Oprah to L.A.? Oh oh Oprah!
Hmmmm. Is she or isn't she?
Is Oprah Winfrey moving her show to L.A.?
Is the TV titan this/close to announcing she will give up her daytime syndicated talk show in mid-2011 to focus on her own Oprah Winfrey Network?
• Backdate: Sneed tipped last June that Oprah "may be looking at signing a TV studio lease for her show in L.A." (Oprah's spokesperson, Angela DePaul, denied the rumor.)
• Update: On Thursday, Deadline.com reported sources telling the entertainment Web site the daytime TV czarina will tell the public in several weeks "she's ending her syndicated Chicago-based daytime talk show when her current deal runs out and moving it to OWN [Oprah Winfrey Network] headquarters in Los Angeles probably as soon as mid-2011."
• Response: Don Halcombe, an Oprah spokesman, told Sneed Thursday: "She [Oprah] has not made a decision yet. As she has previously stated, she'll be making an announcement before the end of the year."
• Parting shot: Sneed's original Oprah tipster claims they heard rumbles the TV titan may have bought a new studio "in the Wilshire area of Westwood in L.A."
Stay tuned.
Dateline: The road from Manny's Deli to the White House -- Gov. Quinn, who visited with President Obama in the Oval Office at the White House Wednesday, tells Sneed he was amused to see a framed photo of a guy slicing corned beef at Manny's Deli in the office of David Axelrod, the president's top adviser.
• The kicker: "It's the same eatery where [Quinn] and Axelrod used to meet 25 years ago to talk politics," said a source.
• Postscript: Quinn, who hopes to help needy military families via an income tax donation, spent Thursday afternoon at a military funeral in Champaign.
The face of Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will grace the cover of Time magazine today for the 16th time.
• Hair care: It's no secret when she was first lady, Clinton was the queen of constantly changing hairstyles. But her shorter do, which she has maintained since becoming a U.S. senator, is now looking like a frazzled hockey mom or overworked CEO.
• Singer Elton John left a London hospital Thursday after he was forced to cancel a series of concerts when he got ill from an E. coli bacterial infection and the flu.
• The singer Sting is helping fund a project to send indestructible soccer balls to children in the world's most troubled places, according to friend Bobby Sager's Web site.
• Turkey talk: Former TV uber dad Jon Gosselin is spending Thanksgiving with his girlfriend, Hailey Glassman, despite her recent claims Gosselin was emotionally abusive.
• Jail note: Film director Roman Polanski, who is jailed in Switzerland due to a years-old U.S. conviction of having sex with a minor, unsuccessfully offered his Gstaad chalet apartment recently as collateral for bail.
Actor Armand Assante dining at Billy Dec's Sunda eatery Wednesday . . . Fashion designer Michael Kors at Gene & Georgetti Wednesday night.
Condolences to the family of Rose Farina, whose brother Vito Torina died this week . . . Today's birthdays: Sally Field, 63; Glenn Frey, 61; Ethan Hawke, 39; Mike Nichols, 78, and Maria Shriver, 54 . . . Saturday's birthdays: Joan Sutherland, 83; Joni Mitchell, 66; Johnny Rivers, 67; Grant DePorter, 45; Tom Tully, ageless. and Fay Saltzman, 76 and peerless.