Monitoring the missteps of Oprah
After years of seeing everything she touches turn to gold, the talk show queen seems to be losing her Midas touch on some projects
No question about it: Oprah Winfrey is at the very apex of the entertainment world ''mountaintop.'' So, not surprisingly, when you're up there in the stratosphere there is no place else to go -- except down. With the recent stories swirling about Winfrey's stranglehold on TV ratings possibly waning, it should be noted that despite her phenomenal successes, Oprah has had stumbles -- though nothing quite as bad as the ''Seinfeld'' curse that has plagued the sequels starring that hit show's stars -- with the exception of Julia Louis-Dreyfus' ''The New Adventures of Old Christine.''
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Perhaps no subjects have been more widely discussed on ''Oprah'' than diet, weight loss and a woman's overall appearance. In virtually all cases, Winfrey uses herself as a linchpin for any discussion on body image. From her famous ''Skinny Oprah'' pulling the kids' red wagon filled with animal fat (equal to her loss on a now-discredited liquid diet) to a ton of ''makeover'' shows to frequent visits by her personal trainer and exercise book author Bob Greene or health tips from Dr. Mehmet Oz -- Winfrey's battle with her weight has been a constant.
Granted, she often has been self-deprecating about the struggles with her weight, but it's clear this has been an area of her life that hasn't been easy. Winfrey recently revealed that a thyroid condition was a big part of her struggle, but even with medication and claims of careful dieting, it seems obvious Winfrey will never again be a Size 10.
One of Winfrey's most successful TV projects has been Oprah's Book Club, a force of nature for the publishing industry. While Winfrey has made millionaires out of relatively unknown authors such as Midwesterners Jane Hamilton (The Book of Ruth, A Map of the World) and Elizabeth Berg (Open House), even here Oprah has encountered adversity -- especially when humiliated by the revelation that James Frey's A Million Little Pieces was fraudulently presented as the author's memoir, and not as what it was -- a work of fiction.
Yet, despite boosting so many authors -- both living and dead -- it is intriguing Winfrey has not been able to write her own book. Celebrity author Kitty Kelley is the latest scribe to tackle Oprah as a subject matter. Yet, if and when Winfrey can find the time -- and inspiration -- to pound out her memoirs, New York publishing sources predict that book would likely outsell Barbara Walters' Audition 10-1.
At the 11th hour in the early 1990s, Winfrey did cancel a contract to write her memoirs and since then has not signaled a strong desire to return to that project. In 2001, Winfrey told the Sun-Times she would write her autobiography one day -- promising to ''tell all, or else why do it?'' But she also stressed it would be at a point ''many years from now, when there would be more of a complete life to look back on.''
Much has been written and broadcast about Oprah Winfrey's backing of Sen. Barack Obama's run for the White House this year, her first-ever public endorsement of a political candidate. In checking with various media experts, and political insiders who are close to both the Obama and Hillary Clinton campaigns, not one person believed that Winfrey's endorsement of Obama would have more than a tiny impact on her TV show's ratings. Though none of those insiders would go on the record for this article, all were relatively positive about Winfrey and generally agreed with a key Obama supporter: ''I would never go on the record with an opinion of what Oprah does or doesn't do. I wouldn't want to take the chance I'd p- - - her off.''
If Obama goes on to snare the Democratic nomination and win in November, will the Winfrey endorsement be a factor?
''A small one perhaps, but given the many, many factors affecting a presidential election, her endorsement would be a very minor one,'' a top Chicago Democrat said.
But on the flip side, several insiders did say her support of his candidacy would be brought up -- perhaps unfairly -- if he were to lose to Sen. John McCain in the general election.
''Especially if the race is close, people will be nitpicking everything,'' the same Chicago Democratic source said.
Winfrey's charitable generosity has reached legendary status, from giving new cars to deserving school teachers in her studio audience to building homes for victims of Hurricane Katrina to founding a private school for girls in South Africa. While the jury is still out on the Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy, Winfrey faced some troubling issues shortly after the school was launched in 2006. Allegations of mistreatment and abuse of students led Winfrey to shake up the school's management team -- even flying round trip to Africa twice within a couple of weeks to tackle the crisis firsthand. Though recent reports indicate everything at the school is back on track, this was an example of Winfrey drawing criticism for leaping into something with which she had no experience: running an educational institution.
There have been numerous feature film and television productions created or produced by Winfrey's Harpo entertainment empire that have been successful, but like anything in Hollywood, even Oprah is not immune to stumbles. One of the most spectacular was her 1998 big-screen production of ''Beloved,'' based on Nobel Prize winner Toni Morrison's novel and directed by Jonathan Demme. Winfrey starred with Danny Glover in the film, which garnered only one Academy Award nomination -- for costume design -- and brought in less than half its estimated $53 million budget at the U.S. box office during its initial run. Despite the flop, Winfrey has continued to stand behind the decision to make the film -- once telling the Sun-Times, ''it was a labor of love and continues to have a special place in my heart.''
Another ''special place'' in Winfrey's heart certainly was reserved for the stage musical ''The Color Purple,'' based on Alice Walker's novel -- first turned into the 1985 film by Steven Spielberg that won Winfrey an Oscar nomination. The show became ''Oprah Winfrey Presents 'The Color Purple' " -- allowing her name to topline the title -- designed to give the musical a much-needed boost prior to its Broadway bow. Winfrey so loved the show, she even buried the hatchet of her decadelong mini-feud with David Letterman -- tying her return to ''The Late Show'' with the Broadway premiere of her musical.
After a long New York run, ''The Color Purple'' was expected to have an equally long run at the Cadillac Palace Theatre here. At the time of its opening in April 2007, the buzz had the show running ''for a year, if not longer,'' before moving on to the rest of its national tour. But despite strong reviews, ''The Color Purple'' ran for a less-than-spectacular six months. A failure? No, but certainly not a smash on the order of ''Wicked'' or ''Jersey Boys," or even ''Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat,'' which ran for a record-setting 18 months at the Chicago Theatre.
As for the small screen, Winfrey invested both money and her reputation for helping viewers reach their potential for good deeds on ABC's "Oprah's Big Give.'' Though the show launched with numbers making it second to only the most recent ''American Idol'' season, the public quickly tired of the premise -- and the show landed in 32nd place for the entire season, lower than many perhaps expected despite the tremendous promos for "The Big Give," directed to her 20 million-strong daily viewing audience.
Winfrey abandoned her personal involvement in the Oxygen Network, leaving its board of directors in 2000, then cashing out when it was sold to NBC Universal last year. As she partnered earlier this year with the Discovery Channel to reinvent its Discovery Health Channel division into OWN (Oprah Winfrey Network), Winfrey bluntly told reporters that she did not expect to witness a repeat of her disappointment in Oxygen with OWN. ''I did not have editorial control of Oxygen. That was the problem. I did not control programming. I won't make that mistake again. I have editorial control of OWN," she said.
So despite the buzz about ratings slipping or O magazine circulation fluctuations or various Harpo projects not working -- don't ever, ever count Oprah Winfrey out of any game that she plays. Even her so-called ''failures'' pale when compared to everything she has done -- and will continue to do.