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"That's what people want to hear. The truth is boring."
-Oprah "I Fucked Diane Sawyer" Winfrey
www.foxnews.com/entertainment/2010/04/13/new-tell-claims-oprah-winfrey
-hidden-life/

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Oprah hosts Billionaire club in bid to curb overpopulation

America's richest people meet to discuss ways of tackling a 'disastrous' environmental, social and industrial threat

London Times
May 24, 2009

SOME of America’s leading billionaires have met secretly to consider how their wealth could be used to slow the growth of the world’s population and speed up improvements in health and education.

The philanthropists who attended a summit convened on the initiative of Bill Gates, the Microsoft co-founder, discussed joining forces to overcome political and religious obstacles to change.

Described as the Good Club by one insider it included David Rockefeller Jr, the patriarch of America’s wealthiest dynasty, Warren Buffett and George Soros, the financiers, Michael Bloomberg, the mayor of New York, and the media moguls Ted Turner and Oprah Winfrey.

These members, along with Gates, have given away more than £45 billion since 1996 to causes ranging from health programmes in developing countries to ghetto schools nearer to home.

They gathered at the home of Sir Paul Nurse, a British Nobel prize biochemist and president of the private Rockefeller University, in Manhattan on May 5. The informal afternoon session was so discreet that some of the billionaires’ aides were told they were at “security briefings”.

Stacy Palmer, editor of the Chronicle of Philanthropy, said the summit was unprecedented. “We only learnt about it afterwards, by accident. Normally these people are happy to talk good causes, but this is different – maybe because they don’t want to be seen as a global cabal,” he said.

Some details were emerging this weekend, however. The billionaires were each given 15 minutes to present their favourite cause. Over dinner they discussed how they might settle on an “umbrella cause” that could harness their interests.

The issues debated included reforming the supervision of overseas aid spending to setting up rural schools and water systems in developing countries. Taking their cue from Gates they agreed that overpopulation was a priority.

This could result in a challenge to some Third World politicians who believe contraception and female education weaken traditional values.

Gates, 53, who is giving away most of his fortune, argued that healthier families, freed from malaria and extreme poverty, would change their habits and have fewer children within half a generation.

At a conference in Long Beach, California, last February, he had made similar points. “Official projections say the world’s population will peak at 9.3 billion [up from 6.6 billion today] but with charitable initiatives, such as better reproductive healthcare, we think we can cap that at 8.3 billion,” Gates said then.

Patricia Stonesifer, former chief executive of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, which gives more than £2 billion a year to good causes, attended the Rockefeller summit. She said the billionaires met to “discuss how to increase giving” and they intended to “continue the dialogue” over the next few months.

Another guest said there was “nothing as crude as a vote” but a consensus emerged that they would back a strategy in which population growth would be tackled as a potentially disastrous environmental, social and industrial threat.

“This is something so nightmarish that everyone in this group agreed it needs big-brain answers,” said the guest. “They need to be independent of government agencies, which are unable to head off the disaster we all see looming.”

Why all the secrecy? “They wanted to speak rich to rich without worrying anything they said would end up in the newspapers, painting them as an alternative world government,” he said.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/us_and_americas/article635
0303.ece

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"Malaria is spread by mosquitoes. I brought some. Here I'll let them roam around. There is no reason only poor people should be infected."
-Bill Gates

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Speaking with Matt Lauer on TODAY Monday, Kelley said that in researching her book, she was given the opportunity to read Winfrey’s own 1993 autobiography, a book Oprah ultimately decided not to release — and that in it, she referred to herself as a “prostitute” during her troubled, wild adolescence.

“There are so many secrets in her life, secrets about her relationships, secrets within her family,” Kelley told Lauer. “Even when she was writing her own autobiography, and she was finally going to come forward, she described herself as a ‘prostitute,’ which is a rather harsh description, I think.

“She had talked about her teenage promiscuity, which is really kind of a natural outgrowth of a terrible, terrible sexual molestation she endured.”

Among the new stories Kelley reports in the biography is Winfrey’s live-in love affair with former “Entertainment Tonight” anchor John Tesh decades ago. According to a New York Daily News story on Kelley’s book, the pair struck up a relationship while working together in the 1970s at WTVF-TV in Nashville, Tenn.

A former Tesh girlfriend told Kelley that Tesh eventually left Oprah because of the social pressures of interracial dating. “He said one night he looked down and saw his white body next to her black body and couldn’t take it anymore,” the former girlfriend told Kelley. “He walked out in the middle of the night … He told me later he felt guilty about it.”

Among the new stories Kelley reports in the biography is Winfrey’s live-in love affair with former “Entertainment Tonight” anchor John Tesh decades ago. According to a New York Daily News story on Kelley’s book, the pair struck up a relationship while working together in the 1970s at WTVF-TV in Nashville, Tenn.

A former Tesh girlfriend told Kelley that Tesh eventually left Oprah because of the social pressures of interracial dating. “He said one night he looked down and saw his white body next to her black body and couldn’t take it anymore,” the former girlfriend told Kelley. “He walked out in the middle of the night … He told me later he felt guilty about it.”

http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/36415458/ns/today-books/

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I'M TOO FATTY FOR MY STAIRS

In a short excerpt obtained by the Reliable Source, Oprah comes off as a demanding diva unwilling to lift a finger -- or foot -- if she doesn't feel like it.

About five years ago, she contacted Georgetown's L'Enfant Gallery, known for high-end antiques, because she owned works by portraitist John Kirthian Court and wanted to see more. Gallery owner Peter Colasante bought three paintings ($60,000-$80,000 each) and had them shipped from Portugal to his shop for Oprah's consideration. He received strict instructions for her short visit, along with a partial schedule: "2:17 p.m.: Oprah's limousine arrives at L'Enfant Gallery, 2:20 p.m.: Oprah walks into gallery...."

On the appointed day and time, two limos pulled up and Oprah went into Deborah Gore Dean's shop across Wisconsin Avenue. After waiting 30 minutes, Colasante walked over and found his famous client berating Dean. He told Oprah and her entourage (secretary, pilot, hairdresser, makeup man, guards) that he had other appointments scheduled and she needed to honor her timetable.

"Oprah does not walk," she told him, referring to herself in the third person. "Who is this guy?" Then she started screaming at her staff, but finally agreed to cross the street and come through his front door.

"I just don't feel it," she told him. "The vibrations aren't right."

"You'll feel them once you see the paintings we've assembled for you," he said, pointing up the stairs where Court's art was hanging.

"Oprah does not do stairs," she said.

Things went rapidly downhill from there: Colasante's partner hissed that maybe Oprah could use the exercise (unclear who heard), and she stormed out in a huff without buying anything.

How accurate is Kelley's version? Dean, who declined to be interviewed for the book, said she doesn't discuss her clients. Winfrey spokeswoman Lisa Halliday declined to comment.

"Kitty got it just right," Colasante told us this weekend. "I was somewhat dumbfounded to see this side of Oprah. I've been in business 37 years, and I've never seen anyone behave that way before -- least of all anyone well-known, who are generally pussycats. We had a wonderful time with Barbra Streisand." (He eventually sold two of the three Court paintings.)

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/reliable-source/2010/04/kitty_kelleys
_new_book_oprah_h.html

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Kelley's writing style is breezy and almost breakneck in its speed. She jumps right in and quotes first-hand conversations with Oprah's family, friends and co-workers. It's easy to summarize the theme of this book: Oprah is a huge liar. Her dad says she's a liar. Her mom says she's a liar. Her "aunt" (really a close cousin) says Oprah is a liar. Her sister said she's a liar. So do her co-workers and friends. All are quoted freely. The only people who don't say anything negative are Stedman, Gayle and the people who currently work for her who are under a secrecy contract.

Kelley gets many details right--the best parts are uncovering how Oprah's upbringing is very different than the star portrays. Her mom didn't abandon her as a child. She wasn't penniless and didn't play with cockroaches. Instead the portrait that is painted is one of a little girl who sold herself for sex at age 13 (yes, Oprah was a prostitute at that young age) and who got pregnant at age 14. Then she refused to even see the baby boy she gave birth to (which died six weeks later). As Oprah works her way up, she goes on drug binges and sleeps with married men.

The real hero here is her "dad" Vernon, who did interviews with the author. He was the man who saved Oprah's life, turned it around with strict discipline and is a dedicated Christian. He has little good to say about Oprah and absolutely nothing good to say about Gayle. It turns out that he isn't even Oprah's real dad, but he shows a lot of grace in still caring enough for her to tell her the truth.

Unfortunately Oprah doesn't want to hear it--she is petty, vindictive, demeaning and distant. She gets on TV and claims to care for people when in truth she ignores her family, condemned her sister (who was a drug addict) and brother (who died of AIDS). She'll by them things but won't allow them to talk to her. Oprah doesn't want to come clean about her own drug addictions and wild sexual affairs with married men. She's the definition of hypocritical.

What I would love to read about Oprah Winfrey is not the story of her life, but a narrowly focused story of how she built her media empire, its internal workings, and what philosophies have driven and continue to drive it. I am not a business person, but that part of her story, I will just wager, is a remarkable tale about the rise of the "new entertainment tycoons" among whom she is, undisputably, empress. But none of that is really here, sadly, except for Ms. Winfrey's alleged penchant for ruthlessly "screwing the competition" and getting away with ripping off other people's ideas. Again, though, hardly revelations, again assuming such allegations have actual merit.

www.amazon.com/Oprah-Biography-Kitty-Kelley/product-reviews/0307394867
/ref=cm_cr_dp_all_helpful?ie=UTF8&showViewpoints=1&sortBy=bySubmissionDateDescending

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Originally posted by pizmobeach:

Does seem just a tad petty to be hating on Oprah. I'm not a fan of her show (the few times I've tried to watch I've found her audiences to be most obnoxious, "cackle cackle cackle") but I do admire her. Her life seems like a great example of positive achievement.

Is there something on that I missed where she's promoting herself day and night that can't be turned off or changed like a channel?
I also don't mind hearing what charities celebrities promote - in her case especially with her fanbase - it tends to inspire others to do good works.

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Homosexuality = FAIL

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Okay, from this I'm going to assume this is a joke.

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Originally posted by boris:
I think it's mighty presumptious and somewhat invalidating to say she's done a lot more with her life than the people here. People I've chatted to from this forum have achieved amazing things and are infinitely admirable. they may not have Sh_t loads of money or a successful TV empire, but they've overcome some hefty obstacles and have amazing stories (you know who you are guys).

Rose S

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Originally posted by RIVER6213:

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Originally posted by boris:

I think it's mighty presumptious and somewhat invalidating to say she's done a lot more with her life than the people here. People I've chatted to from this forum have achieved amazing things and are infinitely admirable. they may not have Sh_t loads of money or a successful TV empire, but they've overcome some hefty obstacles and have amazing stories (you know who you are guys).

Rose S

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Sure it presumptuous to say that, but those people didn't make 50 billion dollars. In my opinion that puts Oprah up there as having done something worth while with her life, and sure there are some people here, on this forum who have done some amazing things on a small scale, but didn't have much of an impact on a large scale, and in the reality of life they are nothing but a blip on the radar.

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