In 1993, Winfrey hosted a rare prime-time interview with Michael Jackson,
which became the fourth most watched event in American television
history as well as the most watched interview ever, with an audience of
36.5 million.
On December 1, 2005, Winfrey appeared on the
Late Show with David Letterman to promote the new Broadway musical
The Color Purple,
[dead link] of which she was a producer, joining the host
for the first time in 16 years. The episode was hailed by some as the
"television event of the decade" and helped Letterman attract his
largest audience in more than 11 years: 13.45 million viewers.
Although a much-rumored feud was said to have been the cause of the
rift, both Winfrey and Letterman balked at such talk. "I want you to
know, it's really over, whatever you thought was happening", said
Winfrey. On September 10, 2007, Letterman made his first appearance on
The Oprah Winfrey Show, as its season premiere was filmed in New York City.
In 2006, rappers Ludacris, 50 Cent and Ice Cube criticized Winfrey for what they perceived as an anti-hip hop bias. In an interview with
GQ
magazine, Ludacris said that Winfrey gave him a "hard time" about his
lyrics, and edited comments he made during an appearance on her show
with the cast of the film
Crash. He also said that he wasn't initially invited on the show with the rest of the cast.
Winfrey responded by saying that she is opposed to rap lyrics that "marginalize women", but enjoys some artists, including Kanye West,
who appeared on her show. She said she spoke with Ludacris backstage
after his appearance to explain her position and said she understood
that his music was for entertainment purposes, but that some of his
listeners might take it literally. In September 2008, Winfrey received
criticism after Matt Drudge of the
Drudge Report reported that Winfrey refused to have Sarah Palin on her show, allegedly because of Winfrey's support for Barack Obama.
Winfrey denied the report, maintaining that there never was a discussion regarding Palin's appearing on her show.
She said that after she made public her support for Obama, she decided
that she would not let her show be used as a platform for any of the
candidates.
Although Obama appeared twice on her show, those appearances were prior
to his declaring himself a candidate. Winfrey added that Palin would
make a fantastic guest and that she would love to have her on the show
after the election, which she did on November 18, 2009.
In 2009, Winfrey was criticized for allowing actress Suzanne Somers to appear on her show to discuss hormone treatments that are not accepted by mainstream medicine.
Critics have also suggested that Winfrey is not tough enough when
questioning celebrity guests or politicians whom she appears to like.
Lisa de Moraes, a media columnist for
The Washington Post, stated, "Oprah doesn't do followup questions unless you're an author who's embarrassed her by fabricating portions of a supposed memoir she's plugged for her book club."
Winfrey as Sofia in
The Color Purple.
In 1985, Winfrey co-starred in Steven Spielberg's
The Color Purple as distraught housewife, Sofia. She was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her performance. The film went on to become a Broadway musical which opened in late 2005, with Winfrey credited as a producer. In October 1998, Winfrey produced and starred in the film
Beloved, based on Toni Morrison's Pulitzer Prize winning novel of the same name.
To prepare for her role as Sethe, the protagonist and former slave,
Winfrey experienced a 24-hour simulation of the experience of slavery,
which included being tied up and blindfolded and left alone in the
woods. Despite major advertising, including two episodes of her talk show dedicated solely to the film, and moderate to good critical reviews,
Beloved opened to poor box-office results, losing approximately $30 million. While promoting the movie, co-star Thandie Newton
described Winfrey as "a very strong technical actress and it's because
she's so smart. She's acute. She's got a mind like a razor blade."
In 2005, Harpo Productions released a film adaptation of Zora Neale Hurston's 1937 novel
Their Eyes Were Watching God. The made-for-television film was based upon a teleplay by Suzan-Lori Parks, and starred Halle Berry in the lead female role.
In late 2008, Winfrey's company Harpo Films signed an exclusive output pact to develop and produce scripted series, documentaries and movies for HBO.
Oprah voiced Gussie the goose for
Charlotte's Web (2006) and the voice of Judge Bumbleden in
Bee Movie (2007) co-starring the voices of Jerry Seinfeld and Renée Zellweger
. In 2009, Winfrey provided the voice for the character of Eudora, the mother of Princess Tiana, in Disney's
The Princess and the Frog and in 2010, narrated the US version of the BBC nature program
Life for Discovery
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