In just the past week, I have seen THREE Oprah Winfrey spoofs, one on Jimmy Kimmel, another on David Letterman, and another on Saturday Night live. While the spoofs are probably meant in fun and jest, in my opinion they are a condemnation of Oprah Winfrey's over the top narcissim during her retirement victory tour that appears to be lasting an ENTIRE television season!
In the past few weeks, without even looking, I have been exposed to Oprah Crying opposite Tyler Perry. Perry was recounting his horrible childhood, and began gushing at how Oprah inspired her, which got Oprah crying. It would be all well and good if Tyler Perry had not been also hawking his new movie, For Colored Girls, and if we didn't have 10,000 people being foreclosed upon every day in this country, many of them unfairly. It's just the wrong time to be making it about you, Oprah and your rich and successful friends.
Can there be anything more pathologically narcissistic than the site of two BILLIONAIRES crying on stage about how hard their lives were growing up, while every day in the United States 10 thousand homeowners are foreclosed upon?
Then there was Oprah crying as she and Whoopi Goldberg confab'd. It reminded me of the almost overdone sit com plot line where the protagonist on the show can't stand it when somebody doesn't like them. Gosh Oprah, how about asking Whoopi OFF CAMERA, why she doesn't like you, and not on! By the way, that may just be why Whoopi doesn't like you, your opportunizing a moment on camera, that could have been more productive doing off camera.
Just what is Whoopi Goldberg supposed to say ON AIR about why she doesn't like you, Oprah?
Then there was Barbara Walters asking Oprah if she was a lesbian and Oprah's vehement lie, er, denial that she was not. "Not that there's anything wrong with that" (a Seinfeld reference), but does anybody really believe Oprah's lesbian denials?
I have never bothered to calculate the percentage, but I believe that at least 50% of all female talk show hosts that have hosted their own television show, have been lesbians, and it could be as high as 75% if you count the couple who never came out. So this isn't really groundbreaking stuff even if Oprah is a lesbian. Anyways, all of these moments were rebroadcast on other television shows as excerpts, and these moments found me, I didn't find them, and I am the worse for it.
Speaking of Oprah's victory tour, she's in Australia for several weeks doing her farewell victory show and just a short while ago Hugh Jackman crashed into a light while making a special entrance for...Oprah Winfrey in Australia!
By the way, Aussies have been coming to the U.S. and gleefully buying up Florida properties for pennies on the dollars. Glad to see Oprah so in tune to her own countries troubles, snark, or that of Haiti's in their struggle to get any of that money that the United States allegedly raised for Haiti, but has held onto. But rumor has it that Oprah did fly over Haiti on her way to Australia and gave Haiti her blessings.
Has there ever been a television personality with the reputation and clout of Oprah Winfrey who has frittered away their final year in daytime programming by focusing on their own narcissistic journey, when the country and the audience that made her famous needed her to protect them from predatory banking and foreclosure practices that have been surfacing at an alarming pace?
Oprah Winfrey could have used the final year of her television show to expose the dastardly deeds of her own business acquaintances, such as those of Jamie Dimon of Chase Bank, but instead we are treated to a trail of Oprah's tears as guests tell her how much she has meant to them...meanwhile, TEN THOUSAND homes are foreclosed upon every day in the United States, and many of them are not being fairly treated.
The closest Oprah Winfrey went to addressing the home foreclosure issue that I can recall seeing is her focus on how YOU could take control of your own finances. That is fine and well, but what about predatory lending, foreclosure fraud, parallel foreclosure that americans are being victimized by Oprah? That woud require Oprah doing battle with the business establishment, and apparently, those who are Oprah Winfrey's closest friends.
I have a theory as to why Oprah Winfrey seems to have developed a weak spine. I think when the Texas Beef Council sued her for slander in the late 90's, and she had to go to Texas, (ironically, this was how she met Dr. Phil and he ultimately earned a shot at his own show), Oprah Winfrey was really really scared she could go to jail. She might have lost it if not for Dr. Phil.
It's my opinion that Oprah probably had a relapse of fear when the girls orphanage in South Africa that she funded ended up with accusations of abuse. I guess Oprah lives in fear that she will be sued if she gets involved in noble causes, and the result is a shell of what she could have done in her final year in the daytime television spotlight.
And of course, there is Barack Obama. Oprah Winfrey is quite proud that helped a racist country (that embraced her whole heartedly 25 years ago) elect Barack Obama, irrespective of his actual experience, to the presidency of the United States. Oprah did a show after the 2008 elections where she talked about Barack Obama being elected president as being as big of a deal as B.C. and A.D. (before christ, after death). I recall that Oprah show, she literally repeated herself two or three times on how miraculous it was that Barack Obama had been elected.
G'day Oprah.
