O, the Oprah Magazine Magazine

Eric Kallgren    Boulder Colorado USA

Posted at 10:42pm on Wednesday, May 20th, 2009

Vogue editor-in-chief Anna Wintour thinks Oprah Winfrey is a bit of a cow, based on a story in Us magazine published on May 18, 2009:

"Wintour had told the talk show host to drop 20 pounds to be on the cover of the fashion magazine back in 1998, the editor revealed during an unaired segment from her 60 Minutes interview on Sunday.

"It was a very gentle suggestion," she said, laughing. "I went to Chicago to visit Oprah, and I suggested that it might be an idea that she lose a little bit of weight."

She added: "I said simply that you might feel more comfortable. She was a trooper!"

Winfrey, 55, must have listened to the fashion legend. She was featured on the cover from more than 10 years ago with the tagline: "Oprah! A Major Movie, An Amazing Makeover."

"She totally welcomed the idea, and she went on a very stringent diet," Wintour said. "And it was one of our most successful covers ever."

In the 60 Minutes interview, Wintour, 59, also defended the use of Photoshop to make people "look their best."

"That's one of the things that makes me rather angry, that I don't understand," she said. "That if you look wonderful, does that make you less important? Less powerful? Less serious?"

The full story:
http://www.usmagazine.com/news/vogue-anna-wintour-tells-oprah-winfrey-to-lose-weight-2009185

Eric Kallgren    Boulder, Colorado USA

Posted at 8:46pm on Saturday, May 9th, 2009

Oprah's free coupon is causing a fowl frenzy, Reuters reported on May 8, 2009:

"The Oprah Winfrey-fueled free chicken give-away that caused pandemonium this week at Kentucky Fried Chicken restaurants has been amended due to what the fast-food chain called an "overwhelming response."

Roger Eaton, president of KFC in the United States, said restaurants would no longer immediately redeem the free coupons for its new grilled chicken meal after Oprah's chat show promotion caused long lines around the nation.

"The lines of customers wanting to redeem their coupons have been out the door and around the block, so we're unable to redeem customer coupons at this time." Eaton said in a statement issued late Thursday.

KFC said millions of Americans had downloaded free coupons after the offer was featured on "The Oprah Winfrey Show" and Web site on Tuesday, driving traffic to levels unseen in the brand's 50-year history."

Eric Kallgren    Boulder, Colorado USA

Posted at 3:17pm on Monday, February 2nd, 2009

On February 2, 2009, WWD magazine reported that Oprah's swelling girth is growing the bottom line:

"Oprah Winfrey’s media blitz around her weight gain helped to boost single-copy sales of her magazine to over 1.1 million in January, the best-selling issue of O, The Oprah Magazine in three years.

Winfrey utilized nearly every media property she owned to promote her “Best Life Week,” a special five-day guide to improving health, finances and relationships in the new year with advice from Oprah’s “friends” Suze Orman, Dr. Mehmet Oz and others. “Best Life Week” also lived on her Web site, oprah.com, and on her satellite radio show, and was promoted heavily in the January issue.

The event began with the Jan. 5 episode of “The Oprah Winfrey Show,” where Winfrey candidly discussed her disappointment in losing control of her weight. That played off of a revealing personal essay in the January issue, where she explained how she gained back 40 pounds in four years. Winfrey appeared on the cover as a before and after image of herself asking the question, “How did I let this happen again?” The cover and the story were picked up by media outlets across the country leading up to the launch of “Best Life Week.”"

Eric Kallgren    Boulder, Colorado USA

Posted at 1:28pm on Monday, January 19th, 2009

On January 18, 2009, the Associated Press reported that Oprah Winfrey is 'disappointed' by the debunked Holocaust story she promoted:

Oprah Winfrey broke her silence Friday about former guest Herman Rosenblat, saying she's "very disappointed" in his now discredited story about meeting his future wife in a Nazi concentration camp.

"That's what happens with lies," Winfrey said on an episode of The Oprah Winfrey Show that aired Friday. "They get bigger and bigger and bigger."

Rosenblat, a 79-year-old resident of North Miami Beach, and his wife Roma have appeared twice on Winfrey's show. Winfrey said he had planned to appear again to "explain himself," but the man's lawyers scuttled that.

Rosenblat's tale of a little girl throwing apples over a barbed-wire fence to him every day at a sub-camp of Buchenwald in the 1940s was endearing, Winfrey said.

"And he told that story and I was crying, everybody was crying," Winfrey said.

Winfrey noted that the couple did have an unusual story.

"They have been married for 50 years and he was, indeed, in a concentration camp and so was she," Winfrey said.

Berkley Books, an imprint of Penguin Group (USA), had planned to release Rosenblat's memoir Angel at the Fence in February. But after scholars, friends and family members challenged him, Rosenblat acknowledged the story was untrue and Berkley pulled the book.