Oprah Winfrey let some major news out of the closet this past weekend – and no, it wasn’t Gayle King!

The 56-year-old announced that she has a half-sister named Patricia living in Milwaukee. O had no idea she had a sibling until Thanksgiving last year when she discovered that her mother, Vernita Lee, gave up her sis shortly after birth due to money constraints. Oprah, 9 at the time, was living with her father and had no idea about the pregnancy!

Winfrey has been teasing the huge news since last week through promos for the show, saying “I thought I’d seen it all. But this, my friends, is the miracle of all miracles…This time, I’m the one being reunited.”

Tune in today to watch Oprah and Patricia make their television debut!

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Hugh Jackman is a showman, so it’s not surprising he would want to make a dramatic entrance into Oprah’s show at the Sydney Opera House in Australia. However, he created more drama than was initially anticipated.

The plan was for Jackman to zip line from the top sail of the Opera House down to the stage. Unfortunately reports suggest he was doing roughly 80km/h by this point, and hit the brakes too late. This then caused him to bash his eye into a lighting rig, causing a minor injury.

When taping continued, Jackman commented, “That was so much fun until the end,” he said. Referring the Winfrey’s previous guest, he added with a laugh: “Bono was meant to do this, but they couldn’t afford the insurance.”

See the video below for footage of the incident.

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It looks like Oprah’s going to be doing more than just taping a few shows during her trip to Australia this week.

Radar Online is reporting that the queen of middle-aged women everywhere took a break from her show’s special taping schedule in the land down under to take a yacht cruise with the ever-charming Russell Crowe.

O and Crowe took a quick sail through Sydney Harbor followed by a flotilla of smaller boats carrying the hundreds of lucky women and fans. The ladies were winners of the talk show’s dream trip giveaway and were invited to accompany Oprah on the landmark trip and taping.

We imagine this was a segment for the show and not just some spontaneous yachting jaunt…right?

Fellow Aussies Nicole Kidman and Keith Urban are also due to hang with Winfrey during the trip, though what exactly they’ll be doing with her and her guests is unclear.

Come on, Nicole! We want to see Oprah go scuba diving on the Great Barrier Reef!

Brace yourself for sky-high ratings amongst your Australian audience, Ms. Winfrey!

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Excuse the obscure nature of this post, but in dramatic news, Oprah Winfrey is assuring the world she is not a lesbian to put an end to any swirling rumours about her and longtime gal-pal Gayle King. I’m “not even kind of a lesbian,” the TV host tells Barbara Walters in an ABC interview.

Oprah also comments on her longtime partner since 1986, American businessman Stedman Graham, and how the two are still happily together. While Graham is rarely mentioned, his union with Oprah is widely known.

The Walters-Winfrey special is scheduled to air this Thursday night on ABC, where hopefully many fascinating tidbits are revealed. Perhaps she will admit that one of “Oprah’s Favourite Things” is actually only one of her second favourite things. I’m lookin at you Sarabeth’s Kitchen Jam. Your spreadability was less than ideal.

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You probably remember a little while back when Oprah Winfrey gave her entire studio audience a free trip to Australia.  As PopEater reports, the talk show legend isn’t shy to give to other shows either.

She appeared via satellite on The Daily Show to give the audience a huge gift—a free trip to the “Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear” in Washington D.C., which is being held by Jon Stewart and fellow Comedy Central star Steven Colbert.  Oprah showed up on screen and made the big announcement.

“So Jon, remember when you were just here on my show, [and] we talked about how I was taking my audience to Australia,” Winfrey said. “And you said that your audience never gets anything.”

“I wanted to show my support for you, Jon, and also for your audience. So here’s what I did, I had my staff sneak into your studio early this morning with a little gift.”

Oprah instructed the audience to look under their seats, where tickets had been hidden, and shouted, “You’re going to the rally! You’re going to the rally! You’re going to the rally! Everybody’s going to the RALLY! … Now get out there and restore some SANITY.”

Oprah is reportedly paying for airfare as well as hotel accommodations for Stewart’s audience, letting them take part in the October 30th rally that is aimed to promote voter turnout for midterm elections from all political walks of life.

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Even billionaires are doing it!

Radar Online is reporting that Oprah Winfrey and BFF Gayle King have decided to get away from it all with a nice camping trip to Yosemite. A fellow shopper spotted the talk show queen and chatted her up about her purchases.“She was super nice and said they had never been camping before together so she was excited,” the eyewitness added.

We’ll never understand why people with more money than God feel the desire to leave it all behind for a pop-up tent and some fanny packs. Can’t you pay someone to do your camping for you, O?

Winfrey and King spent about an hour in the store perusing before settling on an unearthly amount of camping gear. The entire outdoors experience will be taped for the final season of Oprah’s talk show and should air sometime in late October.

Can we come too? We want to hear a ghost story from Oprah! We promise we make the best smores ever! Pleeeeassee???

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On his final show Friday, The Tonight Show host Conan O’Brien thanked NBC for the 20 years he spent on the network, reports E! News.

“The terms of my settlement say that I can’t host another show for seven months,” O’Brien said. “So next week, look forward to the Andy Richter Show with his sidekick, me!”

Jay Leno will be returning next week to host the show.

Oprah Winfrey is interviewing Leno in Los Angeles for her Thursday show and has invited O’Brien to participate. It has not been reported whether he will accept her offer.

“As I set off for exciting new career opportunities, I just want to make one things clear to everyone listening out there: I will do nudity,” he said in his final monologue.

Steve Carell interviewed the exiting host, who then shared a diet cream soda toast with Tom Hanks.

“Yes, we have our differences right now, and yes, we’re going to go our separate ways,” said O’Brien in his address to the network. “But this company has been my home for most of my adult life. I am enormously proud of the work we have done together, and I want to thank NBC for making it all possible. Making this choice has been enormously difficult. This is the best job in the world. I absolutely love doing it and I have the best staff and crew in the history of the medium. But despite this sense of loss, I really feel this should be a happy moment. Every comedian dreams of hosting The Tonight Show and, for seven months, I got to. I did it my way, with people I love, and I do not regret a second. I’ve had more good fortune than anyone I know and if our next gig is doing a show in a 7-11 parking lot, we’ll find a way to make it fun.”

He spent the last moments of the show jamming on the guitar with Will Ferrell taking the lead on “Free Bird.”

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News that The Oprah Winfrey Show will end in less than two years has prompted many stars to express their support and praise for the daytime talk show host, reports E! News.

“I am going to enjoy every episode between now and 2011,” said former Food Network star Rachael Ray, host of talk show Rachael Ray. “Oprah opened the door for me to move into daytime television and I can’t thank her enough. I look forward to seeing what she does next. There will only ever be one Oprah!”

“This is a very nostalgic moment for me,” said Dr. Phil McGraw, who got his television start as a regular on Winfrey’s show. “Oprah Winfrey is first and foremost one of my dearest friends and obviously the person who taught me everything I know about television. Her show was home for me for five of the most exciting years of my life. The Oprah Winfrey Show is the gold standard and I know that she will succeed at whatever she chooses to do next.”

There is talk that Dr. Mehmet Oz, a former medical consultant for the show, may be given Winfrey’s time slot.

“I know the rest of the world shares my heartfelt admiration and congratulatory salute to a woman who showed us how the power of television can make us better,” said Oz. “On a personal note, as a mentor and a friend, Ms. Winfrey built a bridge so I could take everything I learned in medicine and transfer it to television in an effort to teach millions. That is symbolic of the higher calling perspective she instills in everyone privileged enough to work with her.”

Several celebrities including Kim Kardashian, Nicky Hilton and Weeds star Kevin Nealon tweeted their disappointment about the projected end of the Oprah era.

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The old adage is true: all good things must come to an end, including the beloved Oprah Winfrey show of 25 years.

The queen of daytime television announced that the show will not continue past 2011, and she will move on to pursue other projects in her life. According to people.com, a spokesperson announced the “the last day will be Sept 9, 2011 [...] She will speak about it on (Friday’s) live show.”

This mention of new projects brings to light Winfrey’s latest work on her new cable channel, called the Oprah Winfrey Network (OWN). Perhaps she will bring to life another version of her talk show on this channel?

Dose.ca published the following comment made on the CBS TV Distribution’s behalf. “We have the greatest respect for Oprah and wish her nothing but the best in her future endeavors,” said the company. “We know that anything she turns her hand to will be a great success. We look forward to working with her for the next several years and hopefully afterwards as well.”

The “Oprah Winfrey Show,” which has dominated daytime television for the past quarter century, combined aspects of charity, popular culture, self-help, and essentially an uncountable amount of topics. The queen of daytime television will be sorely missed by all, but with the OWN cable channel debuting in January, this is certainly not the last people will see of the beloved hostess.

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Thanks to illegal digital downloading, album sales are on a continuous decline. And as sales keep sliding, the music industry keeps looking for ways to make big events out of record releases. There have been partnerships with big retail companies (such as Walmart’s exclusive with AC/DC’s Black Ice), large-scale live shows (such as Jay-Z’s event before the release of The Blueprint III), and exciting fan contests (such as Pearl Jam’s artwork scavenger hunt for Backspacer). But as rollingstone.com reports, one sure way to guarantee an album’s success is Oprah Winfrey.

For example, Canadian singer Michael Buble’s new album Crazy Love went to the top of the charts after he appeared on The Oprah Winfrey Show, which led Variety magazine to examine what they are calling the “Oprah Effect.”

“Oprah is the one thing everyone wants,” Diarmuid Quinn, president of Reprise Records, told Variety. “If you get that call back from her production people, my god, it’s the Holy Grail.”

For years, Oprah’s Book Club has been credited for pushing under-the-radar books to the top of the bestseller lists. So, it’s no doubt that the daytime TV queen’s level of promotion power has made the easy transition into music. Recent success stories credited to Oprah include Whitney Houston’s I Look to You and Barbra Streisand’s Love is the Answer, the latter of which beat out new albums by Paramore and Mariah Carey to the top of the charts.

Variety also suggests that Oprah saved Journey. About a year after the band’s album Revelation was released, they appeared on Oprah’s Oct. 5 episode. The next week, Revelation sales increased by 681 per cent.

However, one of the biggest beneficiaries thanks to Oprah is perhaps the young, deep-voiced Josh Groban. In October 2007, the musician’s Christmas album, Noel, debuted quietly on the Billboard Top 200. However, after appearing as one of “Oprah’s Favorite Things” on Oprah’s show seven weeks after its release, sales of Noel skyrocketed, and the record topped the charts in early December. Noel spent five consecutive weeks at the top of the charts, a new record for a Christmas album. The CD experienced a sales increase each of those five weeks following its appearance on the Oprah show. By the end of the year, Noel ended up with just over 3.5 million in sales, making it the best-selling album of 2007.

So what’s next on Oprah’s promotion schedule? Movies? TV? Fashion? No doubt tons of people will tune in to find out.

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Corrine Gehrls, a former flight attendant on Oprah Winfrey’s private jet, claims she was fired in July after two other flight attendants falsely told Winfrey she had “inappropriate intimate behaviour” aboard a flight, reports TMZ. The man alleged to be involved with Gehrls, the chief pilot, was also let go as a result of the incident.

Gehrls is now suing Winfrey’s company, Harpo Productions, as well as the two flight attendants who allegedly lied – one of whom is the daughter of Winfrey’s best friend, Gayle King – for damages in excess of $75,000.

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Angelina Jolie managed to take the post previously held by Oprah Winfrey on Ford’s list of The World’s Most Powerful Celebrities.

Their reason: She’s a gossip column favourite and never fails to get Oscar nods. But most importantly, Jolie’s latest blockbuster “Wanted” raked in an impressive $340 million at the box office.

Oprah doesn’t have too much to worry about. The self-made billionaire came in second and shows no signs of slowing down. Winfrey continues to host “The Oprah Winfrey Show” and a monthly magazine. The talk-show host has also sealed herself a three-year $55 million contract with XM Satellite radio and has developed a partnership with Discovery Communications to create an Oprah Winfrey Network.

Madonna rounded up the Top 3. Her “Hard Candy” album was named the top-grossing 2008 international tour, bringing in a hefty $280 million for the queen of pop. She managed to keep herself in the papers with her alleged affair with baseball player Alex Rodriquez and the end of her marriage with director Guy Ritchie became a tabloid hit.

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Oprah Winfrey and Angelina Jolie are the No. 1 women in entertainment, according to two lists released Friday by trade paper The Hollywood Reporter.

Winfrey topped the publication’s annual “Power 100″ list, which ranks the most influential women in Hollywood.

The media mogul was chosen “based on her dizzying array of Oprah-branded media and her immense cultural influence,” editor-in-chief Elizabeth Guider said in a statement Friday.

All of the other women in the top 10 were studio executives.

Meanwhile, Jolie — who came in No. 24 on the power list — topped The Hollywood Reporter’s annual ranking of the industry’s highest-paid actresses.

She earned $15 million for her role in the action flick “Wanted” and could receive $20 million to star in a possible sequel, said the trade paper.

Taking the No. 2 spot was Julia Roberts, followed by last year’s top earner, Reese Witherspoon.

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Oprah Winfrey has been proclaimed the world’s biggest giver — again.

For the seoncd year running, the day-time host topped a list of the 30 most generous celebrities for giving $50.2 million US last year through the Oprah Winfrey Foundation and Oprah’s Angel Network, which fund education, health care and advocacy for women and children.

The list, now in its second year, was compiled by The Giving Back Fund, a charity that aims to encourage philanthropy.

Claiming the No. 2 spot was trumpeter Herb Alpert, who gave $13 million for education, including music lessons, through the Herb Alpert Foundation.

Three athletes also made the top 10, with cyclist Lance Armstrong, basketball star Michael Jordan and Canadian hockey player Eric Lindros giving $5 million each.

Here is the top 10 on The Giving Back Fund’s list of most generous celebrities (all figures in US dollars):
1. Oprah Winfrey, $50.2 million.
2. Herb Alpert, $13 million.
3. Barbra Streisand, $11 million.
4. Paul Newman, $10 million.
5. Mel Gibson, $9.9 million.
6. Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt, $8.4 million.
7. Lance Armstrong, $5 million.
8. Michael Jordan, $5 million.
9. Eric Lindros, $5 million.
10. Rush Limbaugh, $4.2 million.

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If you haven’t gotten enough of Oprah already, you will soon. The ubiquitous television host is planning to enter the wonderful world of reality TV – Oprah’s Harpo Productions announced Friday it is currently working on two series for ABC, tentatively titled “Oprah Winfrey’s The Big Give” and “Your Money or Your Life.”

In “The Big Give,” ten people will be given money to help others in a creative way and the contestant who succeeds best will be able to live out their “wildest dream.”

In “Your Money or Your Life,” families faced with crises are forced to learn to adapt. It is currently in development.

Air dates for either show has not yet been announced.

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Talk-show host Oprah Winfrey surprised her 310-member audience on Monday by giving each and every one of them a debit card loaded with $1000 US.

The move, sponsored by Bank of America, was part of a “gift of giving back” program, reports People. The cash has to be donated to charitable causes of the audience member’s choice, or given to a single person (just not a family member).

“I can honestly say that every gift I’ve ever given has brought at least as much happiness to me as it has to the person I’ve given it to,” Winfrey told the crowd. “That’s the feeling I want to pass on to you.”

As a secondary prize, audience members were presented with Sony DVD recorders to document the positive effects of their donations for an upcoming show.

It’s not the first time Oprah has presented her audience with lavish gifts. In her most famous stunt, Winfrey gave a brand new car to every crowd member during one episode.

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Oprah is already the queen of TV and magazines, and now she wants to conquer our radios.

Oprah Winfrey’s new satellite radio channel debuted yesterday morning on XM Satellite Radio, reports CBC.ca. The new channel, titled “Oprah and Friends,” will extend her reach beyond her syndicated talk show and “O” magazine, the publication that features Oprah on the cover every month.

The channel will feature a news and gossip show hosted by Winfrey and friend, Gayle King, entitled “The Oprah and Gayle Show,” as well as some feature shows hosted by other frequent guests on Winfrey’s television show. Poet and writer Maya Angelou will contribute, as well as fitness expert Bob Greene, and King will have her own solo program as well.

Although the first guest to appear on the channel is Winfrey’s long-time partner, Stedman Graham, there is also a line-up of high-profile celebrities who will lend their voices to Winfrey. Actress Annette Bening, jazz trumpeter Wynton Marsalis, rock star Jon Bon Jovi and fellow multi-millionaire Donald Trump.

This channel may be an attempt to rival XM’s competitor, Sirius Satellite Radio, who has signed on shock jock Howard Stern and the crafty Martha Stewart to their own respective shows. XM’s other celebrity channels include Bob Dylan and Quincy Jones.

Winfrey signed a three-year $55 million U.S. deal with XM last February.

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Author James Frey, whose sort-of-memoir “A Million Little Pieces” has made news for being largely fictional, was confronted by Oprah Winfrey yesterday on her TV talk show.

“It is difficult for me to talk to you because I really feel duped … but more importantly, I feel that you betrayed millions of readers,” Winfrey said Thursday.

Winfrey had chosen “A Million Little Pieces”, Frey’s account of what happened to him while overcoming drug addiction and alcoholism, for her book club, making the book a best seller.

But, The Smoking Gun did a bit of research and fact checking, something publishers failed to do, and found that parts of Frey?s memoir were embellished or completely false.

“I have been really embarrassed by this,” Frey told Oprah, adding the bad press would make him “a better person and learning from my mistakes and making sure I don?t repeat them.”

Winfrey also made it clear that she was not endorsing lying when she defended Frey on Larry King Live.

“I left the impression that the truth doesn?t matter, and for that I am deeply sorry,” she said. “That is not what I believe … and to those who challenged me, you were absolutely right.”

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Who would believe that talk-show queen and aspiring weight loss guru Oprah would be turned away from a door?

The French luxury store Hermes apologized to Oprah Winfrey for turning her away from one of its Paris boutiques last week, saying it was closed for a public-relations event when she tried to enter the store.

Winfrey and “an entourage” unsuccessfully tried to enter an Hermes boutique on Paris’ posh Rue du Faubourg Saint-Honore at 6:45 p.m. on June 14, Hermes said in a statement.

“People were in the store and they were shopping. Oprah was at the door and she was not allowed into the store,” Gayle King, a friend of Winfrey who witnessed the incident, told TV show “Entertainment Tonight.” “Oprah describes it herself as ‘one of the most humiliating moments of her life’.”

The store’s normal closing time is 6:30 p.m., although high-end shops are known to make exceptions for celebrities. On that particular night, however, “a private public relations event was being prepared inside,” the statement from Hermes said.

“Hermes regrets not having been able to welcome Madame Oprah Winfrey and the people accompanying her to give them all the attention and service that Hermes is committed to giving each of its clients in the world,” said the statement, released Tuesday. “Hermes expresses its sincere regrets for any misunderstanding that these circumstances could have caused.”

This humbling experience for Winfrey shows that even celebrity A-listers can get turned away at posh doors, not just less chic people like the rest of us.

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