Every time a new episode of the Oprah Winfrey Show airs in 2010, we will blog along with it. If you have plenty of time, read the long version. If you are pressed for time, read the “What we learned today” summary. If you are really, really pressed for time, read the Twitter-sized summary.

Archive for May, 2010

Date: May 12th, 2010
File Under: Entertainment, Live your best life, Makeover, Transformation
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Episode 69: Oprah’s Make Over My Man Crew Strikes Again

Oprah put out a call for tired, badly dressed men in need of makeovers and thousands responded. They had so much fun last time they did this, they decided to do it again. So many men, so little time says Oprah. The crowd laugh. Marilyn wrote in, desperate to get her 24 year old son John a makeover. He has dreads and calls his style hip hop, his mom calls it urban decay. She feels that he looks like a street person not a professional.

Carson Kressley is standing by in Louisville, Kentucky with his roving van which allows him to travel and meet the masses. Carson is there with Marilyn, John’s mom. They are going to ambush him while he is out playing golf and drag him into the Make Over My Man Van. Oprah says that this will be very interesting.

John asks Carson why his mom is here. Carson says that John looks dreadful but that he can work with him. Carson tells John to say hi to Oprah. John remembers saying to his mom that if she found him a makeover show on TV he would have his dreads cut off. He didn’t think that she’d do it. He is a little upset that his dreadlocks will be going. Carson says that they will work with the hair and make him look cool and young and artistic. Oprah commends John for taking this so well.

Carson greets Oprah from Indianapolis at the NCAA championship. It is crawling with badly dressed guys who need a makeover. He meets Jeffrey, a man with long hair and a long beard who hasn’t cut his hair for 20 years. They go to the grooming station on the “cruise-ship of style”. They work together for the afternoon and when he comes off the van to meet his wife April she screams and says that she is thrilled.

Project Runway star Tim Gunn joins Oprah onstage and they hug. Oprah says that she hears that people have stopped Tim on the subway asking him to make over their man. Tim feels that men think that they have a license to let themselves go. It is the semiotics of clothes and grooming, he says. Miles is an individual whose family say looks like Santa. Tim thought that he looked like a character from Dungeons and Dragons. Miles has a Harley lifestyle and they want to respect that but update his look, especially his hair. His daughters sent in a video asking for help. All his closets are filled with Harley shirts, and Miles looks like the garden gnomes he loves. They bring out Miles in a shirt and jacket with cut hair and no beard. The audience scream and Oprah shouts Get Out! Wowie Kazowie, good for you she says. Oh my gosh says his family. Miles feels great, everything was excellent. Tim says that Miles was very open although a little nervous. Tim says that they say this incredibly handsome powerful guy emerge as they cut the facial hair. Celebrity groomer Diana Schmidtke says that any man can pull off facial hair but it needs to be tended and groomed on a daily basis. Oprah asks if letting your beard grow is like women who keep going blonder and blonder. Miles says that it takes so long to grow a beard that he always changed his mind about loosing it. His family are almost speechless at how good they think he looks.

Carson goes into Hooters where he says that he goes for the wings. He says that he is looking for style violations- the staff ask him to make over their manager Terry. Carson puts on the Hooters outfit to take over for Terry… They return Terry in a shirt and blazer, with a new haircut and groomed facial hair. The crowd scream.

Oprah says that Tim will be the fashion consultant for the Dr Oz show. Tim says that he admires Carry Grant for his style, and George Clooney. Lee is 67 and his wife says that he has nothing from this century in his closet. He has a whole host of see-through shirts. All his clothes are from the 70’s, he will not get rid of any clothes. There is also a leather outfit that he feels he looks great in, but his wife disagrees and says that he needs help. Oprah says that women do this too- getting stuck in the decade where you think that you look your best. They bring out Lee, “Mr Shaft” now. He strikes a pose in his blazer and shirt and tie. His wife says that he looks good, he looks hot. Lee says that he feels great. Tim says that they knew he wanted to look good and that he likes to dress up so they dress him in separates. For a 67 year old man, they say he looks fabulous.

Carson says that things are going great in the van with John, they are working on his dreadlocks behind the closed door. Carson asks if the show can be an hour and a half long. Oprah says that she’ll see what she can do.

In 24 years of doing makeovers, Oprah thought that she’d seen it all until she saw Peter. She unveils a cardboard cutout of Peter. Her daughter says that living with her Dad is like living with a caveman. He wears hoodies and holey blue jeans. Peter says that if she can get Oprah to do a makeover, they can do whatever they want. Peter comes out on the stage in a shirt and trousers, with short hair, no beard and glasses. His wife cries and cries and hugs him. Oh my goodness, wow says Oprah. Peter models his GQ pose. Tim says that this was such a remarkable transformation that they had to recalibrate their thinking about the clothes. Peter is a 42 year old man who looked 70 and now he looks like he is in his 20’s. They cleaned up the ear and nose hair and got rid of the long hair. The daughters say that they wouldn’t recognize their dad. His wife says “I’m married to him.” Peter says that he loves it and thanks Oprah.

Their next man is a doctor who wears scrubs everywhere. 2 years ago he did a photo-shoot wearing a shirt on top and scrubs on the bottom. For their daughters’ homecoming he coordinated with pink scrubs. In Egypt he wore scrubs on holiday. His closet is filled with suits with the tags still on them, and he has an overflow pile of scrubs. He keeps more in the office and in his truck. He comes onstage in a white suit and blue shirt. Wow, says Oprah. He feels comfortable in his clothes and is now confident in his destiny as a medical inventor making the world a better place. He realized that he was trying to hide himself in his scrubs, and now he has the confidence to be himself. Oprah says that he looks fantastic and she loves the shoes too, they look so soft.

Oprah says that this is the evolution of makeovers- in the past they would do makeover like dress up dolls. Tim says that if you don’t respect the person and who they are, it will not stick. Dusty raises money for breast cancer awareness, wearing a pink bra with his hairy back. He is bald and feels undressed without his hat. At first Tim thought that there was a cross dressing issue, but Dusty has done remarkable work in the name of breast cancer. He comes on stage in a shirt, tie and waistcoat. He has a touch of pink in his pocket. He likes his look, he is not used to wearing so many clothes. He had his back waxed for the first time, he doesn’t think it will be something that he’ll do every week. He thanks Tim and says that he is priceless, and gives Oprah a hug and kiss for all his friends who are fighting breast cancer.

Carson found fashion fouls everywhere on his hunt in Indiana. Mike and Bill were sent to the van and made-over. The crowd go wild. Carson says that he had a fun time in Indianapolis and then he found a fashion emergency- a man in orange capris, a metallic shirt and giant mandels. He sent him off to the game in a suit.

Oprah says that Tim and Carson have shown how to polish up your man, but that manners must also be polished. Two women who have written a book called Undateable are going to shed some light on the topic. Take a look, says Oprah. Ellen and Anne are here to tell the secret list of being dateable, and if men are married, to make them sexable. They say that they are humanitarians. The first rule is to ask someone on a date, not to text them. On a first date, men mustn’t talk about their ex, complain about the bill and mustn’t be rude to the waitress. They should be polite, do not order girlie drinks, and turn off their cell phone. Anne and Ellen ask people in the bar what the worst thing is that they have had happen on a date. Don’t look at other girls. Don’t have your car repossessed on a date. Don’t chew your fingernails. A man refused to pay for a girls liquor on a date when she ordered a glass of wine. Oprah thinks that is worse than a car being repossessed.

Next up, back to Louisville for Mr Dreadlocks’ transformation. Carson is standing by with John’s mom. Tim was saying hats off to Carson for doing this in an hour. Out comes John with short hair and a blazer with jeans. Whooo, says Oprah. Marilyn says it is great and wonderful. Carson says that he looks really handsome. John says that it is different, its great, but he’s had dreadlocks for 4 1/2 years. He says that his mom is as happy as she has ever been so it’s great. Psychologically John is not there yet, says Oprah. She says that he looks fantastic and that this look will really work for him for a job interview. Oprah thanks Carson, she loves watching Carson and all the fun he has. Oprah asks all the men who have been transformed to stand up and the crowd applaud. Carson’s van has a No Phone Zone sticker on it, Oprah thanks everyone.

WHAT WE LEARNED TODAY:

Any man can pull off facial hair but it needs to be tended and groomed on a daily basis.

It is easy to get stuck in the decade where you think that you look your best.

There has been an evolution of makeovers- in the past they would do makeover like dress up dolls.

Tim Gunn says that if you don’t respect the person being made-over, it will not stick.

Refusing to pay for liquor on a date when someone orders a glass of wine. is worse than a car being repossessed mid-date, according to Oprah.

A VERY QUICK SUMMARY:

Pay attention, dress well, follow fashion (not too much), be polite and well-groomed to live your best life.

Date: May 12th, 2010
File Under: Entertainment
1 comment

Episode 68: Former First Lady Laura Bush, Plus Twins Jenna and Barbara

This is her first time stepping into the spotlight since moving out of the White House 15 months ago. She is revealing all in her new memoir including how she would sneak out of the White House to go to Target. Please welcome one of the most popular first ladies, Laura Bush, says Oprah. Laura says that she went Christmas shopping with her mom in Target one year, and the other customers found it strange. Laura’s memoir, Spoken from the Heart impresses Oprah with her portrayal of American values. Laura was a lonely only child, her mother had three late miscarriages, and Laura was aware of the sadness of her parents, as well as her own.

Oprah was surprised to hear that Laura got her driver’s license in Texas at 14. Oprah wants to talk about the news that recently broke that Laura was in a car accident and killed a friend at age 17. Laura says that it was a weeknight, with a school holiday the next day. She was going to go to the movie with her friend. She didn’t see a stop sign until it was too late, and she went on into the intersection, which is usually very quiet. She hit another car, she didn’t know that the car she hit contained her friend, Mike. She and Julie escaped, they were thrown from the car. She was praying for the person that she hit and in the hospital she heard Mike’s mother, and then she knew, even though she hoped against hope. Mike’s funeral was that weekend, and all of her friends went. They were very close. Laura says that no one talked about it, she put it out of her mind as much as she could. She never spoke to the Douglas family, no one suggested that she should. She didn’t go to the funeral as her parents thought that she shouldn’t. Since having her own children, she can now see it from the perspective of parental loss- for many years she saw it only through the eyes of a 17 year old. Now she knows how profound the loss is. Barbara and Jenna had a few friends who died in car accidents, and the family went over immediately as the parents need that, to keep their child alive. She knows that you will live with it forever, and that what if’s are futile. She will carry the guilt for her whole life.

It’s been 15 months since the Bush family left the White House. Oprah asks Laura about her whirlwind romance with George- friends introduced them and they were married within 3 months. The first meeting she liked him a lot. They had grown up in the same town in Midland Texas and they lived in the same apartment complex in Houston after college, but they had never met. They had parallel lives- they shared many friends. When they were engaged, someone said that the most eligible bachelor in Midland was marrying the old maid of Midland. They were both 31 and late to marriage compared to all their friends. They were thrilled to find each other.

Oprah says that much has been written on the ultimatum that Laura gave George to stop drinking when their twins were 4. On page 118 of the book Laura says that she never issued an ultimatum, but that she was disappointed and thought that he could be a better man. She says that lots of people were drinking, but that he was drinking too much. She says that he is very disciplined, a very disciplined athlete who would run for hours to counter the effects of the alcohol, to avoid a hangover. They went to Colorado Springs when they were 40 with many friends who were also 40. They had a wild drinking weekend and the next day George decided to stop drinking. He did it from one day to the next. She thinks it was a combination of factors; maturing, a wife and children who love him, a father thinking of running for President and friends who had started a men’s bible study course which he attended sometimes.

Oprah says it didn’t occur to her that the fear of 9/11 which permeated our hearts would affect those people in the White House. Laura tells how they went down into the bunker and Mrs Cheney whispered that one of the planes had circled the White House. Laura says that we’ll never know the flight plan of that plane that ended up at the Pentagon. George showed up in the bunker and they hugged each other and they knew that everything had changed. George said that they’d sleep in their on bed rather than the offered cot. An agent ran into the room in the middle of the night and they went down to the bunker with their pets. By the time they got down they were told that the plane was one of ours. The staff had to come back into the White House the next day. The staff had been told to run as fast as they could away from the White House- these 23 and 24 year old girls never expected to have been told to run from their job. No one quit although a few cried.

On November 25, 1981 Barbara and Jenna were born into the Bush dynasty and their first words were Daddy. As teenagers, they stood proudly by as their Dad became governor of Texas and then the 43rd President of the United States. As their parents moved into the White House, the twins went off to college- Jenna to the University of Texas and Barbara to her Dad’s alma mater, Yale. After college, Barbara travelled the globe and founded a nonprofit organization Global Health Corp to improve medical care in the US and Africa. Jenna followed in her mom’s footsteps, becoming an elementary school teacher and an education correspondent for the Today Show. The twins join Oprah and Laura on the stage. Barbara is one minute older and they were named after their mothers. Barbara loved the book and has sobbed her way through it. It has been fascinating for her to get to know her mom and the family. Jenna was surprised by how candid the book is for such a private person. They were not told about the car accident until they were almost 18 and someone else told them first. Barbara loved that she gets to see her mom as a person, not just as their mom. Oprah loved it when Laura says that their lives in Midland were focused on their family and friends, and she thought this is the life, and it was. At Jenna’s wedding she incorporated that thought into her speech. Oprah says that the family seems pretty normal- Jenna says that they never lived in the White House and they have really normal parents who instilled good values in them. Laura and George chose to serve and live their lives, but they were sure to not let it dictate the lives of their daughters. Oprah loves the letter that they wrote to the Obama girls saying that it is not always easy, and not to forget who your Dad really is.

Laura takes the cameras on a tour of the ranch in Crawford. Jenna got married on the peninsula on their lake. Barbara was the only bridesmaid. They have a cross and alter built for Jenna’s wedding. Jenna had a perfect wedding, says Laura. Jenna says that the best advice she received from her mother was to find someone you love to be with who shares the same hobbies. They love to hike and read and eat. Jenna says that they listen to music and cook dinner (well to be honest someone cooks them dinner) and they sit around and talk and laugh and do puzzles and they are in bed by 9pm. That’s my kind of place says Oprah.

Oprah asks the twins to complete the sentence, my Mom was right about… Barbara says everything. She says growing up Laura guided them gently into doing what they love and are doing now. Laura put ideas in front of them and exposed them to great opportunities. Oprah asks what they tease their mom about. Jenna says that she is too clean and that her favorite day is to clean out a drawer with new cleaning supplies. Oprah asks Laura if it is true that she arranged the books in her house according to the Dewey Decimal System. It is true. Oprah asks what they tease their Dad about- Barbara says that he thinks he is a really good dancer, and someone told him apparently that he was a good dancer. They show footage of George dancing and the crowd laugh.

Oprah was shocked to hear that they have to pay for their own food for themselves and their guests. They get the house for free but they get a bill for meals each week. Laura says that everyone else has to pay for their food, so the president should too. Oprah disagrees and says that she thought we were paying for the president to eat.

During their 8 years in the White House, their 1500 acre ranch in Crawford Texas was a private refuge. They designed the house to fit modestly among their beloved Texas prairie with its trails, waterfall, rivers, lakes and canyons. Laura says that this time of year they get to see the beautiful bluebells in flower and there is a huge oak tree in front of the house. She wanted a one-story house with no thresholds so they can grow old there. They’ve hosted over a dozen heads of state there serving Texas beef of course. She enjoyed designing the highly organized kitchen. George has always brought her coffee in the morning, and on the first morning they were back, George had kind of forgotten how to make it. She shows the big living room where they like to relax. They rent puzzles from the puzzle company as they are expensive to buy. They mail it back when they have done it. When they were building the house, the kids really wanted a pool and they eventually did build one- George calls it the whining pool as the kids whined until they got it. Laura loves to go for walks in the prairie restoration. George loves mountain bike riding and he has built some great trails. They built a lake and stocked it with the bass that George likes to fish. When they left the White House on January 20th they came here. The end of the presidency is like no other job, when it’s over it really is over. Having this home and property is a wonderful way for them to think of how they want their lives to be forever.

Oprah asks how is President Bush and Laura says that he is doing very well. He’s writing his book, they have been writing at the same time. Oprah asks her how she handled the criticism of her husband. Laura says that it was tough and is discouraging to people who may stand for office. Jenna says that they ignored what people said and didn’t watch TV. They knew their Dad and no one else knew him as a Dad and she hopes the Obama girls know that. She says that he always put them first and they hope to emulate that when they have children in 23 years. Oprah laughs.

Oprah imagines that they say Jenna’s on when she is on TV, they do says Laura and they send out an email blast to all their frinds. Oprah says that Jenna is doing a great job especially at the Olympics. Oprah says that Laura Bush is the only person she knows who loves reading as much as she does. They show footage of the middle school who got a new library by Target after they made their reading is fun flashmob. The students screamed when they saw the new library complete with 2000 books, 12 computers and a hip lounge. We love that, keep on reading says Oprah.

Oprah thanks her guests and thanks everyone who jumped on board the National No Phone Zone day, where she feels we are reaching a tipping point in our national consciousness.

WHAT WE LEARNED TODAY:

Laura Bush believes that what if’s are futile.

Laura has arranged the books in her house according to the Dewey Decimal System.

The Presidential family get to stay in the White House for free but they get a bill for meals each week.

George and Laura Bush rent puzzles from the puzzle company as they are expensive to buy. They mail one back when they have done it.

Oprah says that Laura Bush is the only person she knows who loves reading as much as she does.

A VERY QUICK SUMMARY:

Since leaving the White House, the Bush family listen to music, eat, talk, laugh and do rented puzzles-  they are in bed by 9pm.

Date: May 12th, 2010
File Under: Celebrity

Episode 67: Supermodel Naomi Campbell

Supermodel Naomi Campbell is celebrating a huge milestone, 25 years in the International fashion world. As we all know, her reputation has taken a hit over the last few years. After years of negative press, she is finally ready to reveal what is behind the anger.

Naomi is the definition of a supermodel, ruling the runway with her signature swagger. She was discovered in London at age 14. She was the first black model to grace the covers of French Vogue and Time Magazine. She became a runway It Girl for top designers like Yves Saint Laurent. She launched dozens of beauty campaigns and featured in pop videos. Her glamorous life and relationships were highly documented in the press, but then came a secret cocaine addiction. Then came the infamous bad behaviors which tarnished her reputation. Today she says that she is a work in progress, trying to face her demons. She’s in love and living in Moscow with her Russian real-estate mogul. After 25 years in the business she is still a top cover model, giving models half her age a run for their money.

Naomi comes on stage and they hug. Naomi is a little nervous, Oprah says don’t be nervous, its just those two and millions of others. Oprah says that she has wanted to do this interview forever. Oprah says that Naomi looks 25, not 40. Naomi will be 40 in May- this is what you want 40 to look like, says Oprah. Naomi says that she has lived a good and reckless life and she has thought before that she wouldn’t reach 40. Oprah asks when Naomi lives this glamorous life, how does it feel? Naomi says that it is lonely, even though you are surrounded by others. Sometimes she doesn’t want to walk on a red carpet. She says it’s like they don’t have feelings but they are human.

Naomi’s temper tantrums have caused problems. In 2000, she was convicted of hitting her former assistant on the head with a cell phone and threatening to throw her out a moving car. Six years later she threw her jewel-encrusted Blackberry at her housekeeper over a missing pair of jeans. She was ordered to attend anger management classes and do community service, she mopped floors at a Department of Sanitation garage. A year later she admitted to swearing, hitting and kicking police officers aboard a British Airways flight and was sentenced to 200 hours of community service. Two months ago she was accused of slapping her chauffeur in New York City. Two days later he retracted the allegations. During a recent interview on ABC News her temper flared again when asked about a blood diamond. She allegedly walked out of the interview and punched the camera.

Oprah asks her what happened. Naomi says that there were added sound effects- she moved a camera out the way to get to the door. She did not want to answer the questions, she was a guest of Nelson Mandela at the same time as Charles Taylor was a guest. Naomi does not want to put her family in danger by talking about Charles Taylor who has done some terrible things.

Oprah asks Naomi what in the moment is going on when she gets mad? Naomi says that she trusts her people 110% and when they do something against her… She threw the phone at her housekeeper, but she never had a jewel-encrusted Blackberry. She says that she sees red. It wasn’t about jeans, Naomi doesn’t remember what the housekeeper said. Naomi took responsibility for the actions and she feels shame. She knows that she has done wrong. Oprah asks again what it is that Naomi feels when she doesn’t get what she wants? Naomi sees red and acts out, she doesn’t see anything then. Immediately afterwards she feels ashamed and remorseful.

She says that she is disappointed by people she trusts, but Oprah points out that it is sometimes strangers. Naomi says that she has anger issues. Oprah asks if she is just a petulant diva who wants things her own way? Naomi says that it comes from a deeper place, a deeper kind of emotional disorder. It comes from an abandonment issue and trying to build up a family around her that is not her real family. It’s not an excuse, she doesn’t have an excuse. It is not the person that she wants to be. She did her community service dressed as a supermodel, which was intentional. Naomi was working and doing a shoot. Her intention was not to turn it into a fashion shoot. She mopped the floor and cleaned offices and walls. She wore boots. She worked from 8-4 each day and it was humbling for her. It was humiliating for her but it was her own fault. Naomi says that she is in fashion and she likes clothes, she dressed for community service just like she dresses.

As one of the Big 6 models, Naomi Campbell had reached superstardom. No one knew that her recreational drug use had turned into a cocaine habit. Her lowest point was showing up at a photoshoot so wasted that she collapsed with wild sobs. In 1999 she checked into rehab. After 2 years of living as a recovering addict, a tabloid published photographs of her leaving a Narcotics Anonymous meeting. Naomi sued the tabloid and won, the crowd applaud. Bravo to you says Oprah. Naomi started cocaine when she was 24, she had always been against it. She did three jobs a day and she never needed a dealer, it was just handed to her. After Johnny Versace died in 1990, followed by many other friends passing away, she felt that she couldn’t keep up with the grief so she replaced it with drugs. Oprah repeats that sentiment. Naomi says that she turned up to do a job and she collapsed, she couldn’t stand. A friend of hers who is now a counselor took her to her house in Italy and left the number for a doctor. She called 10 minutes later. Naomi has been sober from drugs for 6 years and from alcohol for 1 1/2 years. The crowd applaud. Oprah asks if she is working on her anger management. Naomi says that she would not be held hostage to her past, after the cab driver said that she hit him. She doesn’t normally issue statements but this time she did.

She goes to meetings and therapy to try and deal with her anger issues. Her mom in the audience says that it has been hard to watch Naomi’s dramas unfold. Her mom was 19 when she had her child and she was a single mom. She left to give her daughter a better life to give her a private education. Looking back, she realized that material possessions are not all that a child needs. Oprah says that many mothers make this mistake that material things are not the answer. What every child wants is her mother. Naomi cries and Oprah calls for a Kleenex and says that they’ll go to break.

Oprah wants to say that Naomi Campbell went into the ugly cry. Naomi says that she understands the sacrifice that her mom made. She says that she is striving to be a better person and to find peace. The crowd applaud. Oprah says that Maya Angelou has a wonderful phrase that she herself has adopted- “when you know better, you do better.” Oprah says that we are all a work in progress. Oprah says that from the outside Naomi’s life looks extraordinary, but that she needs to spend more time on the internal world. Naomi says that rehabilitation allowed her to spend a month just on herself, which she has never done. Oprah says that it is a daily work. Naomi says that it is a surrender, and that she is religious and spiritual person. When she lets go of the cards and lets them fall, things are much calmer.

Oprah wants to talk about the men in Naomi’s life. Naomi says that sometimes she only has to stand next to someone to be linked to them. Oprah asks if she has ever dated a poor man. Yes, a working class man like herself, she says. A man in the arts she says. Naomi says that she is in a fame circle and you see the same people over and over. Oprah talked with Bono about how men become like putty around Naomi. He said that she has the perfectly proportioned body. Naomi likes men to wear the pants and be strong. She has been independent for a long time and likes strong men. Vlad wears the pants in their relationship. She says that dating rich and famous men is very private, almost not going out the house, she would never admit to the relationship, would protect their privacy and would never bad-mouth them, ever. She is on good terms with all her exes, Robert and Vlad have met.

Oprah asks if she sees her beauty, she says no but she recognizes that she was born with good bones. She thanks her mom. Naomi says that she needs to look as good on the inside as she does on the outside. After doing all the shows, suddenly everyone has gone and it’s an empty feeling.

Naomi now calls Moscow her home. She lives in Moscow, one of her favorite cities. She shows Red Square to the camera crew. 5 brides in 7 minutes, no 8, no 9 brides in a few minutes. She is helping put new designers on the map and she has been working with Russian Vogue. Naomi relaxes in a traditional Russian bathhouse. She has found love with a real estate mogul, Vladimir. Oprah says that Naomi’s boyfriend looks like Bond. They met in Cannes two years ago. Vladimir has been separated from his wife for ten years, Naomi gets on well with his daughter. Wow, says Oprah. They go skiing, Naomi has just learned, and she has also just learned to swim. She says that she couldn’t float. Oprah says that she feels so bad for Naomi that she didn’t have enough body fat to float. Now Naomi has learned how to swim. Since she met Vlad she has been working out and paying attention to her diet. She like to do Gyrotonics which is elongating not bulking. She does a master cleanse three times a year. She did it once for 18 days. She “does the rope,”skipping.

Naomi fulfilled her childhood dream at the Bolshoi Ballet Company. She gets to go on the stage, which is a huge deal. When she was 3 all she wanted to do was be a ballet dancer. In England she was always told that she was too tall. She dances on the stage. She then joins an elite Bolshoi ballet class. She is nervous and finds it overwhelming and jittery. She cries outside. She had a big fear of going back to class, but she never had the guts to do it. It was a big fear for her. It was her childhood dream.

She tells Oprah it felt so amazing, and she thanks Oprah. Oprah thanks Naomi for coming and sharing. Naomi has agreed to sign the No Phone Zone, Oprah tells her to be careful and that she will also get a special pledge, the No Phone Throw Zone. Oprah says that at 40 you become who you are meant to be and that Naomi is too pretty for what is on the inside to not match what is on the outside.

WHAT WE LEARNED TODAY:

Naomi Campbell has some anger issues.

But she’s very beautiful.

She gets angry when those close to her betray her. It makes her see red.

She also sees red when strangers annoy her.

She says she once dated a man who is working class, just like herself.

A VERY QUICK SUMMARY:

Naomi Campbell is beautiful yet angry person who is striving to be better and to find peace.

Date: May 11th, 2010
File Under: Public Service Announcement
1 comment

Episode 66: National No Phone Zone Day

Woo hoo, says Oprah. They are live in Chicago for the first ever National No Phone Zone Day. The message is everywhere on billboards and ads and media. When you sign the pledge your name and location now comes up on the interactive Google map which Oprah thinks is the coolest thing. Today is a call for action, says Oprah. Texting is as dangerous as drunk driving says Oprah. There are correspondents at rallies with huge crowds across the country. Oprah’s friend Gayle is in Washington DC with a huge crowd. A woman who lost a relative says driving and texting is like trying to breastfeed, cook and wash your clothes all in the same room, it doesn’t work. Ali Wentworth is standing by at General Motors in Detroit. They are in the heartbeat of cars and Ali is so proud to be part of this. She is here with a lot of students because texting is an addiction. The students have started a youth movement to stop anyone who gets their license from texting. Oprah Radio’s Derrick Ashong is at Boston University with a huge group of students learning how to be safer with their driving. Each student is an advocate. Lisa Ling is with a crowd in a High School in Los Angeles. She has a special guest, the fine Mario Lopez. He says to Oprah that he proudly signed the pledge yesterday and all the crowd at Extra signed too. Oprah thanks him and says that this is a big deal in LA. Holly Robinson Pete is at Georgia Tech in Atlanta Georgia. Oprah says that they will check back in with their correspondents around the country throughout the show.

Oprah shows a look back at what has happened since January when they started the pledge. More than 2 million people have pledged including a host of celebrities. Across the country distracted driving is making headlines like never before. In 4 months, 4 more states have banned texting bring ing the number to 23 and the District of Columbia.

Oprah knows we can change this issue, she wants to get as many people as possible to stop texting and talking while driving. If you need a reason, look at Jaycee’s story. She is 23 and walks with a cane and has a limp arm. She gets a lot of stares so she added a sign to her back saying that she got her injuries from a kid driving and talking on his cell phone. On her memorable graduation day, her parents were beyond proud. They were driving home and someone turned on a red light while talking on the phone. She was given a 10% chance of survival, but both of her parents were killed that day. The loss of her parents was a loss to the world.

In the studio Oprah asks her how this has impacted her life. It has been huge, she has had to learn to walk again and only has use of one arm and she has no parents. This is her life mission now, to make people realize the power that they hold. Oprah says that the 6000 people were killed last year are in the news but we don’t hear of those who are permanently injured by this. She says that nothing is so important that people can put the lives of everyone around them at risk.

Gayle is in DC with the Secretary of Transportation, Ray LaHood. Everyone has a cellphone says Ray, and they all think they can drive safely. He tells people to put the cell phone in the glove compartment, the call will still be there when you get to your destination. He says that it is hard for everyone, it is a bad habit which we have to break to save lives and heartache. Gayle says that she has heard so many stories today. Ray says that this show today takes it to a whole new level of awareness. Matt hit his neighbor’s 9 year old boy while texting, fortunately it was ok but it caused him to revaluate his life. Kyle, the son, told him not to tell his parents as he had his iPod on and no helmet on. A teacher in the audience was convicted and brought her students down to this important event. Ray thanks Oprah and Oprah thanks Mr Secretary.

Ed Whitacre of GM tells Oprah that Chevy is proud to support her call, and that is why he is asking his 77,000 employees, plus customers and dealers to sign the pledge. That is so great says Oprah. 77,000 employees is great. Join the movement now at Oprah.com. Or check out this cool easy way to pledge- text NPZ to 30644, but not while you are driving.

Ali in Detroit says that they are making history as they are there with the fantastic Governor of Michigan, who is signing a bill into history which was overwhelmingly passed. She says that they are proud to be the 24th state to ban texting which is clearly a danger. As the home of the auto industry, it is is particularly important. Ali says that nearly 6000 people died last year but thousands of others have been crippled or maimed. Ali says that the cameras will watch the Governor sign the bill. Oprah and the Governor thank each other.

Oprah says that laws start with the people, today everyone can make a change. Bronte, a teenager, lost control of her car while texting, 3 days after her 17th birthday. She broke her pelvis and suffered a traumatic brain injury, She was in a coma for 3 1/2 weeks. She suffers memory loss and gets tongue tied. Her scar is a reminder- your conversation can wait. Bronte tells Oprah she has signed the pledge and she puts her phone to one side when in the car. Before this she never considered that texting in the car was an issue, despite nearly rear-ending someone. The conversation can wait. Bronte was wearing a seatbelt, Oprah reminds us that once upon a time no one wore seatbelts and now we all do.

Oprah checks in with the rally in LA with Lisa Ling at John Marshall High School. Lisa says that the day she signed the pledge, her husband’s colleague’s daughter was killed by texting, so her decision was confirmed as a good one. Lisa is pleased that she is there with two American Idols from her favorite season, including last years winner. Chris has texted a couple of times while driving and his wife has told him to stay on the road so it can get dangerous. Another contestant, Alison is getting her permit soon. Her cousin got into a bad accident because he was reading a text. Oprah says that is exciting, and thanks Lisa.

Rodney was a high school senior who was full of life. He went to pick up a friend and his mom never saw him again. He crashed his car when reaching fro his phone and hit a pole. After a year and a half, it still seems like yesterday- the pain is crushing. Her son had just been accepted to college, but he was no longer alive because of distracted driving. In the studio, Rodney’s mom says that she was guilty of texting on the highway, she did not realize how dangerous it was. She says it was just one of those things that you do without realizing. Diveeta now goes around schools talking to students, trying to educate. Oprah says that because of Diveeta’s son and all the sons and daughters that she started this movement. In many ways, Oprah feels that Rodney’s life was sacrificed in order to be a light to the rest of us. Oprah is hoping and praying that next time people get I the car, they will remember Rodney and put the phone away. Oprah thanks Diveeta.

86% of teens talk on the phone and drive but only 12% think that it is a distracting. 76% say they sometime text and 33% say that they do it often. Half of the texts are to parents.

Alex was an easy kid to raise, she was fun loving and had a huge heart. Her mom teaches at the school her kids attend, and one day Alex didn’t turn up. Her mom went to find her and didn’t recognize the truck. Alex was texting and went out the window and the truck rolled over her. Her mom called 911 and all they could do at the hospital was watch the monitor slow down and down. It’s madness. Oprah says that it really is madness, it is crazy and disconnected and like playing Russian Roulette. Alex’s parents are here today, and Oprah is asking us to stand up for all these families and the senseless accidents that don’t have to happen. In honor of all those people, Oprah introduces the new No Phone Zone commercial. Oprah asks the families featured to stand up. Oprah says that she and the audience are honored to stand with the families as they have all taken the pledge.

Holly in Georgia is there with Lisa who lost her 2 year old son to a distracted driver when they were out for a walk. She is asking everyone to change their habits. She had to live in a coma and couldn’t go to her son’s funeral. Holly thanks Lisa and shows all the No Phone Zone merchandise that you can get. Bumper stickers are powerful. All the profits go to Focus Driven. Oprah believes that Focus Driven are a powerful organization like Mother’s Against Drunk Driving.

Derrick in Boston says that they have an amazing group of young people from Boston University including the group SADD, Students Against Destructive Decisions who educate each other. Derrick had a friend killed in High School by a distracted driver when parked at a stoplight. Erin was driving to pick up her father and almost hit a tree and did $4000 of damage to her car when moving her pocketbook to the back seat. She had been driving for only 45 minutes since registering her car. She didn’t even open her phone, phones off is the best idea. Derrick says that every advance in technology brings its own responsibilities. We can teach each other to make a difference. Oprah loves the analogy that we do not dry our hair in the bathtub as those technologies do not go together. Many of the players of the Boston Red Sox signed the pledge for Oprah, and they ask all their fans to join to them in signing the pledge.

OK, says Oprah. Today is the start of a new day where we all get to come together and stand with the families who have been affected by distracted driving. Late last year Oprah read an article on distracted driving which started this campaign for her, and the author has just won a Pulitzer Prize. Oprah thanks everyone involved today and all the supporters at the rallies. Bye everybody.

WHAT WE LEARNED TODAY:

Texting while driving is like playing Russian Roulette.

Once upon a time we didn’t wear seatbelts, and now it is second nature.

Every advance in technology brings its own responsibilities- we don’t dry our hair in the bath tub.

Do not text and drive.

Phones off is the best policy in the car.

A VERY QUICK SUMMARY:

No conversation or text is worth risking lives. Take the No Phone Zone Pledge at Oprah.com.

Date: May 10th, 2010
File Under: Relationships

Episode 65: Rielle Hunter’s First Television Interview

Four years ago,  few people had heard of Rielle Hunter, a videographer hired to document John Edwards as he campaigned across the country. Then, rumors of an affair began to surface. The media reported that John had cheated on his wife of more than 30 years, Elizabeth Edwards, with Rielle and secretly fathered a daughter named Quinn. Oprah travels to the North Carolina home Rielle shares with her daughter to meet Rielle.

Oprah asks is it true that no one in your life thinks that this is a good idea for you to be talking to me? Rielle says that “no one thinks it’s a good idea, but I feel in my heart that it’s the right thing to do.” Oprah asks “why did you want to talk now and you have not spoken before?” Rielle says a lot of it didn’t feel right to speak before, and it felt more right after Johnny claimed paternity publicly. Oprah clarifies, Johnny meaning John Edwards? Yes, says Rielle, I do. It’s his birth name. Oprah asks why you call him Johnny? Rielle says “When I first met him, I couldn’t get the word “John” out, you know? He didn’t seem like John to me. So I said, “This may sound weird, but can I call you Johnny?” And he said: “Well, that’s my name. So, yes.”

Oprah says “So you’ve been described in a lot of different ways. Gold digger. Home wrecker. New-age airhead. Do you think that you have been unfairly judged?” Rielle says “Yes, I believe it’s…well, it’s not accurate. That’s not who I am.” Oprah says “Well, the intention of this interview for me is to find out who you are. So let’s start with gold digger. Were you after John Edwards because of money? Fame? Attention?” Rielle says “No, I was not ever after him. I met him, and there was a very strong connection, an attraction. There was no me pursuing, wanting something from him. None of that.” Rielle says that she is absolutely not a home wrecker. “It is not my experience that a third party wrecks a home. I believe the problems exist before a third party comes into the picture.” Oprah asks why does she think people see her so negatively? Rielle says “Well, because of the affair, and also because a lot of people bought into the myth of the marriage…the Edwards marriage as being a storybook story and it was so perfect and so wonderful, and I destroyed it. So it fits into the two-dimensional story line.” Oprah says “Help people to understand, if you can, or help me to understand, because the world sees you as that person. You are viewed as the mistress who came in and stole the politician. So what do you want people to know about that?” Rielle replies “First of all, in order for that to happen, you must be invited in. People aren’t property. You can’t steal someone else’s husband. You can’t steal someone’s wife. It’s not property.” Oprah says “So let’s go back to how this started. How did you meet? When I interviewed Elizabeth Edwards last year, one of the things that struck me is she said she couldn’t believe or didn’t even understand a woman like yourself who could stand outside or stand at a bar and say to a married man, “You’re hot.” She made a point of saying that, “Who does that?” So I’m asking you, who does that?” Rielle says “Well, I did… It happened because I saw him inside the Regency.” (a hotel in New York City) “We were in there, and we noticed each other and there was a mutual staring going on. But it was just a connection like…“ Oprah asks “Did you think, “Oh, there’s John Edwards?”” Rielle says she did not know it was John Edwards. Rielle says “I didn’t pay a lot of attention to the Kerry/Edwards campaign. I had a lot going on in my life at that time. I wasn’t big into politics.” Rielle says “He was looking at me, and I was looking at him and he got up and left. Then my friend went over to who he was sitting with and asked, “Was that John Edwards?” And he said, “Yes, it was.” I went over and started talking to that man, as well. His name was Tony. We went over to Tony, and I said, “I can’t believe that was John Edwards. He’s so hot.” And Tony said: “You should have told him that. You should have come over and told him that. He would have loved to hear that.”

Oprah asks How did it come about that they connected? Rielle says “It was nothing. Another friend of mine came to join us, and I had no more thoughts of John Edwards. Zero. Then, we were walking out of the Regency to go get dinner, and then he came around the corner and saw me standing on the street. And he lit up. He was just so excited. I mean, just lit up like a Christmas tree. White lights, just like bright as can be. I just turned to him and said, “You’re so hot.” And he practically jumped in my arms, and I said to him, “I can help you.” And he said: “I want your help. I need your help.”” Oprah asks “Did you feel the connection that you had sensed when he was across the room?” Times a hundred says Rielle. Oprah asks what he said to her? Rielle says “I want your help. I need your help. And I said, “Do you have e-mail?” And he said, “No. Here. I’m staying here. Call me. This is the name I’m staying under. Call me.” I said, “How long are you staying?” He said, “Until tomorrow morning. Call me.” Oprah asks “When you said to John Edwards, “I can help you,” what did you mean?” Rielle says she wanted to help him “See his authentic self. Be more his authentic self so people could see who he really was.” Oprah asks how she was planning on doing that? “I had no plans. None at all. Just my heart felt I could help him,” says Rielle. Oprah asks “When you left wherever you were to go to his hotel room, was there no part of you that says, “Maybe I shouldn’t do that?’” No, says Rielle. Oprah asks if she knew he was married? Rielle responds “I did know he was married, but I didn’t know what their marriage was like.”

Oprah asks “Did you have that conversation about helping him?” Rielle says “We had a very, very long conversation, yes…about helping, and he wanted help. He wanted to be more authentic. He wanted to live a life of truth. He wanted to change his life.”Oprah says, “In all this time you’re having this conversation, you’re also feeling this heat, this vibe, this magnetic force… and you can sense that he’s feeling it too? Rielle says “Yes. It was obvious.” When Oprah asks if she stayed the night, Rielle says “I think that that now I say, “Okay, now fade to black.” Here’s the thing: This whole journey has been so hard for me. I am a really private person with my personal life.”

Oprah says “But you can just forget about your personal life being private because you’ve been so exposed?”Rielle says “No, but here’s the thing. I’ve been so exposed with a bunch of lies, because what’s been said about me—all my personal life has been written about and exposed—the facts are incorrect. It was all incorrect. That also bothers me because I am very much a person committed to truth.” Oprah says, “Now it’s the next day. Then began what?”

Rielle says there were a series of long conversations on the phone… four hours at a time. Oprah says “So the next day, you’re on the phone for four hours. Several days later, you realize what?” Rielle: I’m in love. Oprah asks what are you thinking about his situation? Rielle says “Oh, this is very difficult because … being a person who’s committed to truth and living a life where you’re not hiding, it’s almost like a cosmic joke to fall in love with someone who’s living a big lie. I had such judgment about anyone living a lie.”

Oprah asks Rielle if she thought about John’s wife? Rielle says “Oh yes, definitely… I think about his wife and his children. And it was very hard. Very, very hard. What’s so hard about it is that the power of the love does override all the issues that come up and all the judgments and all my: “This is wrong. What you’re doing is wrong.” Oprah says “So you are obviously a person who is on a spiritual path. You’ve mentioned truth here several times. What part of you could make that okay then to be with this married man with children?” Rielle says “Because he was available. He wanted to be with me, and their marriage had problems for many, many years… He has been honest with me since our first meeting completely.” She says that he disclosed everything to her in his life. Oprah says that there are choices on the journey, did she ever think he should call her after he sorted out the mess of his life? Rielle says that their hearts were louder than their minds. Oprah asks how did Elizabeth Edwards come to know about this affair? Rielle says “On the morning of December 31, [2006], she found the cell phone that I bought for him. And called me, and I answered the phone. I said, “Hey, baby,” and she hung up on me. I bought him a cell phone that looked just like his work phone so he could talk to me wherever he was and, whenever he was, people would think he was on his work phone. He calls me back a little later saying that it’s over. “We’re done. We’re over.” I assumed that she was standing there when he said that, and he was in a traumatic state. His worlds had just collided, and he hung up the phone.”

Oprah asks what did she do? Rielle says “I didn’t cry. I had the thought: “What do you mean we’re over? We’re just getting started.”” Oprah says But you didn’t cry. Rielle says “Not then. I cried a number of times over the next few days. I cried hysterically a number of times over the next few days. It was a terrible time.“ Oprah says that Elizabeth found out shortly after and he announced his candidacy for the presidency of the United States. Did he talk to you about the fact that he was going to announce  his running for President of the United States? Rielle says that he was in extreme conflict about it. “He didn’t know if it was the right thing to do because he had personal problems and an inner conflict about having all these personal problems that could happen at any moment and an inner pull to wanting to serve. Plus he was, I believe, addicted to campaigning, and that was going on. And he had a staff who wanted him- all their paychecks and all of their livelihoods depended on him announcing. And Elizabeth wanted him to.” Rielle did not think he should run. “I think that he has a great capacity to serve. I’m conservative in that way. I believe in truth. I think you need to get all your ducks in a row and live a life of integrity before you step out into the public.”

Oprah says that sounds beautiful but can she understand that people find this hypocritical. Rielle understands the contradiction, agrees that it’s huge. Oprah asks “Would you also agree, or not, that you were out of alignment, you were in contradiction, you were out of integrity with yourself?” Rielle says “No, interestingly enough. That’s what’s just so weird about it. I followed my heart, and I believe it was the right thing to do, which is weird. I get how weird that is. I didn’t make a commitment to Elizabeth. I wasn’t the one lying to her, and I was supporting him in his process, and his intentions never wavered. I knew what he wanted. He just had a really unique way of getting there, to live a life of truth… So I felt like I would just continue supporting him and loving him until he got to where he needed to be.”

In March 2007, Elizabeth and John held a press conference announcing her cancer had returned but the Presidential campaign would go on. Rielle and John’s daughter Frances Quinn was conceived in May 2007. Rielle says the baby was conceived at he end of May. She didn’t know she was pregnant until July. Oprah asks “At what point in there did John have the announcement that they were going to renew their vows?” July. Oprah asks “So when John Edwards is renewing his vows with Elizabeth Edwards, he knows that you are pregnant?.. How can you make that okay? You’re pregnant, carrying this man’s child. You knew it was his child, because you weren’t seeing anyone else.” Rielle says that “I wasn’t seeing anyone else… We both knew it was his child.” Oprah asks How did it make her feel? Rielle says “Terrible. My own judgment of someone who stands before God and makes a vow crushes me on the inside. I mean, just crushes me that someone can do that, that anyone can do that, because of the way I’m built. I could never do that… I understood where he was in his process.” Rielle says that she never thought about getting out because her married boyfriend turned into the father of their child. Oprah asks how he reacted to the news of her pregnancy and Rielle says that he was “very gracious.” Oprah says, “come on,” and Rielle says that he was. He was in the campaign at the time. Oprah laughs when Rielle says that he was gracious. She asks Did John Edwards ever ask you to get an abortion? Rielle: Never. Oprah: Implied that you should get an abortion? Rielle: Never. Oprah: So he was fully supportive of you having his baby. Rielle says “I wouldn’t say “fully supportive.” I think that he had a lot of issues with the timing, and it created a lot of conflict within him. It was not great timing from our perspective.” Oprah: Meaning he was running for the presidency. Rielle says “He was married to someone else. He was in the middle of running for the presidency. It’s not great timing.” Oprah asks if she was hoping to get pregnant with his baby? Rielle says “I don’t know consciously if it was hoping. I was so in love with him. When you’re in love with him, that gets activated.” Oprah asks if they were using birth control? They never used birth control. Oprah says “Well, then. Then you knew it could happen at any time?” Rielle replies “I would have been fine if it happened. I was in love with him.” Oprah asks if John thought she was using birth control and Rielle says no.

Seven months into the pregnancy, a tabloid reporter snapped Rielle’s picture, and their secret was almost exposed. Instead of confessing the truth about Rielle’s pregnancy, a new cover-up was concocted. John’s friend and aide, Andrew Young, claimed paternity. Andrew and his wife, Cheri, went into hiding with Rielle, jetting between hotels and private homes until she gave birth.

The National Enquirer got the picture of her on December 12, [2007],  in North Carolina. Rielle says that John was “extremely angry, and he screamed at me. He’s not a screamer.” Oprah says let’s talk about how the Andrew Young paternity scheme came about. Rielle says “That was exactly in that moment. I was on the phone in Andrew’s office, in Andrew’s house. Johnny was screaming at me on the phone, and Andrew was sitting directly across from me. He said: “Just tell him I’ll say it’s mine. I’ll say it’s mine.” I heard him say that, and I looked at him like he was insane, like I was not even going to repeat it. I thought: “There is no way I’m going to tell him that. You are out of your mind, and that ain’t happening. That was a bridge too far for me. You are not claiming paternity for my child.” Oprah states that Andrew Young describes it a completely different way. He says he got a phone call from John Edwards saying, “Will you do this?” Rielle says “Now, that may have actually happened. But this happened before that… This was the night before that, so somehow Andrew spoke to Johnny after he suggested it to me. Because I didn’t repeat it.”Oprah clarifies “So you’re saying the idea for taking responsibility for being the father of your child came from Andrew Young…Why did you go along with it?” Rielle says “That’s my biggest regret.” Oprah asks again, “Why did you go along with it?” Rielle says, “My biggest mistake. I made a big mistake to go along with it. It took me about three days to get on board. I was fighting tooth and nail. This was just a bridge too far for me… They came back to me and said Cheri had agreed, that I was the only one who was not agreeing. I couldn’t believe Cheri agreed. How could she agree to this? She was my out. I really thought that that would be…” Oprah says “That his wife is not going to agree.” Rielle says “Ever going to go along with that. Ever, ever, ever. And Johnny called me back and said, “Andrew says yes and Cheri’s on board, and you’re the only one who won’t get on board.” It was a horrid time, Oprah. Devastating. Devastating.” Oprah asks “When you finally said yes, you said yes because of what?” Rielle says “Well, because of my daughter… I thought that she had so many things against her. That would be a bad thing for both of them, a really bad thing… If she at all blamed herself for…if he got out of the race because of her, me being pregnant with her. And if he always had that thing in his head, “I could have been president,” and some blame toward her at all. And if she somehow flipped it in her head that it was her fault coming into the world. That was too hard for me. So that was the only reason I said yes.” Oprah says “So you were thinking about your daughter when you said, “Yes, I’m going to go along with Andrew.” Can you honestly say to me that there’s no part of you that was also thinking about yourself in that?”Rielle, wiping away a tear says, “No, I didn’t care. Something happened in me. Maybe it was there all along, but something in our relationship happened when I became pregnant. It did not become about us anymore. It became about her.”

Rielle gave birth on February 27th, 2008, And John Edwards met his daughter on March 19. Rielle says the meeting was  “Filled with love, very emotional for me.” Oprah asks what was it like for her watching him do that interview with Bob Woodruff? Rielle says “It was surreal. It was surreal.” Oprah: And he is asked directly, point blank, “Are you the father of that baby?” Of Quinn. And he lies about it. Rielle: Yes. She says there were a lot of tears when she watched it, she was devastated. Rielle didn’t want him to do the interview, but Elizabeth did. She wanted him to tell the whole truth, but she didn’t know about the baby. He came clean after the interview and told her. Oprah asks who he was afraid of finding out, the public or Elizabeth, and Rielle says Elizabeth. John called Rielle afterwards and said that it didn’t mean anything. Oprah splutters a little. Rielle says that he was trying to fix what was broken- not a defense, but he was trying to hold on while drowning. Oprah says “He’s denied you, denied your child, lied on national television point blank, close up. What makes you think he’s not lying to you?” Rielle replies “ I know him like the back of my hand. I know when someone’s lying. I can feel it. He’s not lying. He’s messed up. He was screwed up. He was trying to make his life one of integrity.

Oprah says “Well, this is making no sense to a lot of people I’m sure. You’re talking about him trying to get to his truth, and all we’re seeing is lies and lies and more lies and more lies.” Rielle says “Right, trying to cover and keep the way life was. “I’m trying to fix it. I’ve got to fix it. I’ve got to make it better, so I’m going to keep lying.” … It wasn’t working. Life had changed, who he was had changed, who he is was changing. The old remedies didn’t work anymore.”

Former aide, Andrew Young dropped a bombshell in January 2010. In his tell-all book, The Politician, Andrew says he and Cheri found a sex tape John made with Rielle. Rielle says the Youngs took the tape from her, but the one thing she doesn’t dispute was that it’s her and John on the video. Oprah says “So let’s talk about the infamous sex tape. First of all, why did you all decide to put yourselves on tape having sex? I’m assuming that’s what’s on the tape, right? Sex.” Rielle says, “There is sex…I don’t think there was a lot of thought going on in the heat of the moment. It was something behind closed doors that was private, and I believe should remain private. So it was meant for that, and then, after the fact of doing this, because of being a public person and because of it being taped, we said: Well, that was not a great idea. Let’s do something to prevent anyone from seeing it, because we don’t want anyone to see our private business. So I took action to destroy the tape and kept it in my personal belongings so no one would get ahold of the tape.” She thought she had destroyed it by cutting it up.

Oprah asks why didn’t you burn it or stomp on it or throw it in the incinerator? Rielle says “Right, that was the first thought now that comes to me, “Why didn’t I burn it?” I have no idea why that thought didn’t occur to me then.”Oprah says, “Tell me this. Was John Edwards upset with you that that tape had not been destroyed?” Rielle replies “I think he’s as mortified or exposed as I am. I mean, it’s not a good thing for either one of us. It’s violating on every single level.”

Just as that media storm was dying down, there was another one. It wasn’t the article in GQ that caused an uproar, it was the photographs. Oprah thought that GQ interview was really a solid representation of Rielle. It was really a good interview, but she couldn’t understand the photos. Rielle says what a mistake that was- huge mistake. Oprah says “It seemed like such a contradiction of what you’re saying in the article. What you’re saying you want us to see, you want us to see that you’re not the home wrecker. You’re not the flashy broad who comes in and takes the politician.” Rielle says “It’s not that I want you to see that. I want to express who I am. And you can see whatever you see. But I’m not those things, and the photos make you believe, or go along with that story line, that that’s who I am. Big mistake. One I will never repeat again. Live and learn.” Oprah says “I know I’m going to sound like Dr. Phil here, but what were you thinking?.. Because you actually have to take your pants off.” Rielle says “Right. What I was thinking was, “I would like to have one sexy shot where the world can see me as a beautiful woman, as opposed to all those photos that are out there of me looking like some Wicked Witch of the West—the ugliest thing you could ever imagine.” So there’s definitely ego in that. Look where ego gets you. Oprah reiterates “Big ego move on your part.” Rielle says “Big ego move. Big mistake. No excuses, though. I made the mistake. I take responsibility for the mistake. It won’t happen again.” Oprah asks “What did Johnny think about those photos?” Rielle says he said, “”Where are your pants?” He knew I was upset about them, but I think that he felt protective. He wished he would have been there to say, “No, don’t do that.””

Oprah asks what’s the status of the relationship now? Rielle says “It’s private., Oprah, it is. Because what we’ve been through, I need a boundary. We need boundaries on our personal lives.” Oprah says she accepts that and says that it seems odd that now John is no longer with his wife, all the secrets could come out- she doesn’t know why Rielle couldn’t say that. Rielle says that she needs boundaries, and that John does see Quinn. Oprah asks Does he know you’re doing this interview and how does he feel about that? Rielle says “He didn’t think it was a great idea, but he supports me if I feel like in my heart I need to do it.” She still loves him very much. Oprah asks if John still loves her? Rielle says “I believe he does. You would have to ask him, but in my experience, the answer is yes… It’s my experience that he loves me. Oprah: Do you trust him? Rielle: Very much. Oprah: Do you want to marry him? Rielle replies “I’m not sure I want to get married ever. I’ve been married, and I mean, I can’t say never. I don’t know if that’s something I want. I don’t need marriage to define who I am. It’s not a pull for me.” Oprah asks “When this is all said and done and we look back on this time of you, Rielle Hunter, the mistress and all of that, what is it you want people to really understand about what has happened here?” Rielle says “All of their feelings that they’re feeling and hatred that’s directed toward me has to do with their fears or their anger and disappointment and sadness about their mother cheating on their father or their father or their husband or their spouse. It has to do with them, and it doesn’t have to do with me, because they don’t know me.” Oprah: Why can’t it just be that they think that it’s wrong? Rielle replies “People can think that it’s wrong for me to do that. They can think it’s wrong for anyone to do that, but it still has to do with them thinking it’s wrong. It doesn’t have to do with me. It’s their judgement… Based upon their life experience, it has to do with them.” Oprah asks What is the lesson in all of this for you? Rielle says “There’s been a lot of them because I have become a better person from the process—more compassionate, more patient, more understanding, more aware. And so has he.” Rielle wants people to know her true authentic self, following her heart. Her intention is never to hurt anyone. Oprah says Do you think you hurt Elizabeth Edwards? Rielle says  “I think Elizabeth has been hurt by this whole process. I think Johnny’s been hurt by the whole process. I think everyone in his family has been hurt by the whole process.” Oprah says “That was really good, but you didn’t answer that question. Do you think you hurt her?” Rielle says “Do I think I hurt Elizabeth? You would have to ask Elizabeth that. I don’t know. I don’t know the answer to that.” Oprah asks Do you regret being a mistress? Rielle says “No, because I learned a lot. It went against every part of who I am and everything I believe, but I learned so much from it. So I don’t regret it, but I would not repeat it.”

Oprah asks Rielle what her life is like now. Rielle is a full-time mom, Quinn gets child support and John helps support Rielle’s life in her house. Oprah asks one more time the status of their relationship and Rielle says that it is private. Oprah thanks her and they shake hands.

WHAT WE LEARNED TODAY:

Rielle Hunter wanted to help John Edwards be more his authentic self so people could see who he really was.

Despite the media scrutiny and Oprah interview, Rielle Hunter is “a really private person” with her personal life.

She believes that you need to get all your ducks in a row and live a life of integrity before you step out into the public.

She does not know if she hurt Elizabeth Edwards or not.

She does not regret anything that happened because she has become a better person from the process—more compassionate, more patient, more understanding, more aware.

A VERY QUICK SUMMARY:

Any issues you may have with the John Edwards/ Rielle Hunter affair/ pregnancy/ cover-up, are to do with you, and that doesn’t have to do with Rielle, because you don’t know her.

Date: May 7th, 2010
File Under: Celebrity, Public Service Announcement, Transformation

Episode 64: Former Miss USA Tara Conner Comes Clean, Plus Todd Bridges

Michael Jackson, Heath Ledger and former child star Corey Haim all shared the same tragic fate—untimely deaths caused by suspected drug use. Former Miss USA Tara Connor is now ready to tell the ugly truth of her addiction, says Oprah.

In 2006, this is exactly what happened. Shortly after being crowned Miss USA, Tara Conner’s unbecoming behavior began to make headlines. The media ran reports of Tara’s underage drinking and drug abuse, as well as scandalous photos of this blonde beauty queen running wild, left many people shaking their heads. Eight months into her yearlong reign, Tara tested positive for cocaine. When business mogul Donald Trump, co-owner of the Miss USA organization, called a press conference, everyone—including Tara—expected him to strip Tara of her crown. Instead, Donald offered her a second chance. Tara agreed to go to rehab. She apologized to her family for this crazy ordeal. During this time, Tara says that she was living a lie. Now, Tara is ready to speak publicly about her path of self-destruction and drug addiction.

She is in the studio with Oprah and says that she had problems from the beginning. “I started using when I was 14 years old. I had my first drink when, I think, I was 14,” she says. “It wasn’t me moving to New York and becoming Miss USA that thrust me into the spotlight and put all this pressure on me. It wasn’t that at all. I had the disease of alcoholism from the get-go.”

“Everyone thought I was professional and this sweet girl who showed up for what I needed to show up for, and I was a pageant girl. Everyone thinks the pageant girls are Polly Purebred perfect,” she says. “You can’t make a mistake, but on the inside, I felt dirty. I felt ashamed. I felt less than, not enough. I was never enough for me.” No one knew that she was doing drugs.  In Kentucky, her drug of choice was pain pills. She says that they were always around her. Oprah says that she has never been offered a pain pill. Tara says that you are the company that you keep. Oprah says that we are conditioned to think that beautiful people don’t have problems, don’t have pain to be suppressed. At age 14, Tara’s parents divorced, and soon after, her beloved grandfather died. “I feel like I was crying out for help, but no one could hear me because everyone was so concerned with their own life,” Tara says. Around this time, Tara says she started cutting to ease the emotional pain building up inside her. “It was a controlled pain,” she says. “For cutters, like if you are having a moment or had a feeling—because, heaven forbid, we feel—it’s a way of controlling what you’re feeling.” She inflicted her own pain.

Oprah asks to go back to the pageant, the moment where she won. Tara says that the moment her name was announced—a moment millions of little girls dream of—Tara says she thought, “What now?” “Honest to God, I didn’t think I was going to win,” she says. Everyone thought Miss California was going to win, including Tara.  “So when they called my name, I just kind of covered my face. … I think, ‘This is what I’m supposed to do.’ But I didn’t even feel it.” Earlier that day, Tara says she’d taken a Xanax and was still feeling the effects. She had slept most of it off, but she was still not feeling pain or anything at all at the time of the ceremony. She did drugs so that she didn’t have to feel her feelings.Tara stood onstage with a smile plastered on her face and tried to hide what she was feeling inside. Oprah and Tara agree that it’s all the same pain, the pain of feelings, being hidden by all addictions.

In the A&E special Fame and Recovery, Tara reveals for the first time what led to her headline-making drug scandal. When she was just 13 years old, Tara started turning heads in Russell Springs, Kentucky, the small town where she was raised. On the advice of a family friend, she began entering beauty pageants. AT 14 her parents divorced and they lost their stable life. In High school she tried Vicodin and found her relief, she loved it. Her mother says that her grades plummeted, they had screaming matches, but then Tara would turn around and win a pageant. If Tara got in trouble at school or her grades started to slip, she says she learned that if she won a pageant, all was forgiven. “My name was in the papers all over again,” she says. “And [people thought], ‘Well, she can’t be a drug addict if she’s winning pageants.’” Tara also discovered that she could numb her feelings with prescription pills like Vicodin. “I started taking Percocet, Xanax, Valium, Klonopin, morphine pills, methadone OxyContin,” she says. “It consumed every minute of my day. There would be times where I could do 30 pain pills in a day.”

Oprah asks how in the world she could take 30 pills a day, Tara says it takes practice and tolerance. The scariest part is when the drug does not take effect any more. Tara agrees that it is a wonder that she is alive. She says that she was usually on drugs when in pageants. Oprah is shocked that Tara could do the walk and the talk and function on so many pain pills. Tara says that it became a way of life.

When she was 14, something awful happened, One night, after drinking and taking pills with a group of friends, Tara found herself alone with a man. “I acted a little bit more wasted than I was so I could go to sleep, because I didn’t want to deal with the guy that was there,” she says. “Then, he picks me up. … I knew something was off, and he was being bizarre, but part of me was just thinking: ‘I wonder what he’s going to do. I wonder how far he’s going to take it.’” Tara says the man carried her from her home to his car. Then, she says he raped her. “I didn’t do anything about it. I just sat there,” she says. “I was like: ‘Wow. Everyone else hurts me. Now, what are you going to do?’ I would bring on all of these situations and put myself through this pain because I felt so dirty, and I felt so ashamed and I felt like damaged goods. I expected these things to happen to me.” That felt normal to her.

Oprah asks how she felt being next to Donald Trump. When Donald called a press conference to address Tara’s positive drug test, she says she thought she was going to lose her crown. Although Tara asked Donald for a second chance, she says she would have been okay either way. “Part of me was like, ‘Wow, all of my skeletons are out there,’” she says. “There’s a freedom that comes with that.”

After hearing Tara’s revelations about her drug use during the pageant, Donald says Tara shouldn’t have won the title. “We didn’t know about her drug use,” he says. “Had we had an idea, she probably wouldn’t have been in the contest to start off with. I’m sure that she would not be Miss USA.” From the beginning of Tara’s reign, Donald says the Miss USA staff wanted her out. Originally, Donald planned on firing her, but after meeting with her in his office, he had a change of heart. “I hated it from the concept of what it would do to somebody’s life,” he says. “I said I was going to give her a second chance. … The biggest backlash I had was not from the public. I think the public liked it. The biggest backlash I had was from the staff.” Donald has personal reasons for his decision. His brother, Fred, who was a  great guy, was an alcoholic. “He had everything, but he got hooked on alcohol, and it killed him,” Donald says. “I believe in second chances, and sometimes it works when you give somebody a second chance. She went from being a disaster to being a terrific Miss USA. But, much more importantly, she sets an example for so many other people that are going through the same thing.”

Oprah asks Tara what she thinks of that. Tara says that it was touching. The organization hated her, she was unloveable at the time. Tara thinks she should have been let go, she didn’t expect the second chance, Donald was good to her. To anyone facing the same battle, Tara says there’s someone out there who feels the same way you do, and there’s help available. “Even if you don’t love yourself at all, other people do love you,” she says. “I’ve had so many people come forward and help me, and I’ve been so fortunate in my life. I don’t feel I deserve any of the good things I got, but apparently I do. And through the course of other people loving me, I learned how to love myself.” Tara cries as she speaks.

Oprah asks Tara if she now thinks that she is enough. Yes, says Tara. “Every day I learn something new about myself, and I prove myself wrong,” she says. “I’m allowing myself to feel. I’m allowing myself to love. I’m allowing myself to feel pain where I wouldn’t before.” Now, Tara is three years sober, and she loves the woman she’s becoming. Oprah thanks Tara and Donald Trump.

Todd Bridges was one of the most famous young actors of the 70‘s and 80‘s, but his reckless behavior made him the poster child for child stars gone bad.  He was just 7 years old when he landed his first acting job. After appearing in dozens of commercials, this talented, precocious child was cast on hit TV shows like The Love Boat and Barney Miller. In the ’70s, Todd also earned the distinction of being one of the first African-American actors to appear on popular series like The Waltons and Little House on the Prairie. After appearing in the groundbreaking mini-series Roots, Todd landed the role of a lifetime. He was cast as Willis Jackson on the sitcom Diff’rent Strokes. Alongside child actors Gary Coleman and Dana Plato, Todd became a household name. The hit series keep audiences laughing for eight seasons. But, when Diff’rent Strokes was canceled in 1986, Todd says he felt like his life was over. Soon after, Todd’s fall from stardom began. This beloved TV star became hooked on crack cocaine and methamphetamines, and he started dealing drugs to support his addiction. Fame quickly turned to infamy as reports of drug abuse and arrests made headlines. Todd was arrested for felony assault and cocaine possession, and in 1989, he faced his most serious charge—attempted murder. Todd was accused of shooting a drug dealer eight times after a cocaine binge, but after two trials and nine months behind bars, he was acquitted. He continued to bounce in and out of jail. Then, in 1992, Todd was arrested yet again, but this time was different. Instead of returning to jail, Todd entered a yearlong drug rehabilitation program. To this day, many people still think of Todd as a poster child for child stars gone bad and remember him for his mistakes, but he says he turned his life around long ago.

This 44-year-old father of two has been clean and sober now for 17 years. In his memoir “Killing Willis.” He says that he cannot escape the role of WIllis. Todd reveals painful, underlying issues that drove his addiction. When Todd wasn’t on the set of Diff’rent Strokes, he says there was little laughter in his life. “The only time when I was happy was when I was on the sets,” he says. “I was going through a lot at the time. I really was hurting.” When he looks back at his decline, he sees all the pain that he was going through, which he couldn’t reveal. Oprah says that we think that child stars and famous people have nothing to complain about.

Oprah asks Todd to read from page 68 of the book, about the sexual molestation he received at age 11. Oprah feels passionately as an abuse survivor that we must educate parents. When she was reading Todd’s story, she found it classic. Todd says he was sexually molested by a family friend when he was just 11 years old, and he’s been trying to cope with the pain ever since. Todd says the grooming process started early. The abuser bought Todd a bicycle and showered him with attention. “He started setting me up for things by telling me that girls were no good and that you could feel the same way with a girl that you could with a guy,” Todd says. At age 11, he knew nothing about sex. Then, after the man gained Todd’s trust and the trust of his parents, the molestation began. In his book, Killing Willis, Todd describes the first time. “‘Pull your pants down,’ he said. I didn’t want to lose everything he had given me. And so I did. He put his mouth on me. I got hard. I didn’t know where to look or how to feel. I squirmed against the back of the seat. He kept on going, getting into it. I hoped it would be over fast. Then it happened. I came. As confused and upset as I was, I liked the feeling,” Todd writes. “I didn’t think about whether it was wrong that a man had done that to me. I just wanted it to be over. I held on to the fact that it felt good.” Todd cries and covers his face with his hand. It’s been more than 30 years since that day, but Todd is still overcome with emotion when discussing his abuse. “I’m past it, but it still hurts,” he says. “It ruined my life. I spent the rest of my time trying to cover up how I felt about it and that pain, and I hated it.” Oprah says that after the break Todd will tell us what is worse than being abused.

From ages 11 to 12, Todd says the man abused him three separate times. The abuser tried to take the place of his father, saying he loved Todd more than his father did. When he tried for the fourth time, Todd fought back. “He wanted to go places, and I didn’t want to go at that point because I knew something was wrong. It just didn’t feel right,” he says. “I remember I was sitting on my living room couch in Baldwin Hills, and my mom was there. He came in the room, and I just jumped on him. I wanted to kill him at that point, because I really felt like I was in such pain, and I wanted to attack him.” Todd attacked his abuser before his mother, Betty, could pull him away. At that moment, she says she realized what had happened. In the audience, she says, “I had been molested myself,” Betty says. “I knew something was wrong. I told him, ‘Leave my house right now.’” When the man refused to leave, Betty says she went into the kitchen and came back with a knife. “I forced him out of the house,” she says. “And I called Todd’s father and told his father what had happened. He didn’t believe it.” Todd’s father accused his son of lying about the abuse. “That really destroyed me because my father was supposed to be my protector. He didn’t protect me. He allowed this man to do this to me and didn’t help me,” he says. He cries. “That was the breaking point for me.” From that moment on, Todd says he was hell-bent on getting even with his father and making him pay for how his accusations made him feel. He says he no longer cared about the abuser, only his father’s reaction. He says that he has kids and if one of them told him they’d been abused then “that man’s dead. There is no way that he’s going to live.” The crowd applaud. Um, yeah, says Oprah. Todd says that he was never a liar, so he didn’t know why his father didn’t believe him. Todd says he thought he was gay after being abused because his first—and only—sexual experience up until that point had been with a man. “I didn’t know because I was thinking, ‘Well, I liked the way it felt, and maybe that’s what I’m into,’” he says. Then, when he was 12 1/2 years old, Todd says he and his co-star Dana Plato began experimenting sexually. “That proved to me that I liked girls,” he says. The audience laugh.

Oprah says that reading the book made it clear to her that Todd’s desire for sex and using and abusing women was connected to the abuse. But, from adolescence on, Todd says his sexual abuse affected the way he treated the women in his life. For years, he used, abused and discarded girlfriends…except one. “There’s only one girl in my life that I had feelings for that I did not want to hurt. Only one woman, and that was Janet [Jackson],” he says. “I backed away from her because she was such a nice person. She was so good to me that I just couldn’t see myself hurting her like that.” Todd says he chose Janet to play his girlfriend on Diff’rent Strokes, and they dated for a short time in the ’80s.

Around this time, when Todd was 15 or 16, he says he began experimenting with drugs. “I wouldn’t do it on the set. I would never do that. I would always wait until the weekends and do it just to try to forget what I was going through,” he says. “When I was on the set, I felt such peace and safety.” Todd says Conrad Bain, the actor who played Mr. Drummond, his father on Diff’rent Strokes, was more of a dad to him than his own father was.

Oprah asks about his father. At home, Todd lived in fear of his father. “Whenever the garage door would start to come open, that’s when we got nervous because we knew my dad was going to be drunk,” he says. “We knew that he was going to be angry, and most times, he was always angry at me.” He would shout and scream and slap Todd on the back of the head, and to this day that is why he will hit someone who slaps him on the back of the head.

When Diff’rent Strokes went off the air in 1986, Todd was a star. Two years later, he says he was living in South Central Los Angeles, the neighborhood where his downward spiral began. He takes the camera crew back to his life. “I had no shoes on, no shirt on, no money in my pocket, and I felt horrible about myself,” he says. “I felt that my life was over.” To support his voracious drug habit, Todd began dealing marijuana, speed, crack and cocaine. “I wasn’t Willis when I was over here. I was Todd Bridges, the drug dealer,” he says. “I was considered a pretty notorious character. I had a .45-caliber MAC-10 I used to carry on me. I had a 9 mm, and if I showed you it and it came out of my waistband, you were shot,” he says. “It was a matter of survival of the fittest.”

He takes the crew to the house he used to deal meth from, and says that he was so paranoid he dug a tunnel from the house to the corner of the street, to get away from the police. “That’s how I would get away from the police,” he says. “Because I knew the police were watching me.”

He shows the crew the payphone that he used to run his whole operation. During this time, Todd says he also employed girls as drug dealers so he could have sex with them. “I was a pimp in a lot of ways. I’m not happy saying that I was, but I was. That’s the reality of it,” he says. “I can’t hide behind what I’ve done wrong, but I can say that everything I did was in the depth of me being loaded.”

He was addicted to crack, and then meth amphetamine. The first time he shot up meth, he had an orgasm. He wanted to feel nothing. After Todd became addicted to meth, he says he cut off contact with his family, holed up in his home and battled vivid hallucinations.

Oprah asks if it is true that Todd used to be recognized all the time. He says people used to recognize him on the street and in crack houses, but he would tell them to shut up and stay away. Todd says he once stayed up for 14 days straight doing drugs, an unimaginable feat that caused psychosis. “I started having grand mal seizures,” he says. “I went into that house, and I started seeing these little green men that came up, and I thought my grandmother had put these inside my house, underneath it. I was chasing them. I was shooting at them.”

Oprah asks how it was to see her boy in this state. Betty says she had no idea what was happening to her son. “He disappeared. I didn’t know where he was,” she says. “I did know that he was gone on drugs, and I just went into prayer, and I said to God, ‘If you want to take him, take him.’ I don’t want to see him like that.” She said she is giving her son back to God, Todd puts his head in his hands.

Oprah asks Todd what saved him. He got arrested and he was offered by the judge to go to jail or rehab.  He went to rehab again, thinking it would never work and after a violent episode he ended up being put in a straightjacket and a diaper. Oprah asks if there is anything more demoralizing than being strapped in four ways wearing only a diaper? No, “nothing more demoralizing,” he says. “I said, ‘This is a far cry from being Willis Jackson.’” As he lay there, Todd realized something had to change. “I go: ‘This has got to stop. I’ve got to get my life together,’” he says. “And another voice came and said, ‘Just give yourself time.’ He says. ‘I want you to learn to listen.’ And I was like, ‘Well, listen to who?’ He goes, ‘Listen to who I put in front of you.’” By the third day he couldn’t hold it anymore and he pooped in the diaper. He was 26, this was “not cool.” Oprah says that everyone has stories of not being loved enough. She says that he got so much love, but not from his father. Since Todd says he never got enough love from his own father, he focuses on being positive and present with his own children. “I tell them I love them. I hug them. When my son wakes in the morning, he doesn’t have to worry about whether his dad’s in a bad mood,” he says. “I give him a hug and talk with him, because I don’t want him to be missing what I was missing.”

Todd, Gary and Dana, the child stores from Different Strokes all have had terrible issues with drugs and more, Dana died from an overdose. Oprah asks if they were all cursed. Todd says that they all had similar backgrounds. Todd has a very strong mother, and unfortunately the others don’t. He says that it was not a curse because he has been sober for 17 years. He is upset that people still judge him on his past. In Killing Willis, Todd says he makes his pain and mistakes known so people realize what he’s gone through to get to this point. “I accept full responsibility,” he says. “I made some stupid decisions and some horrible choices. But my question always is: ‘How long is the media going to continue to make me pay for it? What do I have to do?’”

He saved someones life and still his past baggage was brought up- sensationalism sells he said. He says that his life is great. Money is sometimes a worry. Oprah asks if he gets money from TV reruns. He got a check for $400 for Little House, Different Strokes he gets maybe $2 an episode and no DVD money. Oprah thanks him.

WHAT WE LEARNED TODAY:

Even beautiful people and rich people and child stars have problems.

All addictions are attempts to hide the pain of feelings.

Even if you don’t love yourself at all, other people do love you.

You are the company that you keep.

There is nothing more demoralizing than being restrained in a straitjacket and wearing only a diaper.

A VERY QUICK SUMMARY:

If you are a poster child for child stars gone bad, you may always be remembered for your mistakes.

Date: May 6th, 2010
File Under: Public Service Announcement, Relationships, Transformation

Episode 63: A Rhodes Scholar, A Convicted Murderer: The Ultimate Twist of Fate

Did you ever wonder how many people have the same name as you and how their lives are different to yours? Actually you can Google to find out names., says Oprah. “When you hear this story, it’s going to turn the way you think about free will and fate upside down,” Oprah says. The similarities are striking. Two boys from Maryland were raised by single mothers in rough neighborhoods. Surrounded by drug dealers, gun violence and gang activity, each man struggled to make a name for himself. The name? Wes Moore. These men may share a name, but they had very different destinies. One Wes Moore is a Rhodes Scholar, a White House fellow and a Wall Street hotshot. The other Wes Moore was convicted of killing a police sergeant and will spend the rest of his days in a 6-by-8-foot prison cell.

As a toddler, Wes, the book’s author, had a loving family, successful parents and a nice home in Maryland. Then, when he was just 3 years old, his life took a dramatic turn. His father died suddenly from a rare virus. Unable to raise three children on her own, Wes’ mother, Joy, moved her family to the Bronx to live with her parents. Crack was just moving into the neighborhood. They saw so much fighting, both dogs and people, and there was a lot of drugs- so much that Wes says that they didn’t even notice it anymore. Joy enrolled her children in a respected private school across town in an attempt to protect them from the drugs and gangs infiltrating their neighborhood. Young Wes soon discovered how hard it was to straddle both worlds. “I was very lost during that period,” Wes says. “I found myself quickly becoming too rich for the kids in the neighborhood and too poor for the kids at school.” Wes became a troublemaker. He says he set off smoke bombs in lockers, skipped school and was even picked up by the police. When Joy realized she was starting to lose her son, she decided to take action. After years of telling Wes she would send him away to military school, she made good on her threat. Wes’ grandparents mortgaged their home so they could afford to send their 12-year-old grandson to a Pennsylvania military school.

“I didn’t want to be there,” Wes says. “I ran away five times in the first four days, but I started to begin to think about why I was there and about the opportunity that this was to really reshape my identity and do something different.”Over the next six years, the troubled teen grew into an academic superstar and community leader. When Wes graduated, he was the highest-ranking student out of 750 military cadets…and his accomplishments didn’t end there. Wes landed an internship with the mayor of Baltimore and earned degrees in international relations and economics from Johns Hopkins University. Then, at age 22, he was awarded a Rhodes Scholarship to study at the University of Oxford.

The semester before Wes left for Oxford, he was studying abroad in South Africa when he heard about another man called Wes Moore. On February 7, 2000, a jewelry store robbery ended with the murder of an off-duty Baltimore police officer, Sgt. Bruce Prothero. Bruce was chasing four armed robbers when he was shot at point-blank range. He left behind a wife and five young children. One of the men wanted in the police officer’s murder was also named Wes Moore. Joy says she was terrified for her son. “There are wanted posters all over our neighborhood looking for ‘Wes Moore,’” she says.

Investigators were on the hunt for four suspects, including a man named Wes Moore and his brother Tony. After 12 days on the run, the Moore brothers were captured. To avoid the death penalty, Tony pled guilty to the shooting and was sentenced to life in prison. The other Wes Moore, a career criminal, claimed he was not at the murder scene, but he eventually was found guilty of first-degree felony murder.

That Wes Moore remains in prison, the other went on to have a very successful career and has written a powerful new book, “The Other Wes Moore.” Oprah welcomes Wes to the studio and congratulates him. Oprah asks him how disconcerting it is to know that the police are looking for someone in your neighborhood with your name? Wes says he was haunted by his criminal counterpart’s story. “It was something I couldn’t escape,” he says. “It was something that just kept on eating at me. I knew I just had to learn more, and I had to understand: How did this happen? How did two kids from similar neighborhoods, from similar type of backgrounds, end up in completely different places?”

Years later, after Wes finished his time at Oxford and began a career in finance, he decided to reach out to the other Wes Moore. “I said: ‘You know what? The fact that this is still eating at me means I need to do something about it,’” he says.In 2005, Wes wrote the other Wes Moore a three-page letter and mailed it to him at the Jessup Correctional Institution. The letter started with a simple introduction: “Dear Wes: Please allow me to introduce myself. My name is Wes Moore, and I learned about you through articles in the Baltimore Sun. … The coincidence of us having the same name was what initially caught my attention. But it was the other details that drove me to want to learn more.” The day after he mailed the letter, Wes says he thought he’d made a mistake. “I wasn’t sure how he’d react,” he says. “I thought, in retrospect, even after I wrote the letter I thought my questions seemed odd.”

To his surprise, Wes received a response from the other Wes Moore one month later. “He first just thanked me for reaching out to him. He said, ‘When you’re in here, you think people don’t even know you’re alive anymore,’” Wes says. “He said how much it meant for him to receive that letter, and then he just began to rattle off answers to the questions I asked.” Wes learned more about this convicted murderer’s mother, brother and children. Over time, the first letter sparked dozens more. After exchanging dozens of letters, Wes decided to visit the other Wes Moore in prison. “Having the chance to actually see and sit across from the other Wes Moore was something that was just a completely surreal experience,” he says. When he had to give his photo ID to visit Wes, it was strange to visit someone with the same name who is no relation. He says that you never forget the sounds and feel of a high security correctional facility. At first, Wes says they were cautious around each other. “We were telling each other answers that we thought the other person wanted to hear,” he says. Then, Wes’ questions got more pointed and poignant. Wes asked the other Wes Moore things like, “When did you first know you were a man?” “The time he first realized was when he felt like there were actually other responsibilities that he had on his shoulders,” Wes says. “Then, I remember him throwing the question back at me, and it was a question I hadn’t even really fully thought about yet. I think both of us were talking about … not having fathers in the home.” Oprah thought that was an interesting point- the other Wes Moore said his father chose not to be in his life, while Wes’ father died. He only has two memories of his father, once when he was 3 and he hit his sister and his mom sent him up to his room and his father came up and explained that you don’t hit women, and took him downstairs to apologize. The only other memory he has is when he watched his father die.

The day after receiving his prestigious honor, the Baltimore Sun ran a story about Wes. “they did a piece on my life and my childhood and how I was a local kid who had just received this full scholarship to Oxford,” he says. “But the thing that really hit me was, at the same time, there was a whole series of articles about the murder of a police officer.” One day he decided to write a note to the other Wes Moore. The unlikely relationship started when Wes in prison wrote back, 5 years ago. Oprah shakes Wes’ hand and says that he is a writer too.

Wes set out to discover how two men with similar backgrounds and the same name could lead such different lives. Now, he knows there’s no simple answer.  “I think raising children is complicated,” Wes says. “I think particularly in this environment, and particularly for those who grow up in the most precarious communities, it is a very challenging and daunting prospect to raise a child.” Wes credits his family and mentors for his success. “I was so fortunate and lucky to have people in my life who said: ‘You know what, Wes? We’re going to get you across that finish line, kicking and screaming if we need to. But we’re going to get you across that finish line,’” he says. “They were there for support. They were there to give my mother the leverage that she needed.”

Oprah would have thought that he would conclude that he had education and exposure. “I think education taught me critical thinking. I think education showed me a world I never knew existed,” Wes says. “My grandfather used to say that education is like a skeleton key. If you can get that skeleton key, it can open any door. The fact that his grandparents were wise enough to know how important and valuable it was to get  him out of the environment. They didn’t give up, and his mom was desperate. Oprah says that she was in Milwaukee for a while with her mother and she got a scholarship to a school in the suburbs, where she was one of two black kids and had to ride the bus home with the maids. It has very hard to straddle these two lives at a time when you are just finding out who you are, she knows how Wes felt.

When Wes ran away from the military school for the 5th time, he ended up in tears in the woods. He was allowed one call home, and he called his mom to ask if he could come back. She said no, because too many people had sacrificed in order for him to be there. He decided that he could give it a shot, and here he is today.

The prison where the other Wes Moore is serving his life sentence denied The Oprah Show’s request for an interview because he’s a convicted murderer and the relatives of the police sergeant did not want him interviewed. “I certainly respect that,” Oprah says.

Oprah started the show by asking what people whose names are shared have different lives. Oprah asks how they are similar? After dozens of meetings and letters, Wes uses his knowledge to speak to the other Wes Moore’s character. “He’s is very similar to a lot of us,” Wes says. “He’s conflicted. He loves his children. He loves his mother.” In fact, Wes says he was surprised to discover how men in such different positions are ultimately more alike than they are different.

“That was actually one of the things I really discovered about Wes as I first got to know him— just how similar we were,” he says. “I realized how passionate he is about his children and how much he wants to help other people who are now in prison.”

One of the most jarring moments in the relationship was when 34 year old other Wes met his 3 year old grandchild. Wes had his first child when he was 16, and his daughter had his grandchild at 16. Wes’ mother had her first child at 15. The cycle has not been broken, says Oprah.

Wes’ book is in bookstores as of today. The Oprah Show asked their mothers how their lives came to be so different. Mary Moore, the mother of the other Wes Moore, says she lost control of her son when he was just a boy. While the single mother worked to support her family, she says her children were left home with little supervision. “I could barely afford to pay bills, nevertheless a babysitter,” she says. Joy Moore needed more support after her husband died so she decided to move to New York. Mary says that “the trouble was here. It was all around, so you couldn’t avoid it.” Joy was trying to shield her son from the drugs around but she was losing the battle. Mary was losing the battle when her son stopped going to school. Mary says her son became involved with drugs and started committing crimes when he was just 11 or 12 years old. “He figured that doing crime, selling drugs was a way out…a way to get the things that we couldn’t afford,” she says.

Joy speaks of the military school threats which became real. Mary couldn’t give her kids the supervision that they needed. Joy says that kids need to think that you care before they care what you think. That was her motivation.

Mary and Joy hug each other on the Oprah stage. Joy says that she has wondered about Mary since the first letter that was shared with her. Joy says the fact that Mary got accepted into John Hopkins as an African American woman and couldn’t go, was a terrible thing to learn. Mary was curious when she heard Wes was trying to find out about her son. Oprah asks her if there were things she could have done differently. Looking back, Mary says she wishes there were some things she’d done differently. “I just wasn’t aware of the options that were out there,” she says. “I didn’t have the resources. I didn’t have the education. I didn’t have the support.” She says that her son is doing well in prison, He is now a muslim, he is mentoring, he has ideas. Mary says that she does think what could have happened to her son if he had turned out more like this Wes. Wes has always claimed that he wasn’t at the crime scene, says Wes in the studio.

Wes in the studio was reluctant to write the book and dig into both of their lives, but he thought about the phrase, “all it takes for evil to conquer is for good people to do nothing.” Wes in jail said that he had wasted all his opportunities. Oprah thinks about how the family of the police sergeant, and what they will feel in this. “I think when you read the book and you understand the stories, you see that in no way is this a glorification,” he says. “There are important lessons that can be learned from this story,” says Wes. The facts that Wes gets one hour of visitors, two hours of outside time, and is away from his family is not glory.

Wes says he certainly learned one chilling truth—the other Wes Moore’s story could have been his. “After doing 200 hours of interviews with Wes and his family and my friends and my family, I realized how little separates us from another life altogether,” he says. “Had it not been for some significant and pretty creative intervention in my life and a lot of luck and support, and quite honestly, some tentative steps in the right direction, I could have easily gone down the wrong path.” Oprah thanks them all.

Oprah asks how much your name changes who you are? Would Oprah still be Oprah if her name was Susie or Jane? Does the name Oprah have anything to do with who she has become? Jim Killeen, an out of work actor, Googled himself, found 24 others with the same name around the world and decided to seek out some of them. He thinks there is something in the human condition that unites them. He hired a camera crew and producer to follow his journey. He meets a retired detective called Jim Killeen in New York, a CEO Jim in Australia, Jim a Catholic priest in Ireland, an engineer in Scotland who also looks like him, St Louis Jim, a father of 8, Jim a self-proclaimed swinger in Denver. In all he met 6 men and asked each of them, what is man’s purpose? Jim in Australia says to find soulful ways of living and being, Jim in St Louis says to serve others, Scottish Jim says to be the best person he can be for his family, Irish Jim says our purpose as human beings is to love.

Oprah asks why that question- Jim says that he asked 30 questions. Oprah asks if he feels a special connection to other people called Jim, and he says yes, he feels like there is a Jim club. Oprah says Jim, John and Mary are all big clubs. He says that Jim Killeen is great because it is a small club. Oprah asks what he learned about himself in the process? He was single and his father had just passed away and along the way he found that people are basically good- it was a self-selective group because the nasty Jim Killeen’s maybe didn’t reply. Oprah says that the journey is a documentary, Google Me, and that anyone can Google themselves.

He asks them about religion, their favorite drink, their age and weight. Oprah asks if it was difficult to track them down. Jim says that it starts off as a rope that gets thinner to a thread and then it breaks and you can’t track down any further. Jim feels that there are universal thing that people have, all the Jims’ wanted to make the world better place. And they were all generous enough to allow him and the film crew into their homes and lives. All seven Jim’s gathered in Killeen, Texas, confusing the receptionist considerably. They didn’t expect to feel such a great connection but they did. They found it was magic. Jim had everyone’s DNA tested and found that the person that he looked least like, the Priest, he was related too.  What a world, says Oprah, thanks Jim Killeen.

Oprah had never met anyone called Oprah except for one time in a mall when someone said that her daughter was called Oprah but she didn’t know how to spell it.  A few years ago, Oprah met a 12 year old girl, “the other Oprah Winfrey.” Linda Winfrey, her mom, said that she was named after a positive role model. Oprah said that she didn’t like her name as a child, but little Oprah likes her name because Oprah is a great role model. She says that she has always liked her name and she loves school. Little Oprah is now 15 and she still loves her name.

Oprah has a No Phone Zone Pledge check in. Teresa from Boulder Colorado signed last week, and she has started singing in the car again. She thanks Oprah for starting the campaign. Oprah says that we should all sing. Anyone can upload a video with a tip to Oprah.com. Goodbye everybody.

WHAT WE LEARNED TODAY:

Oprah reveals that you can Google your name to see if anyone else has the same name.

Support your children and educate them: education is like a skeleton key. If you can get that skeleton key, it can open any door.

Kids need to think that you care before they care what you think.

Would Oprah still be Oprah if her name was Susie?

Maybe the Oprah Show producers have never heard of Dave Gorman.

A VERY QUICK SUMMARY:

Other people share your name! Google them! They are just like you! Or you know, maybe they are not.

Date: May 5th, 2010
File Under: Celebrity

Episode 62: Celebrities Go Back to Their First Jobs

Some of TV’s biggest stars are going back to their first jobs today. First up is Brooke Burke, co-host of Dancing with the Stars. Oprah welcomes Brooke and comments that she is tiny in real life. Brooke says not as tiny as when she was dancing. Brooke calls it the nerve diet, it’s stressful and hard to keep weight on when you are dancing all the time. Brooke visualized getting the hosting job, it was on her bucket list- she put it out there on her blog and let herself be vulnerable. Another thing on her bucket list was coming on Oprah. Brooke loves her job, she gets to dress like a princess two days a week. She has 4 kids, ages  2, 3, 8 and 10. She does the carpool, goes to work and is back in time for bed, which is very lucky.

Brooke takes the Oprah cameras to the dress rehearsal of Dancing with the stars. Kate Gosselin talks about the science of spray tanning. Nicole talks of the costume designers who work magic. They are sewn into their costumes. Tony show how the male abs are accentuated by make up. The dancers wear hair extensions. Pamela Anderson is enjoying it, she is fully clothed. Thanks for letting them back there, says Oprah.

Brooke was rooting for Kate, as a mother Brooke had so much admiration for what she did. To go out and get bashed for what you are doing is hard. It was an emotional night when she went. Oprah says that everyone seems worried about Pamela Anderson’s wardrobe in case of malfunction. Brooke confirms that the stars do get paid, and the longer they are there the more they get. But at the end of it is the confidence of knowing that you became a dancer in three months.

Before she was a dancer, Brooke landed a part-time job at her hometown pretzel shop. She was 15 years old and “did everything. I baked the pretzels. I worked the cash register. I cleaned up the place.” More than 20 years later, Brooke rolls up her sleeves to see if she still has what it takes to make a tasty twist. Brooke reports for duty at an Auntie Anne’s Pretzels shop to train with Farid. After donning a signature blue apron, Brooke learns to make pretzel dough. “When I worked at Mr. Pretzel, they were frozen,” she says. “I just had to thaw the pretzels out and then pop them in the oven and bake them.” Once the dough is ready, Brooke tackles the hard part—the twist! Farid says he can twist 40 pretzels in just three minutes, but it takes Brooke a little longer to perfect her technique.  She dips the unbaked pretzels in the “secret solution.” Derek Hough from Dancing With the Stars comes in to learn from her to to twist. The staff rate their technique, they get a 3, 5 and a 4.

“It’s all in your wrists,” she says. “It’s not easy.” Brooke shows Oprah who twists and twists. They have a twist off in the audience, Brooke chooses three people to twist the perfect pretzel in 15 seconds.  Brooke demonstrates. The women make their pretzels. Edna won. She is going to go with a guest to the season finale of Dancing with the Stars. Edna screams and hugs Oprah. Oprah announces that there are Auntie Anne’s pretzels for everyone in the audience.

Before she became the queen of Southern cuisine, Food Network superstar Paula Deen was barely making ends meet at her first job as a bank teller. Paula started cashing checks and depositing paychecks at age 18. To relive her humble beginnings, Paula clocks in at a bank in Studio City, California, for an afternoon behind the counter. After taking a tour of the vault, Paula reports for duty armed with supplies. “I brought some of my wonderful oatmeal cookies here,” she says. “I can always bribe my customers if they get aggravated with me or something.” Paula chats with the customers, makes jokes and asks someone to sign the No Phone Zone pledge for Oprah.  “The clients loved Paula,” branch manager Anna says. “She was funny; she was friendly. I would hire Paula Deen in a second.” For two and a half hours, Paula counted cash with ease. “It has been 23 years since I’ve been in a bank, and it felt like I was gone 23 minutes,” she says.

Paula did it off and on for twenty years. When Paula was a teller, she made $5 an hour. “I got paid twice a month, and my check was $379.18,” she says. Wow, says Oprah. Oprah says that is less than she was making. Oprah asks how she dreamed bigger for herself. “When I started the business 21 years ago, I just wanted my children and I to be able to pay our bills and buy groceries. While I was raising my boys, I taught them that they could be or do anything they wanted to be,” she says. “While I was selling this to them, I don’t know that I was buying it myself. Because I didn’t know I could dream big. I didn’t know that. I know it now.” Now, Paula has some simple advice for anyone with a dream. “Go for it,” she says. “There’s no sin in failing, but the sin is in never trying.” The crowd applaud.

Coming up the delicious meal that Paula made for her sons when times were tough, says Oprah. And I still make it, laughs Paula. Paula shows Oprah how to make her Hash Brown Casserole that she used to make when on a tight budget. Oprah is excited by the words “hash brown” and “casserole”. Oprah sautés the onions in butter and then they add some frozen hash browns. In the other pan they have sausage cooking. Paula makes an egg custard with 8 eggs, mustard, nutmeg, salt and pepper and milk. Oprah says that she likes to cook. Oprah sprays the casserole dish with oil. She has cheddar, parmesan and bread cubes. Oprah puts the onions and potatoes in the casserole dish. Oprah says that she loves to hear Paula talk with her Southern accent. Paula says that Ryan Seacrest and Paula are from the same state and yet talk so different, because she never had voice lessons. Paula puts in the sausage, bread and custard, tops it with cheese and bakes at 350 degrees for 45 minutes. Some of the cheddar is reserved to add 10 minutes from the end. They put it in the oven and take out one that is already done “in Paula world.” Wow, wow, wow, says Oprah as Paula cuts her a hunk. “Y’all can make this tonight for dinner,” shouts Oprah. They give it to Brooke to fatten her up. Oprah mentions Paula’s new book about interior decorating with Southern charm. They tell Brooke to eat all of the casserole.

Before he mentored American Idol contestants on how to carry a tune, Randy Jackson carried, stocked and shelved groceries as a 13-year-old in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. He “worked in a little mom-and-pop grocery store,” he says. He goes to the store he will be working in and reads the rules, saying that he can’t wear jewels.  “I’m going to teach him how to bag,” his co-worker Matt says. “It’s been awhile since he’s done it, so I’ll make sure he’s not too rusty.” As the line grows longer, Randy takes orders from his cashier, Isabel. “Speed it up a little, dawg,” she says. When he’s not bagging, Randy’s hard at work stocking shelves and helping customers to their cars. “I’m perspiring already, man,” Randy says. “It’s a lot harder than I remember.” Randy’s return to the checkout line taught him an important lesson. “Treat people how you want to be treated. They’re in there grocery shopping. There’s no excuse for any kind of attitude,” he says. “A little bit of kindness goes a long, long way.”

Oprah talks to Randy via Skype. It feels like I never left it,” he says. “But you’re glad you did,” says Oprah. Yes, Randy agrees. Oprah asks if working young gives you a sense of appreciation when you make it big. Randy says working at an early age helped him get where he is now. “I was working in a family grocery store for my uncle and my dad, so there was no free ride given,” he says. “So I think at an early age when you can learn to work hard, I think that work ethic definitely helps you throughout the rest of your life.” Randy is having a blast on Idol this year and he loves Ellen. He’s still close with Paula Abdul who is doing well. Oprah asks if Randy will miss Simon- of course, he is one of Randy’s dearest friends, but they will be friends for life. Oprah asks what the future is for American Idol. Randy says that it has a long future, it can thrive alongside Simon’s other show. He is having a great time, he loves it, he’s having a blast. Thanks says Oprah.

She jumped out of a plane, danced with the Dallas Cowboys’ cheerleaders and got naked on a beach, all for her job. But can Ali Wentworth survive a day with Oprah’s production team? Ali has her ID badge, it is 6am and she has to check in the studio audience. Next she has a pre-show meeting to go over team assignments. Ali preps Jenna from J.Crew. 80lbs of cake have to be cut,  plated and ready to go. Ali is in charge of the waiters  serving the cake. Next she has to have the flowers come out. Ali has one final job to go into the voiceover booth with Oprah to do the voiceover for the TV stars to go back to their old jobs. Oprah talks to Ali via Skype, asking if she learned a lot. Ali says that she was so stressed out she couldn’t wait to get back to motherhood. She says that the show looks so gorgeous and seamless. She says that now watching Paula Dean she is thinking of the 8 producers running around behind the scenes in high heels. Ali says that all jobs are stressful but as everyone as manically running around, they are vivacious and have smiles on their face. Ali says that she is not licking the hand that feeds her, but it does trickle down from the top. Thanks Ali, says Oprah.

Oprah asked all her guests to take the No Phone Zone pledge, and they all signed it. In the past 3 months, 63 celebrities have signed it along with almost 200,000 viewers. April 30th is National No Phone Zone Day. Oprah thanks everyone, and says bye.

WHAT WE LEARNED TODAY:

Brooke Burke says that making a bucket list and being vulnerable pays off: She wanted to come on the Oprah Show, she put it on her list and now she’s on the Oprah Show.

Paula Dean says There’s no sin in failing, but the sin is in never trying.

Randy from American Idol says treat people how you want to be treated.

Randy  thinks that a strong  work ethic definitely helps you throughout the rest of your life.

The Oprah Winfrey show may look like a seamless production, but there are many people running around behind the scenes to make it happen.

A VERY QUICK SUMMARY:

Celebrities are just like us! They have first jobs too! They worked in banks and pretzel shops and grocery stores. And now they can laugh at those wages.

Date: May 4th, 2010
File Under: Celebrity, Entertainment
1 comment

Episode 61: Fridays Live with Jordan’s Queen Rania and Melissa Etheridge

It’s Friday and they are live in Chicago. Thank you, says Oprah. So, like many others, she is a working mother who carpools and makes a mean chocolate chip cookie, but she lives in a palace. Take a look. Queen Rania of Jordan is one of the most intriguing and beautiful women on the planet. She has 1 1/2 million followers on Facebook, You Tube and Twitter,- she is plugged in to social media. Born in Kuwait to middle-class Palestinian parents, Rania al Yassin was busy pursuing her own career when she met Jordan’s Prince Abdullah at a dinner party. Five months later, 22-year-old Rania married the prince and started a family. In 1999, Jordan’s ailing King Hussein made a shocking announcement, and named his son, Prince Abdullah—not his own brother—as heir to the throne. At 28 years old, Rania became the world’s youngest queen.

It’s been a few years, says Oprah but we welcome her back, “Welcome back Her Majesty Queen Raina”. Oprah says that it must be great to be queen, Queen Raina says there are good days.  Queen Rania says she doesn’t think of herself as royalty at heart. “Eighty percent of my life is normal like any other mother. I worry about my children, if they’re doing all right. I worry that my husband is doing well,” she says. “The 20 percent is just the queen aspect that factors in. But for me, it’s life as usual and it’s just taking care of my family.” Oprah asks if she has anything to worry about. She thinks about the 6 million people in her country and the issues that affect them. It is overwhelming sometimes. Queen Rania says her day begins like any other mom’s—getting the kids ready for school. “There’s a typical mayhem in the morning of taking care of the children, making sure they’re ready for school and they’ve had their breakfast and everything,” she says. “I have some help, but there’s some things that only a mother can do.”Once the kids are off to school, Queen Rania says she has a little time to herself. “I go into my email, check my Twitter, all that kind of thing,” she says. “If I have the energy, I’ll do a little bit of exercise.” Oprah asks what she Tweets about? Oprah says that she is too busy to use Twitter. Queen Raina finds that her online self is easier to get close to- her title keeps people at a distance. She finds that being online demystifies what she does and open a window into her life. She wants to hear how people really are, and reaching so many people changes how things work. She can reach out and use it as a good tool to educate and break down the barrier between East and West. “My virtual self can get closer to people easier than my real self,” she says. “People sometimes think of queen as a title that’s shrouded with protocol and formality, and for that reason sometimes people are not easily saying what they want to say. They’re reluctant to express their opinions, and I kind of find that frustrating because I want to know what people really, really think. “Being online “creates a space where titles mean little and people can just say what they want,” she says. “It opens a window to my life and opens a window for me into other people’s lives so I can see what people are thinking or what the sentiment out there is all about.”

Last month she hosted a fabulous event with a star studded guest list where she took Nicole Kidman and Hugh Jackman and others to her favorite places in Jordan. She shows Oprah some photographs of the Dead Sea, the desert, one of the Seven Wonders of the World, the beach. She says that there are many diverse experiences in such a small country. When people come to the Middle East, she says that people are always surprised by the warmth of the welcome they receive. In Bedouin culture, hospitality is the highest virtue. It is important for them to have happy guests, and they serve great food, so don’t go there to lose weight.

In July 2009, it was announced that Queen Rania’s oldest son, Prince Hussein, would be heir to the throne of Jordan. Queen Rania admits she had mixed feelings about the decision. “A mom part of me wants him to just have a normal life and just have the normal teenage experience and have friends and not have any pressure,” she says. “But another part of me understands that by having the title, he can learn more about the people, the problems and the protocol of our country.” Oprah asks how to raise kind, warm generous kids whe they are born with a lot? Queen Rania says she works hard to keep her children grounded. “With my son, I make sure that he understands that he, at the end of the day, needs to be a decent guy,” she says. “He needs to be compassionate and inclusive.” Queen Rania says she most hopes her son learns that it’s more important to be likable than popular. “Being popular comes when you have everything,” she says. “But to be liked, it means that you must be treating people with respect and you must be showing kindness toward them.”

Oprah asks what they do to whoop it up for the night. Queen Rania says their favorite thing to do is stay in for a movie night. “Just sitting around eating popcorn,” she says. She liked Avatar, as did Oprah. “The Hurt Locker was great. The Hurt Locker was filmed in Jordan, actually.” Oprah asks what she eats to pig out- not that she looks like she pigs out. Queen Raina says she loves chocolate and peanut butter and jelly. She has a good appetite, she is not a picky eater. To help teach tolerance, Queen Rania wrote a new children’s book, The Sandwich Swap. The story of two little girls who learn a lesson in tolerance when they swap sandwiches. The story is based on something that happened to the queen herself when she was 5 years old.

Queen Raina says that it is nearly 10 years since 9/11. It was a horrible day that “shook humanity.” “We’re still suffering from the aftershocks. There was the physical stuff that we saw—the destruction, the death,” she says. “But there was invisible stuff—the fear that entered our hearts. The mistrust that we view when we see new places or new faces. The suspicion that informs our decisions.” All of a sudden, anyone who was different became more visible. This to Queen Raina is one of the cruelest legacies of that event because it changed the world, changed what is between East and West. At the time, she was a new queen and she was feeling her way through and was suddenly bombarded with questions. It made her realize that there is such a lack of understanding between both sides. The fact that Queen Raina can transition so easily between East and West is probably because of her upbringing. “I went to an international school, and I used to go every day and at lunchtime I would proudly open my lunch box to find my hummus sandwich,” she says. Oprah asks her to explain what hummus is. Oprah likes to use it as a dip. “The girl sitting next to me, she was eating something that I thought looked horrible. It was just this gooey, pasty, brown-purpley stuff.” Queen Raina felt sorry for her, One day, the girl offered Queen Rania a bite. “I didn’t want to hurt her feelings, so I kind of scrunched up my face and closed my eyes and took a bite. And then I wanted to take another bite,” she says. Which is when her love affair with peanut butter and jelly started. She was 5 years old. “On a subconscious level, I think I understood that I shouldn’t fear the unknown, that I shouldn’t judge something without trying it.” From that point on she began to embrace differences. Oprah says that in the book animosity arises from the sandwich and they begin to call each other names and make judgements about other things. For Queen Raina, that is a metaphor between east and west. There is so much animosity, and the sandwiches also show what can happen with the peanut butter and hummus. It’s a simple childhood story that Queen Rania says adults in the East and West can learn from. “If we don’t look each other in the eye, if we keep our backs to each other, then we’re never going to see face to face,” she says. “I think that that’s a tragedy and we all stand to lose by that.”

Oprah says that Queen Raina seems so wise and yet she is not yet forty. Queen Rania says that she is almost 40. She says she still feels like a kid inside. Oprah says that she always will, it’s just a number.  “The lines crept on my face when I wasn’t looking,” Queen Rania says. “Now when I go to department stores and the saleswoman’s like, ‘Do you want to try this anti-wrinkle cream?’: ‘Who is she talking to? She must be talking to somebody else.’” Still, Queen Rania says she’s ready to embrace aging. “We’re programmed to believe that time is the enemy, that it takes away from us or that it diminishes us,” she says. “I have found that it’s done the opposite to me. Life is in perfect balance. It’s just that our perception of it isn’t.” With time she has more confidence, she is more sure footed, she can put things in perspective and not worry about the small stuff. Oprah says that it only gets better, the confidence when you turn 40 gets bigger and you become more of yourself. Queen Raina wants to embrace it and enjoy it. Oprah says that she makes 40 look really good. Queen Raina has agreed to sign the No Phone Zone Pledge, the first queen to do so. Oprah signs the Queen’s One Goal petition for education because when you educate a girl and save her life, you educate a community. She thanks Queen Raina.

She’s a powerhouse and her new album Fearless Love hits stores this week. Grammy-winning artist Melissa Etheridge has been rocking out for more than 20 years. Come on out Melissa, says Oprah. Oprah asks how she is doing, and Melissa says that she is alright. Nine years were spent with her wife, Tammy Lynn Michaels; recently, Melissa and Tammy announced they were breaking up, and Melissa says she’s ready to talk about it. In seven minutes, says Oprah. Melissa knows that you can’t distill a relationship in a few minutes. “People really want that sound bite of this happened and that happened and he said and she said and something like that, but it’s not that simple,” she says. “It’s about growth, and it’s certainly not even fair of me to stand here and tell my story when Tammy doesn’t have an opportunity.”  Melissa says the breakup was mutual. “As mutual as those things can be. It’s sad, and we share two children and she will always be in my life,” she says. “She’s a wonderful woman and an incredible mother.”

Oprah asks if it is true that when women break up there is a mutual understanding about the sharing of the children and not as much fighting. Melissa says that she doesn’t know about that but she and Tammy both agree that the children come first. “We want to do all the things that are best to keep our children healthy and secure,” she says. With every life experience, like a breakup, Melissa says she learns more about personal growth. “As I’ve gone through this life, having gone through breast cancer almost six years ago now,” (the crowd applaud) “it’s about evolving,” she says. She’s 49, and says that the 40’s were an incredible learning experience. Oprah says that the 40’s are about learning who you are and the 50’s are about being everything that you have been meaning to be. Good, awesome, says Melissa.  “I feel like now I’m walking my life. I’m realizing that I’m no good to anyone else unless I’m completely in love with myself and good with myself.” Yeah, says Oprah and the crowd cheer.

Melissa says that she doesn’t know why they say that there is no gay marriage when she has two ex-wives and children from both relationships. She still lives near her first wife, Julie. Oprah asks if her cancer was a wake up call to her, rather than letting it destroy her. Melissa says cancer was an eye-opener for her. “That’s what [my new] album is about. It’s about every day our choice between love and fear. And cancer was the first real huge one for me,” she says. “I can look at cancer as a disease that picks me out and ‘why me,’ or I can look at it through love and say ‘This is a wake-up call. This is my body telling me: Hey, you’re out of balance here. It’s time to get in line with yourself.’” Oprah says that she loves the new title of the album, and asks if it hard to stay in a position of fearlessness.  Life really is what you make of it, Melissa says. “You have to make a choice to perceive life as: ‘Is this the most horrible thing that ever happened to me? Or is this the greatest opportunity for me?’”

Oprah says that you have to have some crying time. Melissa says that she was reading A Brief History of Everything and then the cancer came and that opened everything up and it has been an awesome path so far, especially working with Al Gore. Melissa says she’s finally realized that life is about the journey. “Especially in our sort of work where we think that there’s a ‘there.’ There’s a place that we can be the most successful or something. It doesn’t exist,” she says. Oprah shouts hello to the bucket listers in the audience. Melissa says “I don’t have a bucket list because it is my dedication to live every day of my life there. I don’t have a bucket list because I’m doing it that day. I don’t want to go to bed and say, ‘Oh, I wish I had done this.’” Oprah says that you can’t just get tickets to her show, it has to be on a bucket list. For some people it has been ten years or so.

She’s strong, she’s clear and fearless, says Oprah, give it up for Melissa Etheridge. Melissa sings her new song, Fearless Love. That is so great, so great, the hairs on Oprah’s head were rising, she says. She hugs Melissa and says again, that was so great.

Do not miss next Thursday, Oprah’s interview with Rielle Hunter. Over 85 million books sold and a smash hit at the box office, Twilight is a phenomenon. Only the Oprah show has an exclusive preview of the new movie trailer, Eclipse, but before they show it, Dakota Fanning joins Oprah by Skype from LA. Dakota is a little sick with a raspy voice. Oprah shows the little doll that Dakota gave her a few years ago when she was on for Charlotte’s Web- Dakota remembers it like it was yesterday. Dakota was honored to be in Twilight; her role, costumes and red eyes are amazing and she is so happy to be part of the phenomenon. The red eyes are hand-painted contacts that the technician puts in every morning. They take a little time to get used to “they are a little blurry and you can’t see out of your peripheral, but you look cool and that is all that matters.” Oprah asks if she was into the phenomenon before she was in the film. Yes, she has read all the books and she hasn’t met anyone who is a teenage girl and isn’t a fan. Oprah gave her girls in Africa the books and that was their, and their moms, favorite present. The crowd cheer. Oprah says that we have all watched Dakota grow up, but Oprah thinks that Dakota has done an incredible job of being so grounded and so sweet. She is a junior at high school, she thinks she’ll go to the prom. She doesn’t have a date, she may just decide to go with her friends. Oprah asks how she is an A-list movie star and yet so grounded. Dakota says that she has a normal family and going to school helps a lot, as do her supportive friends, and she has the help of others. Oprah says that she is also gracious, and asks if being in Twilight has given her extra cool points. Yes, her school is K-12, so all through the school people think that it’s cool. Little kindergarteners, says Oprah, can you imagine? Dakota laughs.

Oprah says that the moment all the Twi-hards have been waiting for is here. Dakota introduces the exclusive worldwide premiere of The Twilight Saga Eclipse. They play the trailer. The crowd scream and applaud. Tantalizing, Oprah whoops and whoahs. The movie will be in theaters on, June 30th. Oprah will have Dakota and all the other big stars in the studio for a Twilight special on Thursday May 13th. Oprah thanks Dakota and wishes her a good day at school.

Finally they have their own phone app, says Oprah. Starting today Oprah.com is mobile and downloadable on smartphones, for a small fee.  Instant alerts for last minute tickets for the show will be available as well as Tweets, guest news, exclusives and more. Don’t forget next week is National No Phone Zone Day. Melissa Etheridge has agreed to sign the pledge. She agrees that she will stop texting on the freeways and says that the car should be a place for meditation. Have a great weekend everybody, says Oprah.

WHAT WE LEARNED TODAY:

Queen Raina of Jordan uses Twitter, Facebook and her blog to connect with the world and try to break down the barrier between East and West.

Oprah says that the 40’s are about learning who you are and the 50’s are about being everything that you have been meaning to be.

Melissa Etheridge says that she doesn’t know why they say that there is no gay marriage when she has two ex-wives and children from both relationships.

You have to make a choice to perceive life as: ‘Is this the most horrible thing that ever happened to me? Or is this the greatest opportunity for me?’

Red contact lenses makes things a little blurry and you lose your peripheral vision, but you look cool and that is all that matters.

A VERY QUICK SUMMARY:

Queen Raina tweets, Melissa Etheridge sings and Dakota Fanning acts to connect with their fans.

Date: May 3rd, 2010
File Under: Aha Moment, Public Service Announcement

Episode 60: Oprah’s Earth Day Mom Swap: An Eye-Opening Intervention

Happy Earth Day everybody, says Oprah. Do not change the channel, says Oprah, they are not going to push a bunch of green products or tell us to change lightbulbs like they did one year or show you how to compost with Julia Roberts, like they did. Instead, there is an Earth Day intervention with two families, which family are you?

Meet the Weir family from New Market Maryland. Angela and Chris admit they are about as ungreen as you can get. They have four big cans of garbage every week. They throw out their recycling because it is cluttering up their garage with it’s every other week collection date. The Everharts, from the greenest city in the US, Portland, Oregon recycle a lot. They think their recycling is three times the size of their actual trash. Saving the earth is a passion they share with their two daughters. Chris Weir says that he is no scientist but he doesn’t believe in global warming. The Everharts remodeled their home to be extremely energy efficient. The Weir’s have the central air on and the windows open, he runs the water in the kitchen because he likes the sound of the running water. The TV is on all day, from 6am for themselves or the dogs. They throw away maybe $60 of food a week. The Everharts believe all choices have an impact and unless you work at this, you are sending your children into a world with no future.

Oprah thought this would be a good mom swap. So Angela went to live with Tad and the kids in Portland, and Maria moved in with the Weir’s. This is some of what happened. Angela gets to choose a glass for water to use for the whole weekend to save on washing up. Maria is distressed by the lights on all the time. Back in Oregon, Tad is upset by a couple of lights left on. Their electricity is $33 a month and the Weirs spend around $400 a month. Tad is shocked. Meanwhile Maria is upset that the air conditioning is on. It’s set to 68 degrees at all time. Chris does not like to be hot at all. Maria finds it a disconnect from reality. Chris runs the water to relax him and then he wipes down the surfaces with wipes and uses harsh cleaning products. Maria is upset that he says that water is a first come, first served thing. Angela is shocked that the Everharts save water by having showers two or three times a week- the idea is to have a 5 minute shower. Angela says she can’t get everything done in 5 minutes. She is horrified that she was given a 5 minute timer to use. She couldn’t use conditioner but she would not compromise the electricity needed to dry her hair. Oprah says that maybe there is a balance between the familes.

It’s the 40th Anniversary of Earth Day, is the message sinking in? In Oregon, the family bikes just about everywhere. Angela asks how they carry the packages- on their backs. In Maryland, the family drives everywhere. Maria asks Chris to turn off the car while they wait for the family. She says if you sit idle for more than 10 seconds, like in traffic, you should turn off the car. In Oregon they Reduce, Reuse, Recycle almost everything. Tad brings home the used paper towels from the mens room at work, but Angela finds that gross. Tad takes the food scraps out to the compost bin. He explains that putting the food into the garbage is environmentally costly and ineffective. The Weir’s enormous weekly trash is emptied out in the garage by Maria, she wants to see what could actually be recycled. Reaching into the trashcans was unpleasant. The family got down to one trashcan full of trash, Chris says that Maria is a miracle worker.

The familes are back together at home and they join the Oprah Show by Skype. Angela says that they learned a lot, especially seeing the Everharts electricity bill. Chris learned how to recycle, how to do it properly. He thinks many people probably do it wrong. Oprah asks if he is willing to turn the AC off when the windows are opened? They have reset it to 72 degrees. Sam, one of the kids, thinks that they can do better about recycling. Oprah asks if it has made the family more conscious? Absolutely, says Angela, the TV is only on when they watch it, lights are off and doors are closed. Oprah asks if Angela has changed her opinion that what they do doesn’t impact the rest of the world. Absolutely, says Angela, the education and information on the bigger picture has really helped. Oprah asks the Everharts how the experiences were for them. Maria was surprised by how much she actually knew and could teach, the changes for them have been gradual, and she found that the Weir’s were a great family to be with. She says that she had a good conversation with Chris about how becoming a parent makes you protective of your children and their future. Oprah says that Tad lost everyone with the paper towels from the bathroom at work, everyone. Would he say that they are extreme? Tad says that he doesn’t want to be so extreme that people don’t want to make little changes. He says that they use the towels that would otherwise in a landfill for cleaning up paint or caulk. He had his own little aha moment,- he doesn’t want to do thing that people think are weird. Oprah says that the most important thing is that we realize that what we do affects the world. Oprah says that this has been fascinating and that they have got the message out. Thanks to both families.

It sounds like a horror movie, says Oprah, a killing spree of thousands filmed in the dead of night and people scared for their life. It is real and it is a movie, and it just won an Oscar. Take a look at the Academy Award winning movie, The Cove. There’s a picturesque lagoon in Taiji, Japan, a small fishing village, where outsiders and cameras are forbidden. Shielded by steep cliffs, this body of water is protected by people who have a shocking secret. In 2007, dolphin activist Ric O’Barry set out to expose what really happens here. Alongside director Louie Psihoyos and a dedicated team of filmmakers, Ric documented his mission in Taiji. “The fishermen told me, they said, ‘If the world finds out what goes on here, we’ll be shut down,’” Ric says.

What most people don’t know is every year, from September to March, thousands of dolphins are slaughtered in this small body of water. Some are spared and sold to marine parks around the world, but the rest, thousands, are killed for their meat. “They’re looking for bottlenose dolphins, primarily,” Ric says. “They’re looking for Flipper.” Despite threat of arrest and tight security, Ric and Louie set out to capture this slaughter on film. Their footage eventually became The Cove, the 2009 Oscar-winning documentary co-produced by Fisher Stevens. Ric’s mission is personal. He says he’s desperately trying to put a stop to an industry he helped create.In the 1960s, Ric captured and trained the dolphins for the hit TV series Flipper.”I feel somewhat responsible because it was the Flipper TV series that created this multibillion-dollar industry,” he says. “It created this desire to swim with them and kiss them and hold them and hug them and love them to death. It created all these captures.”

After seven years of training dolphins, Ric says he realized these intelligent mammals were suffering in captivity. He became an activist the day he says Flipper took her own life. “She was really depressed,” he says. “I could feel it. I could see it.” Dolphins and other whales are not automatic air breathers like humans, Ric says every breath they take requires conscious effort. “They can end their life whenever life becomes too unbearable by not taking the next breath. She did that,” he says. “She swam into my arms and looked me right in the eye and took a breath and didn’t take another one.” Ric let her go and she sank on her belly to the bottom of the tank. The next day, Ric went to jail for trying to free a dolphin, and ever since, he’s been on a mission to release dolphins from captivity. When Ric first started training dolphins, there were only three dolphinariums in the world. Now, you can swim with dolphins and see them in action in hundreds of zoos, water parks and vacation destinations around the world. “All of these captures, help create the largest slaughter of dolphins on the planet. I have to see this end in my lifetime,” Ric says. He is focused on the tiny body of water where the slaughter takes place “Nobody has actually seen what takes place back there, and so the way to stop it is to expose it.”

Oprah says that what we are about to see is graphic, so tell small children step out the room. Ric and a dedicated group of filmmakers went undercover and risked everything to expose the truth of the cove. “The secret cove is a natural fortress. It’s surrounded on three sides by steep cliffs,” says Louie, the film’s director. “High fences surrounded by razor ribbon.” When the local Japanese government banned Louie’s cameras, he found another way in. He assembled a brave team willing to risk arrest. “I wanted to have a three-dimensional experience of what’s going on in that lagoon,” Louie says. “The effort wasn’t just to show the slaughter. You want to capture something that’ll make people change.” They had to assemble a team, a sort of Ocean’s 11 team. Louie asked Hollywood special effects masters to build fake rocks to conceal cameras, and a military expert created a balloon device that shot secret aerial footage. Then, under the cover of night, world-class divers planted sound equipment deep in the water. After seven attempts and the scariest night of Louie’s life, the cameras and microphones were in place. Then, at daybreak, the slaughter began. The blood of the slaughtered dolphins turned the blue water red. The cameras captured it all. “It was kind of a collective horror when we started to see the footage. It was mind-boggling,” Louie says. “They are doing it exactly like they did with the large whales, they’re slaughtering every one they can get.”

“It’s not about intelligence. It’s about consciousness. They are self-aware like humans are self-aware,” Ric says. We look in the mirror and know what we are looking at. “I don’t believe that the fishermen are aware of that.” The Japanese government says that they allow the slaughter of up to 19,000 dolphins a year. The Oscar-winning team who made The Cove are here, Oprah is so happy that they are here. Happy Earth Day, Oprah says, and congratulates them on their Oscar. Oprah asks how it was to see the footage of the slaughter. When he first saw the horrific footage of the slaughter, Ric says he saw a light at the end of the tunnel. “I knew it was going to be exposed,” he says. “The light at the end of the tunnel was not an oncoming train. It was the sunshine. Finally, we’re going to get this out to the world.” Oprah asks if they were afraid for their lives? Louie says that they still are, they still get death threats, it’s ongoing. They are trying to push to get the movie distributed in Japan where most change can happen. In July 2010, Fisher says a distribution company is planning to release the film in 20 Japanese theaters. To reach even more people, the filmmakers are also producing a 15-minute version in Japanese, which will be streamed for free on the Internet starting today. Oprah asks them to tell us what does the dolphin slaughter have to do with the rest of the world in our lives. Louie says that this is a microcosm of the ocean. The dolphin is the only animal in history to save human lives- one saved his life in Polynesia. Ironically, the only way that we can prove that we need to save their lives is to prove that we have made their environment so toxic that we should not eat them. Louie says The Cove isn’t just about how dolphins, whales and humans affect our oceans. “It’s about us trying to save humanity,” he says.

Ric says that right now it is about getting the movie out in Japan. Fisher, Louie and Ric also want it shown to millions of Japanese citizens who have not seen it. “It’s not about us Westerners telling the Japanese, ‘You’ve got to do this,’” Fisher says. “It’s us Westerners showing the Japanese what’s going on in their country and hopefully motivating them to shut down the cove.” The crowd applaud.

Oprah asks if some of those dolphins end up in theme parks over here? Ric says that if they could get the dolphin dealers out of Taiji, they could probably shut down the slaughter. Oprah says that despite some reports, a statement from the Japanese embassy says The Cove can be screened freely in Japan, and they believe it may have been shown at the Tokyo International Film Festival. The mayor of Taiji says: “The movie portrays false claims not based on science as if they are true. We regret that. It’s important to mutually respect food culture based upon the understanding of long-standing traditions and circumstances in each region.”

Over the past 10 years, however, Louie says all dolphin meat tested in Japan has been deemed toxic by Japanese standards. Ric says this meat contains very high levels of mercury. “When Ric and I first got to Taiji, they were feeding it to school children because school lunch is compulsory. You’re not allowed to bring your own, and you have to eat everything on your plate,” Louie says. “We put a stop to that.”

In the fifties and sixties, the lack of regulations over water standards meant that many rivers and waterways in America had junk piled up and they were like sewers contaminated with waste.  Without environmental laws, The Cuyahoga river in Ohio was so toxic it ignited a raging fire, pollution plagued major cities and 500 people died in New York in intense smog outbreaks in the fifties. DDT and other chemicals were a part of everyday life and almost brought anational treasure, the bald eagle, to extinction. But on April 22nd, 1970, twenty million Americans came together to demand a cleaner world with the launch of Earth Day. This emerging green movement could not be ignored and soon the was Environmental Protection Agency was born and environmental legislation was passed to clean up our water, air, land and wildlife. Lots of progress over the last 40 years, says Oprah.

Oprah asks Louie what this progress means to him. He says that film is the most powerful medium in the world so he has a lot of hope. Ric too is hopeful. Yesterday he was in the Solomon Islands where villagers have just agreed to stop harvesting animals. That can happen in Taiji. “[Ric] proved to us that one person can make a difference,” Louie says. Everybody can make a difference. Fisher says that Oprah is making more of a difference than any government he knows. Oprah says that the most important thing is to educate the younger generation. Yes, Fisher says that young people who experience nature and the ocean are the ones that want to change it. Oprah says that we have nothing but applause for the team, they are all heroes. She asks what we can do to stop the slaughter from happening again in September, Ric says that to help stop the dolphin slaughter, everyone should visit SaveJapanDolphins.org to sign his petition. “We need to get more signatures. We almost have a million for President Obama and for the Japanese government,” he says. “That will be really helpful.” Oprah says that everyone in the audience and watching at home should do that right now. The Cove is out on DVD now, it makes the perfect gift for anyone for Earth Day. Buy it, watch it and pass it on and stop the senseless slaughter of these magnificent creatures, says Oprah. She thanks the team from The Cove. Oprah reads a statement from SeaWorld vice president Fred Jacobs. “SeaWorld opposes the dolphin hunts documented in The Cove. We do not purchase any animals from these hunts. More than 80 percent of the marine mammals in our care were born in our parks. We haven’t collected a dolphin from the wild in decades.”

On last year’s Earth Day, Oprah showed how our garbage is wreaking havoc on our planet, Oprah called it the most shocking thing she’s seen. In April 2009, oceanographic explorer Fabien Cousteau exposed the truth about the world’s largest trash dump—the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. Estimated to be twice the size of Texas, this trash swirl stretches across the Pacific Ocean from the coast of California to Japan. In some places, the debris is 90 feet deep. British explorer David de Rothschild, first heard about the Pacific garbage patch in 2006. This ecological disaster, which has killed millions of seabirds and marine mammals, inspired him to build a boat made of 12,500 plastic bottles and other recycled materials. He named it the Plastiki. In March 2010, David and a small team of environmentalists set sail from San Francisco on this one-of-a-kind boat to get people to rethink waste as a resource. This risky voyage will take them through the Great Pacific Garbage Patch before docking in Sydney, Australia. “We’ve tried to make everything on this boat as sustainable as possible,” David says. “From the energy we use, the food that we eat and the way that we travel.”

David de Rothschild, heir to the Rothschild banking fortune joins Oprah by Skype from his boat. The map shows that he is a week or two away from hitting the northern tip of the garbage patch. While the Pacific garbage swirl is the largest on earth, David says there are actually five floating trash dumps plaguing the world’s oceans. He says that he has been at sea for 21 days on the Plastic, he is as far away from land as you can possibly be. “Anywhere where there is a current in our ocean, the plastic that makes up 90 percent of our marine debris is getting into the ocean,” he says. “It aggregates and tends to pack together. David says there are four main polluters in our oceans—plastic bags, Styrofoam cups, Styrofoam containers and soda bottle lids. So we are seeing a huge accumulation of plastic, these big human fingerprints, in our ocean right now.”

Oprah asks why the garbage is a threat to the planet? “Every year, hundreds of thousands of marine mammals are needlessly ingesting plastic, little flecks of plastic. That’s blocking their system and causing most of the fatalities,” David says. “Those little flecks are also being ingested into the fish that we are then consuming. So there’s a toxic transfer going on from plastic into fish into us, if we consume fish.”

Oprah asks what he hopes to achieve by sailing around the ocean in the Plastiki? David says that the reality is that there is a big list of solutions available to us today. As evidenced by the creation of the Plastiki, David says plastic and other waste doesn’t have to end up in a landfill. “Around plastics, we need to reduce, reuse, recycle and the fourth R—refuse the single-use plastics,” he says. “I hope that the Plastiki showcases that we’ve used innovative materials, … new glues that we’ve actually engineered out of cashew nuts and sugar, which show that there are solutions to those problems out there. We can all do something about it.”

Oprah thanks him and says that the world needs more people like him. One of the fastest growing problems in garbage dumps is cell phones. About 125 million mobile phones are discarded every year, and many of them are made with hazardous materials like lead, mercury and flame retardants. Some even contain arsenic. In honor of Earth Day and the No Phone Zone pledge, they are pushing to recycle old cell phones. The audience brought in over 600 phones to recycle, and you can do this in your family. Best Buy has cell phone recycling kiosks in their stores. Go to Oprah.com to find somewhere to recycle your phone. While you are there, sign the pledge. Happy Earth Day everybody, be kinder to the earth. Goodbye.

WHAT WE LEARNED TODAY:

Recycle, recycle, recycle. Reduce, reuse, recyle

Every act that you do creates an impact. Educate yourself, make an improvement in the world.

Thousands of dolphins are slaughtered annually in a cove in Taij, Japan, as captured on the Oscar winning documentary, The Cove.

Ric O’Barry captured and trained the dolphins for the hit TV series Flipper. He feels somewhat responsible fro the dolphin trade and that is why he is now a dolphin  activist and filmaker.

The heir to the Rothschild banking fortune is sailing a boat made of 12,500 plastic bottles through the Great Pacific Garbage Patch to get people to rethink waste as a resource.

A VERY QUICK SUMMARY:

Don’t be ignorant. Reduce, reuse and recycle. Be humane, don’t slaughter animals or pollute the oceans.

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