Oprah Winfrey is removing gospel singer BeBe Winans from her show's "karaoke challenge" until charges against him for allegedly pushing his ex-wife to the ground are resolved.
Winans appeared on "The Oprah Winfrey Show" last week and was seen in promos for future appearances. Now he'll be cut out of the segment, said Winfrey spokesman Don Halcombe on Thursday.
Winfrey was criticized by some bloggers this week for including Winans after she had taken a strong stand against domestic violence earlier this year. She did a show on the topic when singer Chris Brown assaulted his then-girlfriend Rihanna.
The daytime TV leader said at the time: "Domestic violence is something that I wouldn't tolerate. Period."
Halcombe would only say that the decision to eliminate Winans was made this week. It was not clear if Winfrey had been aware that Winans was charged with misdemeanor domestic assault in the Feb. 13 incident, where Winans and his ex-wife Debra were allegedly arguing about their children. Winans has a court date set for Jan. 20.
Winans' manager did not immediately return a telephone call for comment.
"Let's just not have a double standard on domestic violence or even accusations of domestic violence," said Joni Reynolds, a woman from the Baltimore area and author of a blog called Ebony Mom Politics.
She had called attention to Winans' participation and wondered if Winfrey had overlooked the charges because the Winans were friends or because there were no photos that had become public as in Rihanna's case.
Reynolds commended Winfrey for deciding to take Winans off the show.
With the show's syndication contract to CBS up in 2011, Winfrey would be free to move the show to her own long-delayed cable channel, Oprah Winfrey Network.
Finke reports that Winfrey's struggling network has had trouble launching without the daytime diva's own talk show. The Discovery Communications associated network allegedly gave Winfrey the ultimatum to move her show to the new channel or risk losing the cable network entirely.
Winfrey will reportedly make the announcement public within the next several weeks.
Oprah announced yesterday that controversial Republican figure Sarah Palin will be on her show next month to plug her new book, and Palinpalooza has already (big surprise) stirred up both bases.
Facts and misunderstandings have flown fast and furious in the last 24 hours. People reported that last year "Palin famously turned down a campaign season appearance with talk show host." Well, not completely. First, Oprah kept her at bay through the election, then Palin returned the favor.
The Drudge Report posted an item in September 2008 claiming that Oprah's staff was bitterly divided about whether to book Palin on the show. Oprah quickly responded with a statement debunking Drudge, saying, "There has been absolutely no discussion about having Sarah Palin on my show. At the beginning of the presidential campaign, when I decided that I was going to take my first public stance in support of a candidate, I made the decision not to use my show as a platform for any of the candidates. I agree that Sarah Palin would be a fantastic interview, and I would love to have her on after the campaign is over."
Oprah famously endorsed Barack Obama -- did a "happy dance" for him, no less -- the winning Democrat in last year's campaign. (He even joked about making her his VP.) Obama has appeared twice on Oprah's show -- but not while he was a candidate. He also plugged books on "The Oprah Winfrey Show" in January 2005 and October 2006.
Round and round -- the point is, it's finally happening, for good or ill. So, the question ...
What do you think Oprah should ask Sarah during the interview?
According to yesterday's announcement, they'll be meeting for the first time during the actual sit-down -- no pre-planning or rehearsal -- so O's gotta have her ducks in a row. What should she ask? Where shouldn't she go? Tell us below ...
And, as much as "Saturday Night Live" has skewered Palin with Tina Fey's spot-on impersonation, here's a clip from a Dutch TV comedy show featuring an Oprah spoof -- with "Sarah Palin" as a guest ...
You betcha! Former Alaska governor Sarah Palin will appear on "The Oprah Winfrey Show" on Nov. 16.
Harpo announced the booking today, adding that Winfrey and Palin will meet for the very first time on the episode.
Palin has been courted by numerous talk shows. Other than news-channel interviews and a cameo on "Saturday Night Live," she hasn't made it to Leno, Letterman, etc.
Of course, there's really one reason Palin chose Oprah: She's got a book to sell. And Oprah can move tanker-loads of books. Palin will be hawking her upcoming memoir, Going Rogue: An American Life.
Palin was John McCain's running mate on the Republican ticket for the 2008 presidential election. Oprah endorsed Barack Obama in the election, the first time she publicly supported a candidate.
Think Oprah can see Russia from her Chicago skyscraper?
Oprah keeps her ear to the ground -- which may the safest place for it on her talk show this Friday.
Boxing rivals Mike Tyson and Evander Holyfield will face each other again, not in the ring but on "The Oprah Winfrey Show," during its weekly live broadcast this Friday, according to an announcement from Harpo Productions.
Oprah will referee the pair during the appearance, which is the first time the fighters have met since June 28, 1997, at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, when Tyson was disqualified after biting off part of Holyfield's right ear during their WBA heavyweight title fight.
What do you dial up when you hit the karaoke bar? Do you roller-skate straight for the "Xanadu"? Do you break out the hair metal? Do you dream the impossible dream?
Whatever you sing, Oprah wants to hear it.
Well, gospel singer BeBe Winans does, anyway. On Oprah's behalf -- as announced on today's show -- Winans is hitting the road "American Idol"-style to find the best karaoke singers in America. It's Oprah's Karaoke Challenge.
You can also enter by submitting a two-minute video of yourself singing along with your favorite karaoke track. You can upload your video from now until 11:59 p.m. Oct. 19.
Several singers will be selected to perform on "The Oprah Winfrey Show."
Well, OK then. Mackenzie Phillips promised a bombshell on today's "Oprah" and ... kaboom!
She had sex with her father. A lot.
It's the hot button issue in the "One Day at a Time" star's new memoir, High on Arrival, which hits shelves today.
In the book, Mackenzie details how it began -- on the eve of her first marriage. She's 19 and about to marry Jeff Sessler, son of a member of the Rolling Stones' entourage, and her father, John Phillips (of the Mamas & the Papas), showed up talking about stopping the wedding.
"I had tons of pills, and Dad had tons of everything too. Eventually I passed out on Dad's bed," she writes. "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. For a moment I was in my body, in that horrible truth, and then I slid back into a blackout."
That was 1979. The following year, Mackenzie's drug use got her fired from the sitcom "One Day at a Time." (Here's an interesting People article from 1980 about that situation.) She and her father both went into rehab, and then out on tour with his band. They continued their sexual relationship -- and it became consensual.
"One night Dad said, 'We could just run away to a country where no one would look down on us. There are countries where this is an accepted practice. Maybe Fiji.' He was completely delusional. 'No,' I thought, 'we're going to hell for this.' "
Mackenzie and Sessler remained married until 1981. He died in 2005. John Phillips died of heart failure in 2001.
Mackenzie's sexual affair with her father, she says, lasted ... 10 years. It 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."
John Phillips and MacKenzie during a taping of "The John Davidson Show" in 1981. (AP file)
In today's interview with Oprah, Mackenzie explains that her father also introduced her to the drug use that plagued her life for years to come. "My father shot me up for the first time," she said. Mackenzie was arrested as recently as October of last year, after being found at the Los Angeles airport with needles, cocaine and heroin. She was sent back to rehab.
She told Oprah that her siblings "definitely have a problem with this." Oprah also read a statement from Genevieve Waite, John Phillips' wife at the time of the alleged abuse and Mackenzie's stepmother that said he was "incapable, no matter how drunk or drugged he was, of having such a relationship with his own child."
Mackenzie's sister Chynna Phillips, 41, of the music group Wilson Phillips, tells Us Weekly today about the day she found out about the incestuous relationship. Mackenzie called her in 1997 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.' And she went on to tell me that she had had an incestuous relationship with our dad for about 10 years. 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?"
At the end of her new book, Mackenzie writes: "It was, as I've said, a hard decision to reveal the sordid side of my relationship with my father. But these are complex, painful, heart-wrenching truths that infiltrate lives, many lives, not just mine. I can't be the only one. And I needed to tell that part of the story because I wanted to earn the right to talk about forgiveness."
In July, a Florida couple known for adopting 13 special-needs children were shot and killed in their home. The story caught the attention of Oprah, and though the couple's daughter has turned down numerous interview requests -- she's going to appear on "Oprah."
Ashley Markham, her husband and attorney will be in Chicago next week to tape an appearance on "The Oprah Winfrey Show."
According to CBS: Her attorney says Oprah will focus on the family and their legacy, not the murders. Markham has turned down interview requests from the national media who wanted to focus on the crime.
Six men and a 16-year-old have pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder in the slayings.
Mackenzie Phillips is the guest on "The Oprah Winfrey Show" this Wednesday, and the teaser (above) promises that she -- child star, former drug addict, daughter of rock royalty -- will be revealing an "explosive," 31-year-old family secret.
Big surprise: She's also hawking a book that's published tomorrow, High on Arrival.
You thought the Michigan Avenue bash was a big deal? Check out Oprah's public taping of another episode this Friday -- in New York City's Central Park.
Guests on that outdoor show will be Regis Philbin and Kelly Ripa -- who will show up just moments after wrapping up their own morning talk show -- and Mariah Carey, who's expected to perform a song from her new album, "Memoirs of an Imperfect Angel."
Methinks Chicago got better guests. Regis and Kelly? Really? You're in New York and that's who you got? Maybe Oprah's clout ison the decline ...
Oprah also will announce her 63rd Book Club selection.
Apropos of maybe nothing, when Whitney Houston performed in Central Park for "Good Morning America" a few weeks ago, her voice cracked a little during one song -- and she blamed it on the amount of talking she'd done the day before in taping her interview with Oprah!
In TV, 24 years is an awfully long time. "The Oprah Winfrey Show" having been on the air that long can't help but struggle to stay on top. And an Associated Press story this week illuminates that -- despite the hubub we've experienced here in Chicago, with the Mag Mile shut-down, plus the big Whitney Houston interview and more -- Oprah's show has slipped 7 percent in the ratings. Like so many other daytime programs right now.
The story concludes that one of the reasons for the slight decline is that the once apolitical Oprah began showing her personal allegiances:
By endorsing Barack Obama and campaigning for him, she shucked her apolitical image. Winfrey's book club selection of Eckhart Tolle's New Age religion book A New Earth angered some conservative Christians -- even though Winfrey's producer said Winfrey was careful not to push Tolle's views on viewers through the television show.
She is, without a doubt, the most powerful endorsement in pop culture. Her book club can turn obscure novels into immediate hits, and anything she endorses on her annual "Favorite Things" show becomes impossible to find. But that's because in her contract with her audience, she never has a piece of what she is pushing. Her interest is your interest because she is not for sale.
After her endorsement of Mr. Obama, however, the message boards on Oprah.com are alive with allegations of "betrayal" and "sellout." Mr. Obama's base may have been engaged, but part of Ms. Winfrey's base is livid.
Even on this blog, you'll still find comments of that tone. When Oprah remarked how "stunned" she was at the backlash to Obama's health-care speech, comments included the suggestion that she is "infatuated with this man [and has] little objectivity."
Nearly a year past the Obama campaign, what's your perspective? Did Oprah's siding with the president influence your opinion of her -- or your viewing habits?
Tuesday night from her massive stage in the middle of Michigan Avenue, Oprah Winfrey joked to the thousands in the throng that she'd like to pour everyone a tequila shot. The legalities of drinking in public, however, prevented her from playing barkeep.
"Nice party," Winfrey said. "We just need a few tequila shots. Believe me, I wanted you to have 'em but I'd end up being sued a time or two."
Earlier that afternoon, however, Oprah previewed the evening taping of her show -- a stunt to kick off the 24th season of her Chicago-based daytime talk show -- in an interview with Eric & Kathy on WTMX (101.9 FM). Even then she said she was hankerin' for a shot -- lime, no salt -- because, she said, that's how you know it's a party.
She promised to do tequila shots with Eric & Kathy after the big Mag Mile event, and apparently it was indeed a party. Kathy Hart took the photo above of Miss O and Eric Ferguson following through at one of the clubs in the new Trump International Hotel & Tower hours after the big show.
So Oprah was in town Tuesday night, performing her show before a throng of crazed fans on Michigan Avenue. Just 3-4 blocks away, and about 3-4 hours later, superstar rapper Jay-Z was performing his show before a select throng of crazed fans at a promotional event in the House of Blues. It's not the first time in recent weeks the two moguls have been in each other's orbit.
Last months, some photos crept onto the Web of Jay-Z and O hanging out in some Brooklyn projects. Turns out the connection was for an interview for an upcoming edition of O magazine -- but now that same interview, which was videotaped, will be aired on an episode of "The Oprah Winfrey Show" on Sept. 24.
Asked what they were doing in the projects, Jay-Z told an NYC radio station: ""I brought her around there really for the neighborhood. 'Cause a lot of times, when you see people or you hear about Oprah Winfrey, she seems almost untouchable. When I saw her, it was shocking to me. So I know how that feels, to see someone on TV and hear their name and know they're so hugely successful. They seem unattainable ... but for them to be around the way and for kids to just see that."
Word has it Rihanna was also present for the chat.
"There was a lot of people out there," Jay-Z said. "It was Oprah, you know? You don't want people to come snatch her up. [There was] like secret service and helicopters all around."
Whitney Houton (left) and Oprah Winfrey gab in an interview set to air Monday on "The Oprah Winfrey Show."(Harpo)
If you think you're excited about Oprah Winfrey's interview with pop diva Whitney Houston -- scheduled as the debut show of her 24th season on Monday -- Oprah herself is pretty ecstatic about it. She says it's "the best interview I've ever done."
"My approach to this interview was to not be judgmental in any way, and not to go in trying to get her to say things to make a 'moment,'" Winfrey says in a statement released ahead of today's Michigan Avenue bash.
"I just wanted to be able to have an honest conversation with her," Winfrey continued. "One woman to another woman. And the day of the interview I literally prayed about that all day long. I just wanted a connection between the two of us. And that is what happened. And that is why I believe it's one of the most, if not the most, powerful interviews I've ever done."
The Whitney interview will kick off "The Oprah Winfrey Show" at 9 a.m. Monday on WLS-Channel 7. It's being called the "premiere" of the new season -- but there are two new episodes airing this week. The star-studded show she taped before a throng of crazed fans this evening on Michigan Avenue will air at 9 a.m. Thursday, and Friday's show will be a recap of "summer newsmakers."
It's a girl! Seal and Heidi Klum confirmed during Friday's segment of "The Oprah Winfrey" show that they are expecting a baby girl -- which will be Klum's fourth child.
Klum, 35, and Seal, 46, have two sons together -- Henry Gunther, 3, and Johan Riley, 2. They're also parents to to 4-year-old Leni, whose father is Italian businessman Flavio Briatore but who was later adopted by Seal.
Several weeks ago, Seal announced his wife's pregnancy to the audience at his New York City concert.
Klum will finally be back hosting "Project Runway" in August.
Elizabeth Edwards tells talk show host Oprah Winfrey that it's a "complicated question" if she still is in love with her husband, former presidential candidate and U.S. Sen John Edwards, after his admitted affair.
In an episode of "The Oprah Winfrey Show" to air Thursday, Winfrey asks Edwards, "Are you still in love with him?"
Edwards responds, "You know, that's a complicated question," in an excerpt provided in advance by Harpo Productions.
A sit-down interview with the grandparents of murdered two-year-old Caylee Anthony and Oprah Winfrey isn't going to happen as planned.
George and Cindy Anthony were slated to head to Chicago to talk with Winfrey in what was being plugged as one of three exclusive TV interviews Winfrey scored for the month of May.
However, after the Anthonys agreed to do a sit down with "The Early Show" on CBS, Winfrey's reps pulled the interview.
"Based on the Anthonys' decision to appear on other programs, we have decided not to move forward with their interview on The Oprah Winfrey Show at this time," a statement from Winfrey's show said.
The interview on Winfrey's show would have been the first time the Anthony's had been interviewed since their granddaughter's remains were found.
Star Jones appears on Wednesday's airing of "The Oprah Winfrey Show" (George Burns/Harpo photo)
Star Jones -- whose rapid weight loss played into her rocky exit from "The View" in 2006 -- denies she took an easy way out having gastric bypass surgery and without the changes, Jones was told she would have died.
"I'm still 300 pounds in my head some days," Jones told Oprah Winfrey in a taped episode airing Wednesday.
Jones admitted she was scared to disappoint people and ashamed that she wasn't able to control her weight.
"... I was an addict for all practical purposes, that I had never stuck to a real diet, that I'd never stuck to a real exercise program, and that when confronted by my doctor and the doctor said if you don't make changes, you will die. I had no choice." Jones said. "When you hear people say, oh, you took the easy way out, I would have longed for an easy way. It was not an easy way. It was this -- the hardest struggle of my whole entire life and I still struggle."
Jones responded to remarks by former co-host Barbara Walters that after the surgery, the show's audience couldn't relate to Jones anymore.
"I was hurt and upset initially," Jones said. "I'm so sorry that I placed a burden on my colleagues. I never asked them to lie."
Jones' appearance is part of a show on losing weight in the public eye. Valerie Bertinelli and Marie Osmond will also appear on Wednesday's show.
Chicago native Jennifer Hudson performing Feb. 8 at the Grammys.(AP file)
Jennifer Hudson's big month comes to a close later this week with a performance on "The Oprah Winfrey Show."
On Friday, Hudson will be with O to perform her latest single, "If This Isn't Love."
Hudson began February with an acclaimed performance of the national anthem at the Super Bowl, followed by another heralded performance at the Grammys -- where she also took the trophy for best R&B album for her self-titled debut.
No word on whether she'll actually be sitting down to chat with Oprah, but we wouldn't bet against it.
