Oscar for good deeds
LOS ANGELES Oprah Winfrey says she understands why some balked when the film academy announced it would give her an honorary Oscar for her humanitarian contributions.
The 57-year-old media mogul will receive the prestigious Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award on Saturday at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences third annual Governors Awards.
When the announcement was made over the summer, some criticized the academy for choosing Winfrey to receive its Hersholt award, which is presented periodically to an individual in the motion picture industry whose humanitarian efforts have brought credit to the industry, according to the academys website.
Previous recipients include Elizabeth Taylor, Quincy Jones, Jerry Lewis and Paul Newman.
Critics said Winfrey belongs more to the world of TV than film.
I understood it because I was equally surprised, Winfrey said in a recent interview. I was surprised because I am not known as an actress. Ive done film and I love the films that Ive done, but she acknowledges that the list isnt long.
Actor James Earl Jones and makeup artist Dick Smith will also be honored at Saturdays ceremony at the Kodak Theatre, both receiving Oscars for their long and notable film careers.
Winfreys Hersholt award wont be her first academy honor.
She was nominated for a supporting actress Oscar for her role in 1985s The Color Purple. She also produced and starred in the 1998 big-screen adaptation of Toni Morrisons Beloved and 2009s Precious, which won Oscars for supporting actress MoNique and screenwriter Geoffrey Fletcher.
I understand people thinking, Wheres her list of credentials for films? she said, but I dont think theres room for criticism in the do-good department.
Winfrey has contributed more than $500 million from her personal coffers to charitable causes, academy president Tom Sherak said.
She established her first charitable foundation a year after launching The Oprah Winfrey Show and has ! been a p hilanthropist ever since.
In 1998, she created Oprahs Angel Network, which supported charitable projects and provided grants to non-profit organizations worldwide. She funds scholarships for about 100 students in American universities, and in 2007 she opened the Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy for Girls in South Africa.
Winfrey remains involved with the school and its students, who call her Mom Oprah. She travels to South Africa at least four times a year to talk with the girls.
Its the most exhausting thing I do, and the most exhilarating, she said. I have a little house over there about 1,800 square feet of a house and from the time I land my house is filled with girls. I am counseling girls, feeding girls, talking to girls, so it never stops.
Sherak said Winfrey is one of the most philanthropic performers in the world and a perfect example of why this award was created.
Winfrey said she was delighted when Sherak called to tell her she had been chosen for the award.
Years ago, I gave it to Quincy Jones, and I was honored to be on the stage just giving the award, she said. To be the recipient of an award thats given to you for your contributions toward doing something good for the world or trying to at least make a mark for a force for something thats positive in the world, I just dont think that theres a better honor than that.