the sentiment," he told Vanity Fair.

Angela DePaul, a spokesperson for Winfrey confirmed that the chat show host had called to apologize.

There are no immediate plans to bring Frey on the show for another episode, because the program has stopped taping new episodes for the season, Oprah’s spokesperson said.

It would seem that a real apology would include bringing Frey back on the show and apologizing to him publicly, since she humiliated him publicly. Oprah owes Frey more than a phone call, and she knows it.

The fact is A Million Little Pieces was a good book that may help a lot of people. The fact that Frey lied about some of the events in the book seems unimportant, especially when Hollywood writes fictional events into all kinds of "true stories."

Oprah Hair Weave is Real

Hollywood Grind — Sun, 26 Apr 2009 00:13:17 +0000

Oprah Winfrey answered two questions Friday that some people just had to know.

The first answered mystery was:

"Am I tweeting myself or is my assistant writing for me? I tweet myself, that’s why you haven’t seen that many tweets. I can’t tweet all day, okay?"

The second answered mystery was:

"Am I wearing a weave? Everybody’s like, ’Oprah, we love your weave.’ This is not a weave, this is my hair," Winfrey announced, before putting up a photo of herself (above) with pre-pressed and pre-curled hair. Best friend and Friday co-host Gayle King yelled "Yowzer!"

The real Opara fro looks so O.

HollywoodGrind - Celebrity gossip juicy celebrity rumors celebrity scandals Hollywood gossip blog » Oprah Winfrey

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