Could Oprah Winfrey 's embattled TV network finally be coming into its OWN? After sinking more than half a billion dollars into the talk-show titan's namesake cable channel, Discovery Communications (Nasdaq: DISCA) on Tuesday reported that the Oprah Winfrey Network is on track for profitability in the second half of 2013. The prediction is a sharp turnaround from just a few months ago, when Winfrey herself was touring interview circuits and telling tales of her desperate struggle to keep the network from collapse. "I am in the climb of my life," Winfrey told a crowd of media executives in New York in April. "I am climbing Kilimanjaro, and it's all on Wilshire Boulevard at the OWN offices." Ratings at the network have been soft since it began in January 2011. Viewership peaked during a behind-the-scenes look at the final season of Winfrey's hugely popular syndicated talk show, which aired its last episode in May 2011. After that, ratings tumbled, ...

OWN, the cable network joint venture of Oprah Winfrey and Discovery Communications, "remains on track" to reach profitability in the back-half of 2013, Discovery CEO David Zaslav said Tuesday. Previously, the company had promised that the network would reach cash flow break-even some time during the second half of next year and then post profits. During the cable network group's earnings conference call on Tuesday, Zaslav said that after a 14 percent ratings gain in the first quarter in its core audience of women 25-54, OWN grew viewership around 20 percent in the latest period. And so far in the third quarter, ratings are up more than 50 percent, he added. Overall, that leaves the channel up about 25 percent year-to-date. OWN founder Winfrey has continued to increase her face time on the network with high-profile interview, including one with Kim Kardashian in June, which became OWN's third most-watched broadcast ever. Zaslav also told analysts that all eight char...

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Oprah Winfrey is making her return to the big screen as part of the all-star cast of the upcoming film "The Butler." The talk show host was recently seen sporting a beehive-style hairdo while shooting scenes for the historical drama about a long-tenured White House servant. The film, which is directed by Lee Daniels, features names like Robin Williams, Liam Neeson, Nicole Kidman, and Lenny Kravitz. Seeing that Oprah has not acted as anyone other than herself in 14 years, it seems possible that she might be intimated by sharing the screen with such heavyweights. However, that doesn't seem likely given her talent and comfort level. Despite the long break, Oprah has proven that she is more than capable of playing different characters. Here is a look back at her best acting roles over the years. Sofia - "The Color Purple" The TV queen's feature film debut remains her most iconic role to date. The 1985 Steven Spielberg drama featured Oprah as a resilient housew...

Monday, 30 July 2012 17:55 Written by Fazal-Ur-Rahman Karachi: Oprah Winfrey was spotted rocking a 1950s style on the New Orleans, La. set of The Butler on Friday, July 27. The former daytime talk-show host has her hair arranged in a beehive while wearing a patterned shirt paired with cropped trousers and low heels. She completed her look by donning a gold chain around her neck. Winfrey is returning to the silver screen to star in The Butler, the 58-year-old was seen filming scenes with co-star Lenny Kravitz and Cuba Gooding Jr in New Orleans. The former was wearing a beige sweater teamed with a pair of khaki trousers as he walked around the set, while the later was all smiles when pictured on the set wearing gray trousers and a white shirt. The Butler marks Winfreys first appearance in a movie where she doesnt play herself since 1998. In the historical drama, the Oprahs Next Chapter host plays Gloria Gaines, who is the wife of Forest Whitakers Eugene Allen. Oprah will be joined on scr...

(MENAFN - Khaleej Times) That infallible icon of contemporary mores, Oprah Winfrey, seems to have suffered deep and choking revulsion at the sight of Indians eating with their hands. The very rich and extremely civilised Oprah must be eating with her feet. All of us eat with our fingers. Some of us feel the need for metal or wooden appendages to our fingers. To each his own; why get smug about this? The cutlery-wallahs believe that spoon and fork are hallmarks of cleanliness. This logic seems a trifle dubious. At least your fingers belong to you. Cutlery does not. Do you really want to know who shoved the fork into his mouth just ahead of you in a restaurant? You don't want to go there, so unconsciously keep such questions out of your mind. Convention can become a barrier to the obvious. Those who do not believe in being spoon-fed simply keep their hands and fingers clean. They wash before a meal. Moreover, the Indian climate is conducive to bathing; a bath is not considered a spec...

by Alexis L. Loinaz Today 12:35 PM PDT AP Photo/Mustafa Quraishi Looks like Oprah Winfrey 's next chapter didn't have quite the happy ending. The media queen has come under fire by members of the Indian community over a two-hour special about her recent trip to India that some observers claim was culturally insensitive. Oprah Winfrey's Bodyguards Brawl With Indian Media The special aired in the U.S. in April but only recently made its debut in India this past weekend. In it, Winfrey chronicles her first visit to the country, where she makes stops everywhere from the Taj Majal to a Mumbai slum while also enjoying its vibrant culture at a string of luxurious bashes with local luminaries and Bollywood celebs. The special, however, didn't seem to sit too well with critics, who lashed out at Winfrey for what they perceived to be a narrow and culturally reductive portrait of the country. Aseem Chhabra, a reporter for the Mumbai Mirror, told ABC News , "It's all the ...

Media mogul Oprah Winfrey has come under fire for her "ignorant" portrayal of India in a recently-aired TV special. The talk show host documented her January journey to Asia in a two-part series for her programme Oprah's Next Chapter, which premiered in India over the weekend. However, the project has sparked a negative reaction from many viewers over claims she did little more than perpetuate stereotypes, according to The Hollywood Reporter. The bosses of leading Indian TV channel, CNN-IBN, posted an open letter to Winfrey from an offended fan on its website, which reads, "As a responsible public figure about to air a show that will be beamed across the world, you should have done your homework." The viewer took aim at comments Winfrey made about the ancient custom of using hands to eat meals instead of cutlery, adding, "Using our hands to eat is a well established tradition and a fact none of us are ashamed of." Another critic on local news site Firs...

Oprah Winfrey is facing a barrage of criticism from disappointed Indian viewers who say she resorted to "sterotypes and cliches" in the episode of her show "Oprah's Next Chapter" dealing with her visit to the subcontinent. "Watching the Oprah in India thing on TLC and getting more and more irritated by the minute," one viewer in India tweeted. The two-part episode, which aired in India this weekend, depicts Winfrey's first visit to the country, featuring lavish parties with Bollywood stars and Indian royalty, a visit to a Mumbai slum and a sari fitting with a top designer. The episode opens with shots of crowded roads filled with painted elephants, snake charmers and cows roaming the streets. "It's all the stereotypes and all the clichs the West has, between the elephants and the palaces and the snake charmers and cows," Aseem Chhabra, a freelance journalist and columnist for the Mumbai Mirror, told ABC News. "That exists in Indi...

When Oprah Winfrey, then the brightest star on daytime TV, began her book club way back in 1996, inexpensive e-books and e-readers seemed more futurist rumor than everyday reality. Social media could have meant friendly reporters. Now, as Winfrey, co-owner of a struggling cable network, launches Oprahs Book Club 2.0, shes seeking a literary home on a digital landscape. Comparing todays fragmented do-it-yourself media with the world of 1996 is like comparing Winfreys 42-acre estate near Santa Barbara, Calif., with her birthplace amid the rural poverty of Kosciusko, Miss. Publishers and booksellers cheer her clubs revival, despite questions whether the new Winfrey, with a much smaller TV audience, carries the impact of the old Winfrey, who turned 70 books into best sellers. On Sunday, Winfreys interview with memoirist Cheryl Strayed, the first author chosen for the new book club, will air on OWNs Super Soul Sunday (11 a.m.) and simultaneously stream on Oprah Radio and on OWNS Facebook pa...

By WENN.com | Tuesday, July 24, 2012 The talk show host documented her January (12) journey to Asia in a two-part series for her programme Oprah's Next Chapter, which premiered in India over the weekend (21-22Jul12). However, the project has sparked a negative reaction from many viewers over claims she did little more than perpetuate stereotypes, according to The Hollywood Reporter. The bosses of leading Indian TV channel, CNN-IBN, posted an open letter to Winfrey from an offended fan on its website, which reads, "As a responsible public figure about to air a show that will be beamed across the world, you should have done your homework." The viewer took aim at comments Winfrey made about the ancient custom of using hands to eat meals instead of cutlery, adding, "Using our hands to eat is a well established tradition and a fact none of us are ashamed of." Another critic on local news site Firstpost.com called the project "myopic, unaware, ignorant and gau...

Oprah Winfrey's TV special about her trip to India is getting harsh reviews. Amy Silverstein July 24, 2012 14:36 Subscribe to Amy Silverstein on Facebook Add Amy Silverstein to your circles Oprah Winfrey'stwo-part TV special about her trip to India is getting ridiculed by locals. Viewers were particularly offended when Winfrey remarked on the Indian tradition of eating with your hands, BBC News reported . "I heard some Indian people eat with their hands still?" she asks a Mumbai family on the show. FirstPost Bollywood has a snarky response to that question: "I dont know what people in America are eating their hot dogs, pizzas and tacos with but perhaps Oprahs home has evolved cutlery for all that." Others took to Twitter to criticize the special:The avg American thinking of India as a place with snake charmers and elephants as main mode of transport, I can understand. But Oprah???," one user wrote, according to the Wall Street Journal . More from Globa...

NEW DELHI - Oprah Winfrey is in the spotlight in India... again. After her well-publicized debut visit to the country in January when the talk show host came down to film an India special for Oprah's Next Chapter. The series saw a simulcast premiere on Discovery Channel and its affiliate TLC (The Lifestyle Channel) over the weekend, but the response to Winfrey's take on India has largely been negative. During her travels, Winfrey visited a Mumbai slum, the Jaipur Literary Festival (where she taped an interaction with noted author Deepak Chopra ), a widows home in North India rounded off with a must-see trip to the Taj Mahal. The episode also filmed Winfrey spending time with families, from the slum-dwelling poor to upper crust millionaires, including being escorted by Indian film icon Amitabh Bachchan and his family to a glamorous Bollywood party hosted in her honor by leading Mumbai socialite Parmeshwar Godrej . One of the major criticisms against Winfrey is when she asks he...

Monday , July 23, 2012 at 15 : 38 4 "I heard some Indian people eat with their hands still?" - Oprah Winfrey Dear Oprah, Even as I try to wrap my head around your amazingly presumptuous statement, your host breaks into a huge grin and says "usually we use only one hand to eat." Good god. But there's laughter around the table. You will soon realize that food humour is the best kind of humour in India, next only to toilet humour. The upper-middleclass family you visit offers you a thali , an assortment of food that in India is considered a filling and balanced meal. The man of the house points to a green lump in the corner. "That's okra." "This? This is okra?" Only, in India we call it ladies finger. In fact, if vegetable vendors had their way bhindi would join bandobast in the English dictionary any day. I am mildly thankful to you for not referring to it as gumbo, which I am sure would have baffled millions watching the spectacle that yo...

When Oprah Winfrey, then the brightest star on daytime TV, began her book club in 1996, inexpensive e-books and e-readers seemed more futurist rumour than everyday reality. Social media could have meant friendly reporters. Now, as Winfrey, co-owner of a struggling cable network, launches Oprahs Book Club 2.0, shes seeking a literary home on a digital landscape. Comparing todays fragmented do-it-yourself media with the world of 1996 is like comparing Winfreys 42-acre estate near Santa Barbara, Calif., with her birthplace amid the rural poverty of Kosciusko, Miss. Publishers and booksellers cheer her clubs revival, despite questions whether the new Winfrey, with a much smaller TV audience, carries the influence of the old Winfrey, who turned 70 books into bestsellers. On Sunday, Winfreys interview with memoirist Cheryl Strayed, the first author chosen for the new book club, airs on OWNs Super Soul Sunday (11 a.m. ET/PT) and simultaneously streams on Oprah Radio and on OWNS Facebook page....

New Delhi, July 22 ( IANS ) From heart wrenching poverty to majestic heritage as well as the glitz, glamour and royalty, international talk show queen Oprah Winfrey has offered viewers a glimpse of different layers of India , speaking highly of its culture and value system. But the paradox between the beauty of the country and the prevalent poverty also left her "confused". Winfrey came down to India on a multi-city visit in this January to shoot her new show "Oprah's Next Chapter". She went to the slums, visited the Taj Mahal , socialised with Bollywood's glitterati and royalty and tried to explore real India on the streets for the two-part series, aired Friday and Saturday on Discovery Channel. One would have wondered if the lens of Winfrey's cameraman would have panned over and zoomed into the country's underbelly, but it was a balanced approach. Winfrey sought the smiles even in the pains of the slum dwellers - and why not, she herself was born ...

When Oprah Winfrey, then the brightest star on daytime TV, began her book club in 1996, inexpensive e-books and e-readers seemed more futurist rumour than everyday reality. Social media could have meant friendly reporters. Now, as Winfrey, co-owner of a struggling cable network, launches Oprahs Book Club 2.0, shes seeking a literary home on a digital landscape. Comparing todays fragmented do-it-yourself media with the world of 1996 is like comparing Winfreys 42-acre estate near Santa Barbara, Calif., with her birthplace amid the rural poverty of Kosciusko, Miss. Publishers and booksellers cheer her clubs revival, despite questions whether the new Winfrey, with a much smaller TV audience, carries the influence of the old Winfrey, who turned 70 books into bestsellers. On Sunday, Winfreys interview with memoirist Cheryl Strayed, the first author chosen for the new book club, airs on OWNs Super Soul Sunday (11 a.m. ET/PT) and simultaneously streams on Oprah Radio and on OWNS Facebook page....

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When Oprah Winfrey, then the brightest star on daytime TV, began her book club in 1996, inexpensive e-books and e-readers seemed more futurist rumor than everyday reality. Social media could have meant friendly reporters. Now, as Winfrey, co-owner of a struggling cable network, launches Oprah's Book Club 2.0, she's seeking a literary home on a digital landscape. Comparing today's fragmented do-it-yourself media with the world of 1996 is like comparing Winfrey's 42-acre estate near Santa Barbara, Calif., with her birthplace amid the rural poverty of Kosciusko, Miss. Publishers and booksellers cheer her club's revival, despite questions whether the new Winfrey, with a much smaller TV audience, carries the influence of the old Winfrey, who turned 70 books into best sellers. On Sunday, Winfrey's interview with memoirist Cheryl Strayed, the first author chosen for the new book club, airs on OWN's Super Soul Sunday (11 a.m. ET/PT) and simultaneously stream on Opra...

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Oprah Winfrey has reportedly lost around $3 million on her Chicago apartment after selling it for $2.75 million six years after paying $5.6 million for the property. Oprah Winfrey has reportedly lost around $3 million on her Chicago apartment. The media mogul sold her home in Illinois for $2.75 million on Tuesday (17.07.12), but the 58-year-old star is said to have originally paid $5.6 million for the Streeterville-based property six years ago. Oprah is thought to have never moved in or lived in the sixth-floor apartment, which featured picturesque views over Lake Michigan, three bedrooms, including a 1,241 square-food master bedroom, a library and a solarium. Colette Connelly of estate agents Rubloff told the Chicago Tribune: ''It was a very pleasant transaction.'' The former daytime talk show host - whose programme, 'The Oprah Winfrey Show', aired from 1986 to 2011 - owns a number of other properties, but she currently resides in her $50 million estate in Mont...

Oprah never actually lived inside the Lake Shore Drive home. advertisement Oprah Winfrey has one less connection to Chicago. Winfrey sold her Streeterville co-op Tuesday for $2.75 million, the Chicago Tribune reports. Winfrey originally bought the eight-room, 4,607-square-foot home at 199 E. Lake Shore Drive for $5.6 million, but never actually occupied it. The property was originally listed for $6 million in 2008, but was removed from the market and offered as a rental after there were no takers, according to the Tribune . Winfrey still owns a number of other properties in the Chicago area.

CLARINGTON - Filming has begun in Bowmanville for the Oprah Winfrey show 'Million Dollar Neighbourhood'. One hundred local families got word in early July that they had been selected by the television producers for the MDN community. "I've lived in Bowmanville for 25 years -- off and on -- and there's people I've never seen before," said Greg Simpson, a MDNer. "The ability to come together as a community is really the hidden gem in all this." The show, produced by Vancouver-based Force Four Entertainment (The Cupcake Girls and Village on a Diet) for Ms. Winfrey's TV network, aims to help contestants save money over 10 weeks to increase their collective net worth by $1 million. Families in the show tackle their money problems with expert help. "I have MS, I kind of went downhill the last little while and it hurt us financially," said Brian MacLaughlin, a show participant. The group has its first challenge on Saturday, July 21 at the ...

Two Fairhope sisters are being featured next month on a national network, for overcoming incredible odds. They will be part of a show on the Oprah Winfrey Network on August 3rd at 8PM. Whitney Hemphill and Harley Klassen are now cheerleaders in Fairhope, but that is amazing considering, both of them had to learn to walk again, over the last few years. When you look at them, you wouldn't believe they've had 29 surgeries between the two of them. Both sisters were born with orthopedic deformities, and it took multiple surgeries to correct them. Whitney was born with a club foot and after many infections, had to have her lower right leg amputated. She says, "It was scary." Harley had to have her shins reconstructed, due to bone deformities. She too had to learn to walk again. She says, "I didn't realize how much I hurt until I had the surgery." After years of therapies and surgeries, both girls are in good health. Whitney is even going to amputee camp later ...

It's been more than a year since Oprah Winfrey launched her OWN television network. On Sunday's edition of "Oprah Builds a Network," the former queen of daytime talk opened up about her tumultuous past year and all she had to do to keep her network afloat. "I don't know of a worse week of my entire life," Winfrey said in the two-part documentary of her first year as CEO of OWN. "I certainly did not expect the velocity of schadenfreude -- meaning people sort of lying in wait for you to fail, or make a mistake." From her very public decision to lay off 30 employees to canceling Rosie O'Donnell's talk show, Winfrey said running a network comes with challenges. Stephane De Sakutin/AFP/Getty Images US talk show queen Oprah Winfrey looks on as... View Full Size Oprah Winfrey Speaks to Spelman College Graduates Watch Vid! eo Oprah Winfrey's Network Lays Off Staff Watch Video Oprah Interviews Whitney Houston's Daughter Watch Video ...