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 category Celebrity

Date: January 22nd, 2010
File Under: Celebrity, Public Service Announcement, Tragedy

Episode 11: Sarah Palin and her Daughter Bristol

Live here in Chicago, there is a major telethon on tonight- everyone should unite in front of the TV tonight. Oprah’s first guest today is always making news, and she’s just signed a deal with the Fox News Network. Oprah says look at your hair- what did you do with your hair? Sarah Palin is live via satellite from her living room in Alaska, she says she is trying to look like Oprah. Oprah says the hair is kinda cute but she’s surprised to see so many curls. The weather in Wasilla is kind of cold, colder than Chicago. Last time Sarah was on Oprah, she dodged the question of whether she would have a talk show. Now she’s signed a multi-year deal with Fox. She will be a contributor, doing some news analysis and will also do some documentaries and specials on finding some real American idols to profile, to put on the spotlight, to have some good role models for our nation. Oprah asks if she’ll leave Alaska to film- she’ll be based out of Alaska and she’ll be traveling around. It’ll be a mixture of coverage highlighting those who face adversity and overcome it. It’s like a full circle, she started in broadcasting and now she’s back there. Her parents are happy that she’s finally putting her college degree to good use.

Oprah says that Time Magazine ran a story asking if Palin is abandoning her aspirations to become President. Palin says she’s not closing any door that she may find open in the future. Maybe politics is in her future, but she’s looking forward to putting her journalism degree to good work. During the campaign, she criticised the media, and now she is part of that. She says she will rachet her coverage down to the basics of journalism, giving the bare facts; the who, what, where and why. Oprah agrees that was what she learned at journalism school. Palin says everyone is engaged in a challenge, a battle, and there are so many good stories out there to give hope and inspiration to others. She wants her kids and everyone else to be inspired by these Americana stories, to make our culture a better place.

Bristol Palin is 19 years old and her name is all over the headlines, she joins us with her mom in their kitchen. Bristol’s son Trip just turned one and Oprah wants to know what’s been the most eye-opening experience of motherhood? Bristol is surprised by the lack of sleep and how hard the daily grind is. A typical day starts at 4am, bathing Trip, going to work, working, coming back, giving him another bath and putting him to bed. Oprah asks why he gets bathed so much- he’s messy apparently. She lives at home so the babies get to grow up together. In In Touch magazine she shared a moment when she sat bawling her eyes out rocking Trip to sleep after he screamed for hours; she felt so alone, when the reality set in that she has a kid, that this is her full-time job. And then her grandmother walked in and said everything will be ok- it’s hard now, but it will be ok. Oprah asks if she has greater respect for her own mom. She does, and while she sometimes wishes she could be with her friends at college, she has a beautiful baby boy.

Oprah says we all have a dream for our kids, and that dream doesn’t usually involve teenage pregnancy. She asks Sarah if she regrets not talking about sex education more with her daughter, does she feel disappointed that her daughter isn’t living the life she could be? Sarah says yes, such lessons they have learned- she wished they’d talked more about unprotected sex, about sex before marriage. She’d assumed that everyone else was doing it, but not her kid. It was a shock to find out Bristol was pregnant- she was an athlete and a great student, the picture of someone who wasn’t supposed to get pregnant in high school. But she’s doing a great job and she is educating others very honestly. Sarah is so proud that Bristol has chosen life, and she has a beautiful baby. Candidly  she says Bristol wishes  that this would have happened 10 years from now. Oprah tells that she has 336 daughters in her school in South Africa and she constantly tells  them to make the decision before the moment arrives, because when the guy is licking on your ear, it’s tough to make the decision. Oprah says she bristled when she read that Bristol won’t have sex until she’s married. Why not make the decision only your own business? It’s Bristol’s goal, and she thinks others should have that goal. Oprah asks if she thinks she’s setting herself up for failure, and Bristol says no.

Sarah says she is pragmatic and practical, and is so proud of Bristol and others who are saying that the only sure-fire way to not get pregnant or get an STD is to be abstinent. Bristol is strong and Sarah says she believes in her, she’s proud of her goal. Rather than conceding that she’ll be haphazard about it all. Oprah interrupts to say 1 in 3 teenagers have sex by age 18, and obviously Bristol’s had sex. Teaching responsibility , teaching judgement is one thing, but Oprah asks, is this a realistic position? The Palin’s think it is a realistic role for Bristol. Oprah says she was going to give Bristol a chance to backtrack, but if Bristol holds to her point of view, more power to her. Sarah asks her daughter if that means that she will get married pretty young, and Bristol shrugs and says she doesn’t know. Sarah says she is constantly telling Bristol that she doesn’t have to go find a man, she’s making good decisions now and she can pursue her education and career and other opportunities. She says the issue is on a backburner for now, and Oprah reminds her that it is not on a backburner when you have a child with you every day.

Oprah asks what they’re having for dinner tonight, Sarah says they had popcorn chicken last night, but don’t tell anyone, she asks Bristol what they should eat tonight, and she says she doesn’t know. Sarah says she thinks she’ll make stew, moose stew sounds good. Oprah thanks them, it’s 9am in Chicago, so 6am in Alaska, so someone had to get up at 3am to start Sarah’s hair. Sarah says no, they always get up at 3am and look just like this. Everyone laughs.

Jeff Bridges got the Golden Globe last week, he dedicated it to his wife of 33 years. His performance in Crazy Heart is being called crazy great; he won the best actor award for his portrayal of addiction and destruction through the life of a washed-up country star. Jeff is live by satellite from rainy California. He turned the role down first time as there was no music attached to it. He ran into T-bone Burnett a year later and they decided to do it together. Has he always been a singer asks Oprah? Jeff says the birth of this movie goes back 30 years ago to Heaven’s Gate. Oprah and Jeff are neighbors and she heard about the film from one of their neighbors who said, hey have you seen Jeff. She said it’s like they’re all rooting for him because they’re in the neighborhood, and it was amazing. When he got a standing ovation from all his colleagues at the Golden Globes it wiped his mind clear, like an Etch-a-Sketch. He could feel the love, it was so strong and powerfull and seeing his wife there brought him back, brought him home. Oprah says we could feel 33 years of sincerity when he spoke to his wife- he says she looked so beautiful that night. His wife told him the other night that they’d been apart for 11 of the last 14 months. Oprah asks what the secret is to having an authentic connection with his wife? Jeff’s folks were a great role model, they were deeply in love despite their struggles. The bumps can be opportunities to make you stronger, then the relationship gets too precious for anything else to get in the way. Talking about the Oscars, he says it’s a double-edged sword; there is the risk of getting on stage and forgetting to thank people, but getting the nod from his peers is wonderful, bringing attention to the movie is great. He says the film was a dream come true- to work with his old friends, they had a wonderful time making it. Oprah wishes him all the best and thanks Jeff Bridges.

Oprah is determined to end the deadly craze of texting on the phone. After Monday’s show, so many responded; they play voiceovers of viewers who are promising never to play texting roulette again, with images of accidents showing behind. Oprah has banned all employees of her company from doing work on cell phones or Blackberries while driving. The executive producer, Sherri, says it’s been hard. One employee puts her phone in the back of the car so she is not tempted to answer the phone or check email. Oprah says she thinks everyone is addicted to checking their cell phones.

Lori, from Canada joins us via Skype, she was the victim of a drunk-driving accident ten years ago. She admitted she would text and drive in an email, then she made the connection. She was sickened by the guests on the show, than realised she texts while driving and is no better than the drunk driver. She says that an in impairment is an impairment- she wants to be proactive not reactive. Oprah thanks Lori for getting it. 40% of the emails they received were from people wanting the show to be re-aired so they can show it to their kids or students. It will be available for viewing on Oprah.com.

Actress Holly Robinson Peete saw the show and said it was an epiphany for the whole family. Her daughter Ryan made her mom sign the pledge because she texts all the time. Holly was judging the people on the show, but Ryan told her that it was her, and Holly realised she has to stop. Holly has an iPhone and a Blackberry and she was on them constantly. So now she realises she had a problem and they printed out the pledge. They are going to make it into an air freshener for the car. They also made a bumber sticker “Honk if you love Jesus. Text if you want to meet him”. Everyone laughs. Oprah says she loves that. Holly says that major reprogramming has to happen in the face of our addiction, just as we once had to get used to wearing seatbelts.  She loves that Ryan is so socially conscious- she sent the pledge to the whole family. Holly has an assistant, and we all have to do our part – we have to realise we shouldn’t talk or text other people when they are in their cars. Oprah is teeming up with Progressive Insurance to take this campaign to the next level. There will be more on that soon. Holly and Ryan wrote a book together called”My Brother Charlie” about Ryan’s twin Charlie and living with autism in their family. They, and Scholastic, hope that this book will be in all schools and libraries in the near future. Autism is on the rise, 1 in 50 boys have autism. Oprah says Holly has a highly evolved child. Holly says she’ll keep her.

On saturday one of the producers of the Oprah Show flew to Haiti. 27 year old Madeline has a 7 year old girl and a 5 year old boy. Their father was killed in the earthquake. They are living in a field with other familes, it’s cold and hard to sleep. The kids sleep under her at night. She has a constant struggle for food, she can’t find anything. She relies on leftovers from strangers. She has no money, no way out which makes her really sad. They go to her former home which is rubble. She says her room was not affected, but the rest of the house and the foundation were gone. Her neighbor is surprised to see her alive. She says she has to keep smiling for the kids- she has hope because she has family and she’s still alive. Back in the studio, Oprah talks to the producer, Chris,  who gave Madeline as much as she had in her pocket when they had to leave, which may be of use to her in the future. 11 water trucks did come to the area as a result of the media coverage.

There’s only one place to be tonight, in front of your television watching the benefit tonight on MTV at 8pm. It’s your opportunity to give to the people of Haiti. Thanks everyone.

WHAT WE LEARNED TODAY:

Journalism should be about the who, what, where and why, from which the viewer can make their own judgements

Don’t close any doors which you may find open in the future

If you don’t want people to know what you ate for dinner last night, don’t announce it on the Oprah Winfrey Show

Oprah and Jeff Bridges are neighbors

An impairment is an impairment, be proactive not reactive

A VERY QUICK SUMMARY:

Just because you are a teenage single parent, doesn’t mean you can’t be the poster child for abstinence

Date: January 20th, 2010
File Under: Celebrity, Grief, Public Service Announcement, Tragedy

Episode 9: Help The Victims in Haiti

Live from Chicago. This morning an aftershock of 6.1 was recorded in Haiti. Oprah’s guest today just returned from Haiti a few days ago. He says it’s an apocalypse and the media coverage doesn’t begin to describe it. Wyclef Jean, the most famous person from Haiti;  a Grammy award winning musician is here today, you may know him from The Fugees. This show is about Haiti so some of the images will be graphic.

Oprah says that Wyclef is the first person to describe this as an apocalypse. She says she’d said to friends that being there must be like being in hell. Wyclef says it’s like the 7th hell- there’s two things- what you see by the airport and then there is the belly of the beast. He says walking into the city feels like walking into a morgue. For every two blocks, there are 15-16 uncovered bodies, 3 are children. People are running holding their babies, while their babies are already dead. The aid workers can’t do much as there are so many people, and they are out of medication, and people want them to help their children but their children are already dead. Wyclef’s cousin used his Flip camera to go inside the belly of the beast.

As the footage rolls, Wyclef narrates. The first thing they heard were bone chilling screams. This is the worst thing they’ve seen in their lives, the whole country is a morgue, everywhere they walk there are bodies in the street. little kids. They spent hours in the heat moving decomposing bodies. The smell is very bad. the local cemetries are already overflowing, so the survivors are ae digging shallow graves. Their team pulled a fourteen year old out of the rubble, the rest of her family are dead.

Watching the footage, Wyclef remembers that every night they heard the Haitian people sing Amazing Grace. The Haitian people know struggle, despite what they are going through they are still chanting and singing the word of God. Oprah says that they have shown over and over that they are resilient people. Wyclef says the only thing they have is their pride.

Oprah observes that Wyclef’s team had masks on, whilst others did not. He says that the media don’t cover on the news the smell of the bodies. It’s raw meat, it’s animal, like a dead dog that no one has taken care of. Oprah asks about his friends and families. He has lost alot of friends. One of his friends was stopped by the police and a building fell on top of them all. It took two days to get his body out. Oprah says that the inital problem was the lack of heavy equipment. Wyclef says that the people who would drive the tractors are buried under rubble. They can not be where they should be, just like the President and his wife are at the airport. We was warned to be strong for he wouldn’t believe what he would see outside the airport.

About the size of Maryland, a two hour flight from the Florida coast lies Haiti, on the west end of a Carribean island- on the east is the wealthy Dominican Republic.In contrast, Haiti is home to the poorest citizens in the Western Hemisphere. Haiti is the only country on earth which gained independence by a slave rebellion. 9 million people speak two languages- French and Creole. 95% are of African descent. Civil war, violence,  famine, corruption, war and countless disasters have wreaked havoc on Haiti but it was felt that Haiti was on a path to success. Bill Clinton said anyone who has seriously followed Haiti for a long time would say that it has the best chance now to break the chains of its lifetime and build a truly modern state. Amazingly the statue of a free slave, which signifies Haiti’s spirit is still standing.

Wyclef was 9 when his family left Haiti and came to the US. He dreamed of making it big in the music business, and both as a member of the Fugees and with his solo career he has been very successful. His passion in life is to get the rest of the world to care about Haiti as much as he does. It is his mission from God, he wants to make a serious dent with his Foundation, a school for young artists in Haiti. On Wednesday, the school was flattened with no survivors. It was in the Jacmel area, which is not talked about much in the news; it is 80% devastated. He and his wife have been trying to help Haiti for a long time- Wyclef says he went from being an ant to a gorilla overnight. Oprah says there has been alot of focus on the non-filing of taxes up until 2009 with his Foundation. He says in 1996 when he did the Grammys he wore a Haiti flag; therefore his pariotism cant be questioned. He says starting a foundation needs the right people around you. Being Haitian, a foundation needs logisitics; helicopters and trucks. No one was focused on the Foundation until they noticed that they raise $1 million a day. A lot of eyebrows were raised, as they are the youngest NGO on the ground. He put his first million into the charity, he has never taken any form of payment from the charity. Oprah says she has 3 foundations and comes under a lot of scrutiny, she says the IRS lives here. She says you need the right people who know the tax laws, was he let down by his people? He says it was poorly ran and moving forward they’ll be stronger than ever. The crown applaud.

Oprah says she heard Wyclef say there should be an exodus from Port-au-Prince, but where would the people go? Wyclef says there are places outside the capital where the US army could set up tents outside of the capital. He wants the tents to be  built into communities in the future; we don’t want refugee camps. On Friday Wyclef joins George Clooney and a huge host of stars, for Hope For Haiti Now, a television event, with all proceeds going to Haiti. He’s going back to Haiti on Saturday because the food is being thrown down by helicopter, and he wants them to know that the Haitian people are not animals. He’s going to work on logisitics to distribute food and water more effectively.

Aids, malnutirition and poverty have ravaged Haiti- half of the population is under 18. 300,00 children were orphans before the earthquakes. Parents who can no longer feed children send them to be slaves in wealtheir homes where they are often abused. Tens of thousands of children live on the street eating dirt to surive, just hundreds of miles from our shores.

Rihanna is one of the stars performing for the Hope for Haiti Now TV event on Friday. She’ll be singing with JayZ and Bono. She says, we need your help, everyone should tune in. Today she will sing Bob Marley’s Redemption Song as it is so liberating. She played it as a child when times were difficult, and she still plays it now when her back is up against the wall. She feels the people of Haiti need to hear something uplifting. She sings the song, while images from Haiti  are displayed behind her. Oprah gives Rihanna a hug. For the next 48 hours you can download this song, go to Oprah.com to find out how. All the proceeds will go to Haiti. Rihanna’s new album is called Rated R.

Neurosurgeon and CNN’s chief medical correspondent, Dr Sanjay Gupta filed some of the first reports out of Haiti. We see footage of a fifteen day old baby with a head injury who needed a doctor. She has a laceration and a fracture, but she’ll be ok. Reports of violence led Belgian doctors to evacuate the Field Hospital, leaving Dr Gupta the only person to care for 25 people overnight. A few days ago, the US military evacuated Dr Gupta out of Haiti to an aircraft carrier several miles off shore. The earthquake had embedded concrete in a 12 year old girls brain- Dr Gupta performed a ninety minute emergency surgery and saved the girls life.

In the studio, Oprah welcomes Dr Gupta via satellite from Port au-Prince. She thanks him and asks about this mornings aftershock. He says it was quite scary, behind him tents have been set up behind him- people are fearful to go back inside buildings with the continued aftershocks. The roads are a disaster, there are piles of rubble everywhere. He says it is hard to imagine how it will all get cleaned up. 6.1 and 5.2 are aftershocks in Haiti, but by any standards they are real earthquakes. They will have to test for trauma to buildings, but the emotional anxiety is very high here. Oprah says she is sure the fear and anxiety level are growing, The most pressing medical problem now, according to Dr Gupta, is that although many people died, many now are barely alive. They have preventable deaths, like crushed limbs. They are walking the streets having kidney failure and heart problems. In any other situation, these injuries are easily treated. 8 days out, these things are not happening, The problem now is distribution- the supplies are at the airports, but the supplies are not getting out where they are needed. In medical emergencies  you count time in minutes and hours. So far it has been 8 days…

So many reporters are saying that this is the worst tragedy they have ever seen, worse even than Hurricane Katrina. Dr Gupta says this is the worst because Haiti is one of the most impoverished countries, there is no medical structure and they have one of the worst patient to doctor ratios in the world. From this point, there are infinitely more people needing medical care and infinitely less medical structure. In Katrina, people mainly lived or died, what they needed was food and water. In Haiti the people who lived have catastrophic injuries. They need someone on the ground to oversee the infrastructure. The security concerns are huge, there are soldiers and security there, but doctors are having problems getting in. The problems dovetail, solve the medical problems and the security issues will ease.

Thanks to Dr Gupta. Wyclef is willing to go to Haiti, he needs a taskforce, he knows Haiti. He will be in charge of distribution from the airport to the people of Haiti. He says the need for  security will decrease if the medical situation improves.

Giving hope to Haiti is near and dear to singer Maxwell’s heart. He was raised by his Haitian grandmother. He is excited to help the great people of Haiti, today he will sing Fistful of Tears. He sings with images from Haiti playing behind him. Maxwell sings and cries. Oprah hugs him. For the next 48 hours you can download this song from Oprah.com, with all proceeds going to Haiti.

Oprah says they are here to encourage us to watch Hope for Haiti on Friday, it will play on all channels. Maxwell has been devastated by the tragedy. he doesn’t know fully how it feels for others like Wyclef who have lost so many people dear to them.  He says “As someone who is you know, you know, my heritage is from there on some level”, he hopes he can stand as  a beacon of hope for the Haitians to see there is more than this devastation, that you can grab onto something alot more tighter and secure than what Haiti has been holding on to for the last 200 years. Rihanna says she she goes to bed thinking of the orphans- the children suffer most and they had almost 400,000 orphans before this. The children are hungry and hopeless, they are the next generation, the chidren are our future. Rhianna and her Foundation are helping to rebuild Haiti. After survival, there is so much more to be done. Wyclef tells the Haitians to have unity and strength. The Haitian people told him to say on the show that they don’t need any more photo-ops, what they need is logistics, people to go to the airport and get the stuff out of the airport and to the people. The crowd applauds.

Rhianna and Maxwell donate the proceeds from the downloads of their songs from Oprah.com to Haiti. Watch the benefit on Friday. Thanks.

WHAT WE LEARNED TODAY:

Wyclef Jean is the most famous person from Haiti, he has a mission from God to help the rest of the world care about Haiti as much as he does

Haiti today is apocalyptic, like the 7th hell

Wyclef Jean would like to manage the distribution of supplies from the airport to the people of Haiti; he will need a taskforce

This tragedy is worse than any other, because those who lived are dying from their injuries, which should be preventable deaths

Celebrities are helping as much as they can, there is a huge benefit on all channels on Friday night

A VERY QUICK SUMMARY:

Haiti needs a new infrastructure to end their apocalypse. Wyclef Jean is on a mission from God

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