Episode 26: Happy Valentine’s Day- Oprah Fridays LIVE
Tonight the Olympics kick off in Vancouver. Matt Lauer will be covering the games for NBC, he joins us via satellite. Oprah says she just saw him with Michael Bublé- he was just inside the chalet, he’s from Barnaby, Vancouver so he just did a couple of songs. Matt apologises if he cries during the set, the bonfire seemed like a good idea but the smoke keeps blowing into his eyes. Matt ran with the torch yesterday, aso did Bublé. Matt said it was maybe the coolest part of his life- you get to wear the cool outfit but you get the pep talk before that says the torch is the greatest symbol of peace in the whole world. He doesn’t care how cool you think you are, when the person carries the flame to you, you turn to jelly. It seemed like an eternity even though it was only 300m, Matt just loved it. Oprah asks if you worry that your hair might catch on fire when the wind blows, Matt shows his lack of hair and says are you kidding me? What’s supposed to catch on fire there? Oprah hears the schedule is hefty- Matt broadcasts live to the East Coast so they fim at 4am Vancouver time. Today is a particularly long day as they just did the show then tonight he’s covering the opening ceremony with Bob Costas. The pageantry and spectacle of the opening ceremony will not be disappointing. He saw it a couple of nights ago and it will end with a big surprise. 7.30 eastern time there’s a warmup then the opening ceremony. For the first time ever this is filmed indoors and the parade of athletes will be at the beginning not the end. Oprah says she watches him and the mornings and last week wore red at his urging. Matt says he wants to be invited to the worst superbowl party ever next year (referencing the advert). Thanks Matt, we’ll be watching the opening ceremonies tonight.
Drew Brees comes to the studio and the crowd go wild. Wow wow wow says Oprah. Its wonderful to see each other. Drew says the moment of winning was surreal and he still has to pinch himself. Oprah just felt that the Saints were going to do it. After all that New Orleans has been through, all the pain and suffering and psychic and spiritual energy, she felt that the Saints would do it. Drew says he never had a doubt, he felt the energy of the country was with them, everyone related to what the team means to the city and what a win would do for them. 106 million people watched Drew step up in the moment that he needed to. Drew says the emotion throughout the game had to reeled in. For the first half or quarter you just have to find a way to calm down, then you tell yourself it’s just aother game and only when it’s over do you allow yourself to reflect. Oprah says she’s heard him say before that its not about the winning but about the journey. For him, he was trying to reflect upon that when he stood on the stand with his son getting the trophy- he tried to stay in the moment. The crowd awws as they show a photo of him holding his son up in the air on the Superbowl night. Drew says it’s special and he’ll remember it for the rest of his life. His son is only 13 months old and he wont remember this. He told his son what an inspiration he is to Drew, and he said he loved him and we did it. little boy. Oprah says that Drew does have the cutest boy in the world. A few years ago when he injured his shoulder and it almost ended his career, Drew has said that it was the best thing to happen to him. Drew says that everyone in their position has been told they can’t do it for whatever reason and sure that’s a motivation. For him, he plays for the people who do believe in him, that’s who he thinks of before every game. His eyes well up when he listens to the national anthem, and thinks of the implications of what he’s doing. Oprah says she has great respect for Peyton Manning, Drew says that they normally meet after the game on the 50 yard line, but that didnt happen this time. But Manning sent him a text afterwards and is a very classy football player. Oprah hopes he didn’t text from the car- it was from the tour bus. Drew also did a commercial where he sang in the shower for Dove for Men. Here are a few extra scenes. The crowd applaud. Dove has a whole new line of products and Oprah says that this is a great way to introduce them. For Drew singing in the shower in front of the cameras was a little out of his comfort zone, it was tense at first then he decided to just have fun. Drew is comfortable in his own skin and enjoyed the experience.
They show the footage of Drew, his son Bailey and his wife Brittany at the Superbowl. Brittany says she felt so stressed out she thought she’d throw up. And Bailey is just like his Dad, so active- so he wants to walk, eat, play, watch the game. Her mom helps during the game, but Bailey helps her calm down and puts things into perspective. She says Drew is great at handling pressure, he can compartmentalise and really focus; then he does his best. They all got to bed about 3.30am, he said to Brittany, did that really happen? It was the culmination of 4 years of hard work. She said she didn’t know- it looks like a great commercial with all the confetti. The city is unbelieveable right now, there was 40,00 people at the airport and the parade brought out 800,000 in a city of only 400,000. It seems like people from all around the world are identifying with the city and that is just great. The couple are college sweethearts,- she married the quarterback and then he won the Superbowl. Brittany says that it’s been amazing and there have been the ups and downs of his career. She remembers seeing him in the hospital room after his surgery, not knowing if he would ever play again, but God gives you the strength and they prayed about it – and if anyone is going to do it, it would be Drew. She’s so proud of him, all those hours of rehab and the not knowing where they were going to live, she’s just so proud of him. Oprah asks what happens now? Drew says on Valentine’s Day they’ll be in the Bachus Parade for Mardi Gras, their anniversary was the day after the Superbowl, their 7 year anniversary, so they’ll spend some time with family and take two weeks to have a Valentine’s Day, anniversary celebration. A Saints superfan in Chicago, Chris Rodgers is in the studio, they show footage of his house filled with Saints gear. He cried like a baby when they won. Chris’ lifelong dream is to catch a football from Drew Brees- Drew throws the football and Chris catches it.
1985’s recording of We Are The World plays the show back in from the commercial break. It has been 25 years since Lionel Ritchie wrote We Are The World with Michael Jackson and Oprah’s dear friend Quincy Jones produced it. Two weeks ago they got together with 80 artists to re-record the song with all proceeds to go to help the Haiti earthquake. There’s only one Lionel Ritchie and he’s here. Oprah is so excited that he’s going to sing. The crowd clap and scream. He doesn’t know if he can sing this early in the morning. The new video will debut tonight at the opening ceremony at the winter olympics. Nicole was 5 years old when they recorded the original, and now she’s there with her son and Joel. They play an exclusive extract of the new recording- there are artists in 3 different rooms. Pink, Celine Dion, Barbara Streisand, Mary J Blige… all the stars wanted to be apart of it. Last time, Quincy put up a sign that said check your egos at the door. This time, Lionel says the egos lasted about 20 minutes. then all of a sudden when seeing the images from Haiti, the egos stop. They knew what they were there to do. Oprah asks how they assign parts to sing-Lionel says life is wonderful while you’re busy making plans. It happens. They had a list of who would sing what line, and they realised that the new people are nervous. They had 3 seperate rooms, with different cameras and Panavision. They thought it would be a secret, and the stars were Tweeting during the first verse. He’d never seen so much excitement- Tony Bennett and Snoop Dog talking to each other, Little Wayne and Barbara Streisand talking to each other. Oprah has heard the story from Quincy so many times about how they wrote the lyrics to the song and needed the last verse. Lionel tells the story of lying on the floor in Michael Jackson’s room when he spotted a python behind some records. Lionel ran away from the albino python that Michael had mislaid in his room. They wanted Michael in the recording, so he sings his part from the original, and his sister Janet sings along with him. Lionel says everyone stepped up to the plate and it’s beautiful. Oprah asks if women always want him to sing to them when he dates; he says no. Oprah says as it’s Valentine’s Day in two days, who better to have than Lionel Ritchie, Mr Love Song himself. He has hand-picked some of his favorites. He sings and wishes the crowd a Happy Valentine’s Day. Oprah runs on stage to hug him and says that was beautiful.
Someone you all know recently admitted that he texts and talks in the car. Today he takes the commitment, he takes Oprah’s pledge. He says it will be hard for him, it’s like kicking an addiction. He’s in the car and the phone rings and he lets it go. Can you imagine how dumb you’d feel if you picked up a call and got in an accident? At work he calls a mandatory company meeting to say that company policy now means that no one can text or do company business in the car. Nate Berkus and his amazing staff, take the pledge. Oprah says we used to drive and think about things in the cars and have some time to ourselves.
Oprah has a car to help Haiti, over 300 celebrities have signed it already- George Clooney, Mariah Carey, Julia Roberts and so many others through Stars for a Cause. This Chrysler 300 will be auctioned next week, with all proceeds going to the Red Cross for Haiti relief. Oprah agreed to sign the car on the basis that she would put her No-Phone Zone bumper sticker on the car. She attaches the sticker, signs the car and thanks Chrysler. They have modified the pledge- you can agree to stop texting, agree to only hands free calling or give it all up. Have a great Valentine’s Day and go to Oprah.com to download Lionel Ritchie singing Hello to you.
WHAT WE LEARNED TODAY:
Oprah, Letterman and Leno were all in the same room to film their Superbowl advert, it was not a special effect.
Carrying the Olympic torch would turn anyone to jelly.
Drew Brees is comfortable in his own skin.
There’s only one Lionel Ritchie.
The no phone zone pledge as been modified to allow people to semi-pledge.
A VERY QUICK SUMMARY:
The Superbowl was awesome, the Olympics will be too. Lionel Ritchie wishes everyone a Happy Valentine’s Day.