Celebrity Mound

To celebrate all things merry and bright, O, The Oprah Magazine kicks off its annual “12-Day Holiday Give-O-Way” sweepstakes in the December issue, on newsstands now. Running November 28 through December 9, the sweepstakes awards 12 lucky readers the ultimate present: every item featured in the 2011 O List ‘Favorite Things Edition’ gift guide, with hand-picked selections from Oprah, Gayle King, Suze Orman, Dr. Oz and other O contributors. As a bonus, O’s editors secured exclusive deals and discounts on many of the items on the list, from jewelry and electronics to chocolate and cheese – even a baby magnolia tree – so readers can start their own holiday shopping immediately, and save some money doing it.

To enter the 12-Day Holiday Give-O-Way, readers must comb through the pages of the December issue, on sale now, to find 12 holiday icons (a snowman, a reindeer, and a wreath among them), one for each day of the sweepstakes. From November 28 through December 9, readers will log on to oprah.com/12days to enter that day’s special code (codes may also be accessed online); participating every day increases chances of winning. Winners will be notified on or about December 12 and the prizes will be shipped, gift-wrapped, via FedEx to arrive by December 24. For more info and detailed rules please visit oprah.com/12days.

iPad users can also enter via the O, The Oprah Magazine iPad app, which features tap-to-buy functionality, the option to share O’s gift guide recommendations via email and users can enter the Give-O-Way sweepstakes directly on the app. This month’s app also includes excerpts from O’s favorite books of the year, along with video exclusives including an animated cover featuring Oprah dancing to a holiday-themed song. The O iPad app is available for $1.99 per edition and $19.99 per year for an in app subscription at www.itunes.com/appstore/.

The O List ‘Favorite Things Edition’ features truly special gift ideas from Oprah and the magazine’s contributors, including:

Oprah’s “Gifts that Comfort Mind & Body” include delicate-scented candles ($45) and Jay-Z’s champagne ($300)

Peter Walsh’s “Handy, Whimsical Gifts” include assorted Aussie licorice ($27) and a watch that also serves as an iPod Nano holder ($32)

Martha Beck’s “Gifts with Soul” include silver- and gold-dipped necklaces engraved with inspiring mantras ($49)

Gayle King’s “Cheery Delicious Gifts” include 7-layer caramel cake ($46) and a python-print, wheeled carry-on ($108)

Dr Oz’s “Feel-Good Presents” include cozy, fuzzy slippers ($45) and lemon- and chili-infused olive oils ($30)

Beauty Director Val Monroe’s “Gift that Delight the Senses” include L’Occitane’s limited edition shea butter hand cream ($19) and pearly, translucent powder compact ($125)

Suze Orman selected “Gifts to Share,” including French-style, handmade caramels ($12) and a box of sun-kissed pears ($46)

Cat Cora’s “Fun, Active Gifts” include fun, animal-themed helmets ($20) and an at-home sound system ($240)

Creative Director Adam Glassman’s “Stylish, Unforgettable Finds” include a European espresso maker ($10) and an Italian, unisex fragrance spray ($140)

Watch out Oprah, there’s a savvy pop star and an ambitious real housewife nipping at your financial heels.

Oprah Winfrey remained the entertainment world’s top woman earner, but Lady Gaga and Bethenny Frankel, one of the original housewives in the “Real Housewives of New York,” are moving quickly up the ranks of the rich, according to Forbes.com.

Winfrey held on to the top spot with $290 million in earnings from May 2010 to May 2011 and an estimated net worth of $2.7 billion.

But Winfrey’s daytime talk show, which she wrapped up in May, was her chief money earner and her newly launched cable network, OWN, has drawn paltry ratings since its January launch.

“The network has a long way to go before advertisers start paying the kind of rates Winfrey was charging for her syndicated show,” said Forbes’ Dorothy Pomerantz, who compiled the list by culling information from agents, managers, lawyers and others in the know.

Lady Gaga was a distant second with $90 million in gross earnings, followed by Frankel with $55 million. Frankel, who launched her own diet and lifestyle brand, sold her Skinnygirl Margarita cocktail mix for an estimated $100 million and has been expanding her brand, which will soon include food, supplements and a possible talk show.

Four women, model Gisele Bundchen, a singer Taylor Swift, talk show host Ellen DeGeneres and Judge Judy Sheindlin, each earned $45 million last year and tied for fourth place.

The entire list can be found at tinyurl.com/3mqr6f4

Oprah Winfrey wiped away tears as celebrity after celebrity surprised her during a farewell double-episode taping of “The Oprah Winfrey Show” that will precede her finale.

“Thank you is not enough, but thank you,” Winfrey told the crowd of 13,000 gathered at Chicago’s United Center on Tuesday night for “Surprise Oprah! A Farewell Spectacular.” “For your love and your support, thank you.”

The crowd gave Winfrey a standing ovation when she first walked on the stage. Then the stars came out, with Winfrey’s producers making good on their promise of the biggest celebrities of movies, music and television.

Aretha Franklin sang “Amazing Grace.” Tom Hanks acted as host for the evening. Michael Jordan, who led the Chicago Bulls to six NBA championships during the 1990s, told Winfrey she inspires him. Tom Cruise, famous for his couch jumping on Winfrey’s show, was there. Jerry Seinfeld wore a tuxedo to give a comedy routine. And Madonna said she is among the millions of people who are inspired by Winfrey.

“She fights for things she believes in, even if it makes her unpopular,” Madonna said.

Winfrey announced in November 2009 that she would end her popular talk show after 25 years. Tuesday’s taping will air May 23 and 24, before Winfrey’s final show on May 25.

“You always had the power, and that is the message you brought into our lives,” Cruise told Winfrey.

The show highlighted Winfrey’s charity efforts over the years. About 300 Morehouse College scholarship students walked along the United Center aisles as Kristen Chenoweth sang “For Good” from the musical “Wicked.” Grammy winner John Legend was beamed in from a New Orleans school and Winfrey’s book club was lauded for getting millions to read.

Josh Groban and Patti LaBelle sang “Somewhere Over the Rainbow” as Winfrey sat in a white chair onstage. Jamie Foxx and Stevie Wonder sang “Isn’t She Lovely” to Winfrey. Wonder followed with his own song, singing to her, “Oprah thank you for using your gifts to uplift so many hearts.” Simon Cowell made an appearance; Rosie O’Donnell sang a Broadway-style song.

Winfrey’s longtime partner, Stedman Graham, introduced Franklin after telling Winfrey he loved her and was proud of her.

“It really does amaze me that I get to be around a woman who changes people’s lives every day and who also takes her own lunch to work,” Graham told the crowd. “You know what really is amazing? You have done this, sweetheart, through all of the sacrifices you’ve made, humility you have and through God’s amazing grace.”

That’s when Franklin took the stage in a one-shouldered white gown to sing “Amazing Grace.” She later joined Usher for the show’s finale song, “Oh Happy Day,” as sparkly confetti filled the arena.

Maria Shriver, the TV journalist and Kennedy heiress, appeared on the same day it was revealed her husband, Arnold Schwarzenegger, fathered a child with a woman on his household staff more than a decade ago. Shriver did not mention her husband during the taping.

“You have given me love, support, wisdom and most of all the truth,” Shriver told Winfrey. “And I know I’m not alone in receiving those gifts from you.”

The taping of the second show began with Will Smith and his wife, Jada Pinkett Smith, who thanked Winfrey and told her she mothered millions and “that puts you in the status of a goddess.”

Actresses Halle Berry, Queen Latifah, Katie Holmes and Dakota Fanning all appeared, along with newswoman Diane Sawyer.

Beyonce sang her song “Run the World (Girls)” backed by dozens of dancers. Rascal Flatts performed too.

“Oprah Winfrey, because of you women everywhere have graduated to a new level of understanding of who we are, of what we are and most of all who we can be,” Beyonce said.

The stadium was decorated with pictures of Winfrey at seminal moments over the course of her talk show. Boxes of tissues were on scattered seats throughout the audience.

Harpo Productions received more than 154,000 ticket requests for seats to Tuesday’s event. Tickets were free and distributed to fans through a lottery.

Winfrey also received messages from some less-famous admirers. Female American soldiers gave a taped message from Iraq and three female fans from countries around the world came on stage. The show was interspersed with clips of Winfrey’s fans and flashbacks of previous episodes.

Fans started lining up outside hours before the taping started.

Bessie Carroll, 70, of Chicago came to the show with her daughter.

“I think we’ve gotten everything we could have and more than we should have from her,” Carroll said. “If she feels it’s time to go, we have to release her and let her enjoy her life.”

Mashonda White, 41, an engineer from Aurora, called Winfrey an inspiration.

“She’s a blueprint of what I would like to become,” White said. “She never takes anything negatively. She always makes it positive.”

Celebrities such as Lisa Ling, Carson Kressley, Jessica Seinfeld, Ally Wentworth, Bob Greene and former Chicago Mayor Richard Daley sat in the audience.

The content of the final episode of “The Oprah Winfrey Show” is still under wraps.

After an unauthorized biography of her life was published last year, Oprah Winfrey probably thought the intrusion into her lovelife was over.

But author Kitty Kelley has come forward with yet another self-styled ex-boyfriend, Haitian filmmaker Reginald Chevalier.

The Los Angeles-based producer, 51, claimed he had a four month relationship with the talk show host in the early Eighties, but it ended abruptly when she threw him out while he was away for work.

Chevalier said he lived with Winfrey in her Chicago apartment after meeting on her chat show in 1985 and even attended the local premiere of her film The Color Purple with her.

But when he was away on a modelling assignment, Oprah apparently had a change of heart and changed the locks.

In an interview by Kelley published on Gawker.com, Chevalier recalled: ‘When I returned to the Water Tower condo, my key wouldn’t work. The concierge informed me that the locks had been changed.

‘Oprah had left a box for me filled with all my belongings. On a yellow envelope she had written: “Sorry, things aren’t working between us. Oprah Winfrey.”

That was it. No phone call. No good-bye. Nothing. She was as cold as ice.’

But Chevalier said it didn’t take him long before realizing why they broke up – she started dating current partner Stedman Graham.

Despite their seven year age gap – he was 25 to Oprah’s 32 – Chevalier said they even discussed marriage.

While he said he wasn’t ready to settle down, Chevalier believed Oprah wanted to marry. However, 26 years later, the TV star is yet to wed Graham.

Chevalier said he met Winfrey when he appeared on her talk show as Billy Dee Williams-lookalike on a segment about celebrity doppelgangers.

Winfrey was apparently so taken with him, she told her producers to keep him in the studio and invited him to dinner that night.

During their brief romance, Chevalier claimed he was introduced to her family, including her late brother Jeffrey.

Although Chevalier has fond memories of their time together, including cosy nights in, candlelit baths and dinners with Michael Jordan and Danny Glover, he says he was shocked by the way she ended things.

Chevalier is just the latest in a list of purported boyfriends of Winfrey which were published in Kelley’s unauthorised biography last year.

Kelley also claimed Winfrey had romances with musician John Tesh, radio DJ Tim Watts and writer Randolph Cook.

As it nears its one-month mark, the Oprah Winfrey Network has grown its prime-time audience by one-third over the network it replaced.

OWN’s all-day viewership is up 25 percent over the year-ago audience for Discovery Health, the channel OWN claimed when it signed on Jan. 1.

Christina Norman, the network’s CEO, calls its first month “an encouraging start” and declares, “The idea works.”

“The audience understands what this is supposed to be,” she said Friday from the network’s Los Angeles headquarters. “It is not a network built around a person. It’s a network built around a person’s world view.”

That person, of course, is Oprah Winfrey, who is ending her weekday syndicated talk show this spring to concentrate full-time on her cable startup, which is available in 80 million homes.

An average of 297,000 viewers are watching OWN in prime time, with an average of 145,000 viewers tuned in during the full day, according to Nielsen Co. data measuring the network from Jan. 1 to Jan. 23.

The network launched with seven new series, six of which Norman said have made a promising start.

The exception is “Your OWN Show: Oprah’s Search for the Next TV Star,” which has experienced audience erosion.

“It hasn’t really found its audience, and that’s kind of a drag,” said Norman. “But you live and learn.”

Even so, it will air to its completion, with the winner of the competition awarded a show on OWN, as planned.

“Somebody’s going to win, and somebody’s life is really going to change,” Norman said.

In February, the network will introduce “Our America With Lisa Ling” as well as “What Would You Do?,” an acquisition from ABC News, plus two more real-life series originally set for a later debut: “Breaking Down the Bars,” which takes viewers into a women’s prison, and “Searching For…,” which follows the work of a professional investigative genealogist.

In daytime, “The Gayle King Show” after two weeks on the air is attracting an average of 118,000 viewers for its two daily airings.

But OWN has announced that plans for another daytime venture, a talk show similar to ABC’s “The View,” have been scrapped.

“For me, it’s about doubling down on what’s working,” Norman said. “We’re focusing on Gayle and prime time. That’s where our energy is best spent.”

“The goal of OWN is to build it over the course of a year, as more new shows come on,” she said, adding: “We’re still telling people where OWN is.”