Former Friends star, Lisa Kudrow follows celebrities as they dig up their family histories on her new reality TV show. Welcome Lisa. The crowd applaud. Usually when people say who do you think you are, it is sarcastic, says Oprah. Snarky, agrees Lisa. Lisa first discovered the show while working in Ireland. “It was riveting, and I just felt like, ‘Well, why don’t we get to have a show like this here?”. Here’s a peak, take a look.

Emmitt Smith, Sarah Jessica Parker, Matthew Broderick, Susan Sarandon, Lisa Kudrow and Brooke Shields learn about their roots and learn even more about themselves along the way in the new show, Who Do You Think You Are?. Sarah Jessica Parker says most of us see who we are in the mirror, and how do you fit that information into your world. She went into this feeling no link to the past, she was terribly wrong and has buckets of questions. She is told her relative has something to do with the Salem Witch Trials. She finds it terrifying, and incredible. Brooke Shields discovers that the most powerful king of all time, Louis XIV is her cousin. Matthew Broderick learns that his grandfather was in Gettysburg. He says it’s like discovering that you are different than you thought. Susan Sarandon could never figure out what happened to her grandmother- she was a showgirl. Spike Lee meets his cousins. Emmitt Smith’s great great great grandfather was a slave. On this extraordinary trip into their pasts, celebrities find out their history and learn more about themselves. “It’s changed everything about who I thought I was,” Sarah Jessica says. “Everything.”

Oprah asks Lisa about her family history. Lisa met someone that she thought was dead, he had survived the holocaust and joined the Polish navy and came to Brooklyn to tell her parents that all their family from the village had died. They begged him to stay but he didn’t. Lisa thought that she was going to find out how he died, but instead she found him alive. It was like a miracle. Her Dad’s parents were both Eastern European Jews. “Most American Jews from Eastern Europe, they have a Holocaust story,” she says. “I wanted to find out my family’s story.” One day, Lisa sat down with her father, Lee, to find out more. After World War II, Lee says a distant relative showed up at his Brooklyn home to relay tragic news. His name was Yuri Barudin. “Yuri told our family that he was playing in the woods, and he could see that the Nazis were shooting, and he was watching his family being cut down by the Nazis,” Lee says. “They killed all the Jews in town. My grandmother was one of them.” Lisa says the story of how her great-grandmother Meri Mordejovich died still haunts her father. “He was a child when this relative came over,” she says. “I want to find out exactly what happened to my great-grandmother’s family.” Lisa’s emotional journey continues in Eastern Europe, in the the town that that the massacre took place. She flew to Ilya, Belarus, the town where her great-grandmother lived and died, to piece together the past.

Local historians helped Lisa find records that documented her great-grandmother’s murder. Next to Meri Mordejovich’s name, the ledger stated that she was a Jewish housewife from Ilya who’d been killed and burned. ”I knew my great-grandmother was murdered,” Lisa says. “But to hear the words ‘killed and burned,’ that’s worse than I thought.” Then, Lisa visited the place where her great-grandmother and countless others were shot and buried. They were made to approach the edge of the pit in small groups of two or three, then they were shot and the next group came up. “How do you prepare for the last moment of your life, knowing what’s coming?” Lisa says. “You watch the people before you and know that’s your fate, while you’re naked and humiliated and waiting for your turn to get shot.” Those poor parents with their children. Lisa’s grandmother had her grandchildren around, that is so hard.

Oprah asks what it does for you to find out where you come from. Intellectually, Lisa says she knew, but it was at an emotional distance. In some way, she was a little proud of herself, what she went through.  “I’m delivering their story to people, and they’re not forgotten,” she says. “Now, there are witnesses.”

Oprah say that she came from a woman who had built a school at a time when black people weren’t supposed to read. The fact that you came from that gives you a sense of power and pride.  Lisa met a 94 year old woman who asked about her white teeth, and then said are you from America, are you rich? It was the first time that Lisa was able to say yes I am, without any shame.

More celebrities are discovering this for themselves in the new reality series Who Do You Think You Are? Here’s what Brooke Shields discovered. Her father died in 2003 and no one spoke much of his side of the family, they were aristocrats. A genealogist traced her family tree. In Rome, she discovered that her father’s family were among the most influential families in Rome. She reals at the family house, can you imagine living there? It’s a palace. A professor from the University of Rome shows her inside the summer residence. She sees the wedding certificate that tells her that there was a French relative. Brooke Shields says that part of her is so French, she studied French Literature at college. She goes to the French countryside to see where he started, a marked contrast from the opulence of his Italian residence. The top of the family tree shows an intriguing French figure, Marie, who was born in the Louvre. Her father was Henry IV. She goes to the chamber containing Henry IV”s heart, which she touches. She feels awestruck.

Oprah says that awestruck is the term. Lisa explains that there are other connections, around 950BC, the royals had records that far back so you can trace it.

Emmitt Smith, NFL great and Dancing With The Stars legend is in the studio. Welcome back says Oprah. A few weeks ago, he was inducted into the Hall of Fame. He says that it was a special moment that he couldn’t prepare himself mentally for the opportunity, but he couldn’t wait. It was a unique experience. His father told him something crazy- just before they called his name, his father said that he never went to college because his mom got sick, so Emmett is living his father’s dream. All Emmett could think was he is living his own dream, his fathers dream and fulfilling God’s purpose for his life. That’s amazing says Oprah.

Emmett followed his roots to Burnt Corn, Alabama, the town where his great-grandmother was born. “I feel like a detective on a hunt trying to find clues,” he says. In Burnt Corn, Emmitt wandered into a convenience store and asked a clerk if he knew two of his relatives, Bill and Victoria Watson. Coincidentally, Joe, the clerk, turned out to be Emmitt’s second cousin. Emmitt also learned that his great-great-grandmother, Victoria, had an unusual maiden name—Puryear. Genealogist Marjorie Sholes told Emmitt that “Puryear” was probably the name of a slave owner. “African-Americans, at the end of the Civil War, sometimes picked the names of their last slave owner,” she says. Emmitt went in search of Victoria’s parents’ names. In an old ledger, Marjorie found a man named Prince Puryear who was described with the letter “m,” which meant mulatto. “Specifically, black/ white race,” she says. They also discovered that Prince’s mom was a woman named Mariah. “Now, I know that Prince was mixed race and born into slavery,” Emmitt says. “If Mariah was his mother, could she be the link between the black and the white side of my family?” This is a story that’s getting good, says Emmitt.

Records show Prince and his mother Mariah were owned by a notorious slave trader called Alexander Puryear. They went to a cemetery where the black people were buried out back in a wooded area. His great, great, great grandaddy is somewhere in the woods, it is sad that he can’t go visit the gravesite which has been worn away over the years. Alexander Puryear trafficked slaves from Virginia to Alabama. In Mecklenburg, Virginia, Emmitt comes across Puryear’s Tires and Puryear’s Florist. Virginia historian John Caknipe said Samuel Puryear, Alexander’s father, might be the link to Mariah. To find out for sure, John selected a book of old deeds from a shelf. The number on the book was 22—the same number Emmitt wore on the football field for 15 years.

“I’ve been wearing jersey number 22 since college,” he says. “Maybe it is my destiny, and I’ve always believed I was a child of destiny, but, whew, this is … it’s making me a little bit nervous.” Oprah believes that there is no such thing as coincidences. Emmett agrees, that was one of the weirdest moments for him, the book was like walking into his first Superbowl. He was anxious, but thrown by the fact that it was in deed book 22. Of course it was, says Oprah. She asks how it was to find out about his family history, how did it change his view of himself? He likes to think of himself as a humble person with a warrior’s spirit and heart. But to find that his people were treated as property was hard. Oprah keeps a document in her living room where slaves are listed with the other property of the household. She passes it everyday to remind herself where she came from. And where you want to go, says Emmitt. To see people looked upon as cattle, passed down with artifacts was heartbreaking.

Oprah says that he had a heartbreaking moment looking at marriage records., while sitting on the porch of an old slave quarters in Clayborn, Alabama. There was a trail from Virginia to Louisiana given by the Government to transport goods. “That house down in Clayborn is where I started to put things together,” he says. “And right then and there, I sensed that my ancestors were crying out to me because they were lost for so many years, and here, their great-great-grandson is going on the journey to find who they were.”

Wow, that’s powerful, says Oprah. While Emmitt sat on the porch, it started to rain. “It was coming to me all at one time, and it was incredible,” he says. “Often times, people want closure, and I felt like my folks did not have closure. At that time, when I found that information, I felt like they were crying out, ‘We got closure now.’” It was strong, Oprah knows what that feels like, they hold hands. He asks why he has to cry on her show?

Oprah says that he has a sensitive side, he says it’s his wife and kids. In the 22nd book of deeds, he discovered that Maria was raised and bred, like the racehorses. Slaves were bred like animals, but the animals were treated better. Maria was passed down at a very young age. Emmitt has 13 year old and 10 year old daughters and can’t imagine having them passed down through slavery that way.

The historian would put money on the fact that Samuel was the father of Maria. He thinks that Alexander was trafficking slaves and Samuel recognized that Maria was his sister, was family. It is likely her birth was a rape. Samuel was cold and heartless but related to Emmitt. Emmitt says he’s glad that his heart is not like Samuel’s. Wow, says Oprah. It’s amazing says Emmitt. Emmitt says he’s even more thankful for the power of progress. “I thank God for people who stood up for equality for all of us,” he says. For those who opened doors to allow usto do what we are now able to do.

Oprah was so struck by coming from a people who had nothing, from which they could make something. Which meant if they could do that, God only knows what she could do. The potentials are endless, Maria could never have imagined that Emmitt would be a Hall of Famer. He feels he’s standing on the shoulders of giants, people who sacrificed so much of their lives for our freedoms, he feels the same way about the US military. The luxuries of living in freedom. He says that everyone must go do this themselves. Unless you step back in that time warp, it is critical; this will help you appreciate the visions and struggles of the past and define your vision of going forward. He knows who he is and who he wants to be, and he knows what his role and responsibilities are to his family, country, state and city, and those folks right there [family photograph]. Oprah says what a beautiful family. Oprah thanks Emmitt and Lisa and encourages everyone to watch the show.

Oprah says that we have to talk to her good friend Dr. Henry Louis Gates Jr., a Harvard professor, about genealogy. You may recall his confrontation with a police officer at his Cambridge, Massachusetts, home, Dr. Gates was arrested on a charge of disorderly conduct. His arrest sparked a racially fueled national uproar, which led to the first-ever White House Beer Summit. President Barack Obama, Dr. Gates and the arresting officer, James Crowley, sat down over mugs of beer and talked out the conflict. Since then, Dr. Gates says he and Officer Crowley have developed a really good relationship. In fact, Dr. Gates says he and Officer Crowley are more than friends. After asking Officer Crowley to take a DNA test, Dr. Gates discovered they’re distant cousins. “He and I descend from the same Irish ancestor,” Dr. Gates says. “Eight percent of the men in Ireland have our identical DNA, and we all descend from King Niall of the Nine Hostages. It was good to be the king—the guy slept with everybody in the kingdom.” Regis Philbin also shares the same ancestor, a bloodline that dates back to 450 A.D. Dr. Gates says Officer Crowley recently gave him the handcuffs used in his arrest. “They have his name, Crowley, etched on them,” Dr. Gates says. The handcuffs will be donated to the new emerging Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture, which is scheduled to be completed in 2015. Oprah thanks him, she’s on the board.

As Officer Crowley and Dr. Gates discovered, it’s a small world. Despite our different races, religions and cultures, family trees intertwine, and humans are, ultimately, connected. This fact is proven in Dr. Gates’ new PBS series, Faces of America.

When Oscar-winning actors, Olympic Games medalists and celebrated musicians allowed Dr. Gates to trace their roots, many were surprised by the results. These celebrated people think they know were they come from, but they are getting all new knowledge.

Actress Eva Longoria always thought of herself as a Mexican-American, but a DNA test showed that she’s actually 70 percent European, 27 percent Native American and 3 percent African. “To know that I have a majority Spanish blood is a little…you know, I’ve been so proud of being Mexican—Mexican from Mexico,” she says. “To know that that’s not really who I am.” ”It’s not only who you are,” Dr. Gates says.

Kristi Yamaguchi, Olympic Gold Medallist finds out that her grandfather fighting in the US Army was the only Japanese man fighting Japan in his unit. In the New York Times it said that he was promoted for being unquestionably the best soldier in the unit.

Cutting-edge DNA research also leads to some surprising family connections. Eva finds out she’s related to Grammy-winning cellist Yo-Yo Ma, and actress Meryl Streep discovers she’s linked to director Mike Nichols, a man she’s worked with on four films. Meryl laughs and says it’s ridiculous. They are great friends, they are very close.

Dr Gates says that the test is not available commercially. Oprah says that she was one of the pioneers. Dr Gates says yes, with Quincy Jones. In fact, he got the idea in 2000 at Quincy’s house because Quincy was into doing family trees. Dr Gates says he has the greatest job in the world, bringing people back from the past. Letting people see them and meet them and encounter shadows from the past.

Dr Gates wanted a Jew and a Muslim on the show to discover where their genealogy may intersect. Dr Oz discovers that he shares the same common ancestry as Mike Nicholls, who is a Russian Jew. Dr Oz finds this information to be  life changing; Jews and Muslims must recognize how integrated that they really are. The only thing separating them is the way that we think about things.

Oprah says that we are all connected. 50,000 years ago all of our ancestors were walking around in East Africa. If there was a garden of Eden, it would be in Africa. It’s hard for some Southerners to face, says Oprah. Yes, it’s a scientific fact, says Dr Gates. We have common ancestors; in Dr Oz and Mike’s case, they had a shared grandfather around 9000 years ago.

In the year 1767, a man sat down and did his family tree and picked the generational names for the next 60 generations after his death. In Yo Yo Ma’s name, Yo is a generational name, his sister is called Yo too. They joke about Yo This, Yo That, Yobama. The family tree goes back to 1217 and is the property of one of Yo Yo Ma’s distant cousins. In the 60’s Mao ruled that all things old should be destroyed. The document was hidden in the wall, and forgotten about. 4 years ago the cousin renovated his kitchen and found the forgotten family tree. The guy almost threw it away. It is made of bamboo which can be boiled and restored. They had it replicated and showed it to Yo Yo Ma.

How can people watching at home discover their ancestors and follow their family tree?  Dr. Gates says there are two ways to get started. You can log on to websites like Ancestry.com, which has a monthly subscription fee, and search a database for distant relatives. Dr. Gates says the second option is your local genealogical society. “I live in Cambridge, as you know, where it’s the New England Genealogical Society. You can walk in off the street. There’s one in New York,” he says. “They’re all over the country.”

He says that the Temple of Delphine in Ancient Greece’ s motto was Know Thyself. In the series, Dr Gates says, Know Thy Past, Know Thy Self.

The new series airs on PBS, check your local listings, or watch it in full online at PBS.org.

After California introduced the hands free cellphone law last year, in 6 months they have seen a 20% reduction in fatalities and collisions. That means there has been 700 fewer deaths and up to 100,000 fewer collisions in one state. Everyone stop texting and talking on the phone in the car. Take the pledge, Know Thyself. Thank you.

WHAT WE LEARNED TODAY:

Oprah believes that there is no such thing as coincidences.

Oprah says that we are all connected

Everyone comes from East Africa, despite what some Southerners may like to think.

Eva Longoria and Yo Yo Ma share a common ancestor.

Meryl Streep shares a common ancestor with director Mike Nichols, a man she’s worked with on four films.

A VERY QUICK SUMMARY:

Celebrities are just like us. Some of them are even related. They have famous, important relatives too.

For 8 months she turned down the role of her life. Last night she won an Oscar for her role in that performance. Watch this. Sandra Bullock accepts the Oscar. Please welcome, this years Academy Award Winner for Best Actress, Sandra Bullock.  She says she never left the theater, she stayed here and drank then changed her clothes. Really she went and slept for 2 hours. Oprah asks if she was prepared to win this, even though she was favorite and has won other awards. No, says Sandra, up until that point, nothing in her career has led to this moment, all her films have been good personal choices but nothing like this. Oprah says she liked Sandra’s comment do I really deserve this or did I just wear you all down? Sandra says that you feel that you don’t know if you are worthy of it. Oprah asks about the kiss with Meryl Streep. Sandra says that they have a thing and why is it so hard to believe that Meryl may be attracted to her? In this business, they pit women against each other all the time, they don’t do that to the men, and Sandra wondered how do they diffuse this? She decided to kiss her- take the humor. Oprah says that’s so interesting and that speaking to Meryl last night, she said some of the same things, her love for the others and the camaraderie. Sandra says that they became a sorority this last few months. They are all so different, how do you pick one? So she is just the representative for all five of them. Look at Gaby and Kerry who just started out.  Oprah says she loved when Sandra pointed at her husband and said I have that. He has stood behind her through all this. Sandra says that he does manual labor all day and if he stops working then 80 people stop and a lot of things fall apart. So for him to come to award ceremonies is huge, to get him out of bed and dress him in a suit. Her words of wisdom about her mom, Oprah loved. Sandra says that the good mommas are the tough mommas. Her mom said to Sandra if she ever won an award not to cry, but as Sandra says she’s dead so she doesn’t know. They talk of her floating around up there, guiding you through it says Oprah. Oprah asks her what she’ll do with the rest of the day. It hasn’t yet sunk in. She has her Oscar with her in a bag. What do you carry an Oscar in? Sandra hopes that Louis Vuitton will make her something for Oscar. Sandra hasn’t decided yet what to do today. She’ll have lunch with the husband, the burger she’s been wanting for 3 months, a juicy burger with fries, a saucer of ice cream. The dress was special, just gorgeous with vintage beading. Congratulations says Oprah.

Nate Berkus was backstage last night. He asked Sarah Jessica Parker how the children are- they’re wonderful, they’re sleeping soundly. Sh will fly back after the ceremony, get a very early flight to be back in time to feed them. Nate says that’s so cute. Sarah says that they are worth flying home for.

Ante asks Steve Carell how he is. Steve asks how Nate is, They continue.

Thanks to the Academy for allowing them to be the only show ever to broadcast from the Oscar’s stage. The next guest swept all the awards for her soul-stirring performance in Precious, and it was no surprise last night when she became Oscar-ified.  Welcome the Academy Award Winner for Best Supporting Actress, Mo’Nique. They hug, Oprah nearly cries. Oprah loved when the audience stood up last night when she accepted the award, Mo’Nique loved it too. Oprah thought that Mo’Nique would stand up and thank God but she instead thanked the Academy for rewarding a performance, not politics. Oprah says that lots of people didn’t know what she was taking about. Oprah called her and she said that she’d be with her kids. She says it wasn’t so much that she wasn’t going to campaign- she was on Oprah. Its just that she is a talk show host, actress, comedian, wife and mother. When she got called on a Sunday morning, she was in bed with her man and her babies watching Curious George.

Oprah says Mo’Nique’s style last night was channeling Hattie McDaniel. Mo’Nique says that she carries her. Last night was really special because she could hear her whispering in her ear. As she was going through makeup, something strange happened, she got a letter and a gardenia flower from a family member of Hattie McDaniel. (The first african American to win an Academy Award in 1939) Sitting there waiting for the nominees to be called, she thought about what Hattie went through. Mo’Nique says. “Because of her, it’s why you sit where you sit. I sit where I sit. Sandra sits where she sits. She did so much for all of us. So I’m very proud.”

Oprah asks in that moment when her name was called- Spielberg once said to Oprah that there is a moment when you hear your name and say please- did she expect her name to be called? Mo’Nique says that is so vain and she won’t be part of it. Because if she’d had that attitude, the universe would have turned it around. Oprah says Mo’Nique was so inside herself when she went to the stage, she did not waver. Mo’Nique doesn’t want to take all of that credit. Her husband and her have the best conversations in the bathroom. When they read the script he said Momma, people get Oscar’s for this if they play it right, and then she played it right. They had that conversation again yesterday. She celebrated with barbeque chicken, Uncle Anrdre’s is the best in LA. She and her husband went home and giggled. Well deserved.

Nate asks Rachel McAdams, about her dress, She says that Jake Gyllenhaal is mad at her, Jake says he was nervous that she’d fall and he wouldn’t be able to catch her. Nate has to untangle her from the microphone.

The Awards last night went out to 200 countries, where they appreciated the best of the best. Jeff Bridges’ roll as a washed-up cowboy has been called career crowning. Welcome the Academy Award WInner for Best Actor, Jeff Bridges. They all hug. Oprah asks how the last 12 hours have felt. Jeff says its like a magic slate toy, everything is clear. He felt his folks in the air, Jeff says that they are still hanging out in the theater. He says all your preconceptions go out of the window, you can never prepare for these things. Oprah says that his performance felt effortless, like it flowed from him. He says that acting is like a magic trick; it’s an illusion. He let it rip and there it was. He had such fun playing with all his buddies. He thanked his daughters and said that he wouldn’t be here without them. He says that goes in part with his wife, his family. He heard from Francis Coppola that getting married is the best thing for an actor to do- all the films are about love, and supporting a family gives a reason to do it. It gets you involved in what life’s all about. Oprah says that you can feel the love, with all of them on the stage, that their spouses are their fuel. None of these 3 on stage have the perfunctory thanking of spouses of years past. Oprah asks how he celebrated- he says delicately, he had a flush cycle and then he blew it with champagne at the hotel. He’s had about 4 hours sleep. From here he will go to a play with the Cohen Brothers, and then they’ll fly to Santa Fe and start the movie. He is done celebrating, he has work to do.

Nate asks Cameron Diaz how she doesn’t look tired, and she says red lipstick is the key so that people don’t look anywhere else.

The next winner went toe to toe with Brad Pitt in Inglorious Basterds. Please welcome Christoph Waltz, Academy Award Winner for Best Supporting Actor. He toasted his big win with Quentin, who he loves. Quentin is a tough strict director. He is known for his crazy antics but there is another side to him sensitive and polite. Immensely polite says Oprah. She asks him how it is to become an overnight sensation at 53. It was still overnight, it just took longer. His phone is ringing off the hook, he wanted to get his 1 1/2 hours of sleep. Oprah asks if it felt different to get an Academy Award- yes, he was more nervous than ever before, for good reason, he blanked out completely and barely recognized his name. He was told afterwards that he was in shock and wouldn’t remember in the morning, like he was in a hospital, which he was grateful for because it is true.

Orphan hears that his 5 year old has been dressing his Awards- she makes installations with each one and he photographs them. He always thinks what’s next, but not in connection with this. Last night he thought he’d never be on this stage again in his life, and here he is with Oprah, so what does he know? Oprah asks if he’s thought about this in his life- a long time ago, when you start out you think of it. 3 weeks after you start you are faced with reality and forget about this. So if it does happen, it is a shock. He studied opera for a while and decided acting was the easy way out. Oprah asks for a note, he says that it has been 30 years so he gives her a note-A he says. Oprah asks if he has any words for those struggling wondering where the next job will come from. He says that general advice is misplaced, someone could take you seriously. He never would have believed that he would end up on this stage. He found being the mean guy infinitely more fun than being good.

Nate Berkhus is finally standing in the Architectural Digest Green Room where all the celebrities had been all night. Pretty nice, huh? It’s beautiful, he say. Barbara Streisand tells him that she looks for the time when the best director award is not about gender.

For the first time in 82 years, a woman won Best Director, says Oprah. Congratulations to Katherine Bigelow, and to The Hurt Locker team. There was another history-making moment that the LA Times called an upset. Oprah was so happy for Geoffrey Fletcher who was the first African American man to win Best Screenwriter for Precious. Clearly overwhelmed, take a look. When he accepted his award he said that he was drawing a blank but thanked everyone. Oprah says that she was willing him to speak because he had someone to thank, she calls him up to the stage for a Do-Over. He says that he was overcome and it was unexpected. He has some of his wits about him, so he thanks Saphire  for writing the brilliant book, Lee Daniels for the life-changing opportunity, Oprah Winfrey and Tyler Perry and the entire cast and crew. The cast showed him how much actors can elevate the spoken word. It is an honor for any screenwriter to have their pages populated by such fine actors.

Oprah thanks all the guests. Here is Matt Damon when Nate asks his favorite moment so far. Matt says when Geoffrey won. Matt says that they were in the same Freshman dorm at Harvard, and all of a sudden he’s won an Oscar, and that’s amazing.  Nate tells Zoe Saldana that she’ll be on the best dressed list because she looks amazing.  She thanks him and says her mom will be delighted and that she has a great stylist who got her this wonderful Givenchy dress. She was speechless when she saw it.

Stylemaker to the stars, Carsson Kressley, is here. Oprah asks him how he summed up last night? He says that last night was a great vigorous wow, with wow dresses. His top 5’s.

5. Anna Kendrick from Up in the Air. It was pretty and floaty and her character in the movie was so harsh that this was a nice change of pace for her.

4. Queen Latifah who has never looked better than in this blush pinky orchard color mermaid dress, one shoulder, flattering and perfect hair, perfect accessory and worked well for her shape.

3. Vera Farmiga in a love or hate dress; he loved it. This was a powerful standout dress. Vera said that she loved the dress and doesn’t care what anyone thought. Carsson agrees, he says that the Oscars are like your wedding and so you should wear what you love. He says that is his advice for everyone when dressing.

2. His wow dress, Jennifer Lopez was unbelievable, she looked amazing. Architectural shapes were a trend on the runway. It was pale pink, and she knows how to rock it; Jenny from the Block.

1. Sandra Bullock, and not just because she was here. It is a fitted liquid metallic with heavy vintage beading, and it looked like she was here to collect her Oscar. She was so modest saying that she didn’t know if she would win. Her stylist knew she’d win, says Carsson, and dressed her to match it. The cameras show her leaving, gesticulating call me to Oprah.

For more reviews by Carsson, check out Oprah.com. He had fun out there.

Oprah asks Nate if he had a good time, he did. She says he did a great job out  there and it’s a hard job. Special thanks to all of their friends at Sprint and to the Academy allowing them to come back year after year. She thanks the team. You can see more of Nate’s exclusive backstage action on Oprah.com. While you are there, take the pledge; all of tonight’s guests have. If they can do it, you should too.

WHAT WE LEARNED TODAY:

Sandra Bullock hopes that Louis Vuitton will make her a little something to carry her Oscar.

Mo’Nique and her husband and have their best conversations in the bathroom. He calls her Momma.

It is a little-known fact that Quentin Tarantino is immensely polite.

Cameron Diaz recommends red lipstick to take attention away from tired faces.

Carsson Kressley says that dressing fro the Oscars is like dressing for your wedding day; wear what you love.

A VERY QUICK SUMMARY:

At the Oscars, Sandra Bullock felt the presence of her deceased mother, Jeff Bridges felt his parents and Mo’Nique felt Hattie McDaniels.

It mainly is a joy to come into work every day with these incredibly smart people. The evening news is still such a powerful place in America for muscling up to get something done, and that’s what she loves. Where you wake up every morning and say, ‘Don’t tell us we can’t get answers.’ Yes, they will. They’re going to get answers. Oprah asks what time she got up for the morning show- 3:45 to 4:00am. Sometimes she talked herself out of it. In her sleep she had a whole series of dreams designed to talk her out of why she didn’t have to get up early and how this was going to be an easier day.”

Oprah recalls it was going to be for 3 months, and 11 years later…. Don’t invite me to your house, says Diane.

Charlie was leaving and she knew all the people at ABC. One of her biggest adjustments to evening news, Diane says, was getting used to how little time you have to deliver. “In the morning you have two hours and you can kind of say what you think, and suddenly you’re compressed to a much shorter amount of time and you want to make every sentence matter,” she says. To come in in the morning and to be able to say that this matters, like the Toyota story they broke.

Everyone keeps telling them that it is too complicated the fees on credit card bills- no it isn’t, they’ll explain it and that matters. Oprah says she’s rearranged her whole schedule in order to watch Diane at 5.30pm each day. She could not believe that one day Diane was in Afghanistan, and the next she was in Haiti, how did she do that? “We’re sitting in Afghanistan, we finished our reporting there over several days and we look up at the crawl and it says there’s a challenge in Haiti and everybody said, ‘Rebook, reschedule,’” she says. “We flew straight to Europe. Europe to New York. Threw bags off, got the other bags because one was cold and one was hot, went to Haiti. It took me three tries to get in that morning. We stayed up all night. We just kept pushing until we finally got in on this teeny helicopter that morning and we made it in time.”

Oprah said how are you literally standing up? With no disrespect to the devastation, how was she doing this with time zone and jet lag and so on? Diane has said that she needs to be in rehab for her curiosity. At times, like in the security line at the airport, she thinks that she just cannot do it. But it is just a burst of energy from what people need to know about the sheer moment by moment courage of these people in the middle of this impossible devastation. Oprah reiterates that it just shouldn’t take 4 days to get water to people. Diane says that 69% of funds hadn’t been spent, there still aren’t tents and latrines in places, and she still doesn’t understand a world that lets doctors use vodka for anesthesia and cleaning wounds, and they have been trying to sterilize shoe laces and tie up wounds.

Diane takes the cameras with her for a day in her life… Take a look. She gets up at 7, after a decade of 3.45, to wake up and be normal. She eats at 11am, she has a cucumber soup and zucchini for lunch. She goes to the office. She has to be ready to go live at a moments notice, so the first stop is the makeup chair. She is usually in the newsroom, she goes to a meeting with a congressman and puts on grown-up clothes. Her trainer came by with a yoga mat and weights in the hope that she’ll start working out again. She says that the weights are too heavy, that’s not going to work out. Lunchtime, she eats soup from home in a plastic cup. Upstairs for a newsbrief. She meets with the team behind closed doors to finalise the show. An hour to go, crunch time. She says that she is so lucky because everywhere that she has worked has been a different way of doing things. If they can make the world see things a little differently, it’s been a good day.

Diane started out in 1967 as a weather girl at WLKY in her hometown of Louisville, Kentucky. The Oprah show called them up to get some old photos. Look at you. “I was terrible,” she says. “I didn’t wear contact lenses then and I couldn’t actually see the West Coast. I was giving my impression of the West Coast most of the time.”

Diane’s done thousands of interviews, Oprah asks who was her favorite interview. She says the ones she likes most have been with young children with big dreams. “My favorites are when I get to go to Appalachia and talk to the kids up there. The remarkable kids who in the midst of horizons about this big are dreaming of a future as wide as everybody else,” she says. Diane’s also struck by the interviews that leave her wondering what just happened, she says. “Like Saddam Hussein,” she says. “I was asking him if he had killed people and I was asking why he had those big portraits of himself up there. Wasn’t it kind of embarrassing at the very least?” She was momentarily afraid of getting out with the tapes.

Diane’s reported from plenty of danger zones but says she is rarely afraid. “Something just blocks out everything but why you’re there and the purpose of why you’re there,” she says. “I remember being afraid once, and it was in a Civil War in Africa and some kids with AK-47s took us out into the countryside in a concrete space and I thought, ‘I’ve done this to my crew.’” Sometimes her curiosities take her too far.

Oprah asks which was her worst interview, Diane says getting celebrities to open up can be hard. “They’re so shy,” she says. “I don’t know why we think they should be able to come on talk shows. Because the definition of what that is, is to be interior and to have everything be all folded in and so that to be sitting there with somebody who just can’t talk…. it’s a struggle.” Joaquin Phoenix was a struggle, and he got in her lap because there was nothing else for them to do. Oprah had to pull him out of the Green Room. John Travolta is holding him up on strange. Barbara Walters said Warren Beatty was her worst. Oprah doesn’t have a worst interview. Oprah says when shy people come on a talk show and don’t want to talk, its very irritating.

Oprah asks what Diane and her husband of 21 years, legendary director Mike Nichols do that they haven’t been able to do for the last 11 years. He said to me the other day, ‘You know, there’s just more of you now.’ And I know what he means,” She used to have a universal expression of high eyebrows and wide open eyes which meant either I am fascinated by you or I’m asleep. She now listens to him. They have time in the evening. They cook. It’s like kids, they can’t believe they get to stay up so late and they’ll cook really late. They stay up until 2:00 or 3:00 in the morning because they’re talking. Even though she was home in the afternoon a lot of the time before, you don’t talk the same way. It’s that day is done and let’s really learn about each other all over again every day.

Oprah says wow they have a special relationship. Oprah says that the funniest email was when Oprah asked her how to keep basil fresh in the refrigerator. Diane was trying to research for Oprah, and called Oprah to tell her to use a shower cap for the basil. Oprah says that doesn’t work. Then Oprah asks if Diane got the thing she sent for Christmas, a set of basil keepers. Diane says yes and they go to break.

Live in Chicago with Diane Sawyer of the ABC Evening News. The lack of hoopla was deliberate- they wanted to make sure that there was no time without a person there after Charlie left. Diane says the news is ultimately about the stories being told, not the person telling it. It’s about the work, the purpose you have, what you actually accomplish, whether you change people’s lives. That’s ultimately the signature of the broadcast.

Oprah says that the first time she saw the evening broadcast, she thought Diane has finally come home. She is finally in the space that she really belongs. Not that she didn’t do a great job on the morning show, but Oprah would see her sometimes bouncing on a trampoline and think what is she doing? Diane says it feels right, she likes that it feels concentrated, she is thinking more and more. Leonard Cohen says as you get older what do you do today to feel a hero. Today she feels every day has something great to do and great to bring. She is energized and the world is a big place. Oprah says that she is the best looking 64 year old, everyone cheers. This is what 64 is, oh my goodness.

Oprah wants to talk about the horror story of this week, 17 year old honor student Chelsea King who went missing after a jog in San Diego and her body was found and now a registered sex offender has been arrested in connection with her murder. Diane says that Chelsea’s family have been incredible through t’his. As a country we are back with the question, what do we do with them. 75% do not reoffend, but the 25% who do reoffend are the cause of this great problem in American justice. The calculation as to whether they will or not, and Oprah’s amazing conversation with offenders which showed that they are not all made alike- to make that decision or to make the decision that theres a certain person  they have what is called an indeterminate sentence, and that’s it.

Oprah says that it is wonderful to see Diane and to know that she’s in a space where she can really, fully be all that she is meant to be, makes Oprah very happy. They hold hands. Oprah says that 30 year old John Albert Gardener, a registered sex offender has been charged with the rape and murder of Chelsea King. He is in solitary confinement without bail. If convicted, he could face the death penalty. He has plead not guilty to all the charges, Oprah has to let us know.

Oprah asks Diane if she’ll do the no-phone zone pledge. Yes. She will be flying back to host the news at 630pm eastern and will be wearing the same shirt unless she spills tomato juice on it.

12 Grammy awards and 30 million albums sold, all before age 30, Alicia Keyes is teaming up with fellow superstar Beyonce Knowles, can you imagine the two of them together? Come on out Alicia. Show off, show off says Oprah. What you doing girl, that is too cute, says Oprah. Alicia says that she wanted to brighten it up with a little sparkles. Oprah asks what she’s doing? Alicia likes to call it her lifestyle, focusing on eating well and having a good workout regimen. Oprah says she heard it was after watching the documentary Food, Inc. Alicia says yes, to the point where she was asking everyone if they had seen it. March 11th Oprah says they will be airing it again, it’s a good program.  “I’ve always been conscious about how I’ve eaten, and so that just made me eat even better,” she says. “So I just feel really good. I’m really happy. I’m in a great space. I feel really positive.”

She’s on tour right now, she was in Chicago on Wednesday night, Chicago was amazing they love Chicago. Oprah says that if it was warmer, the whole world would be in Chicago. Oprah says that people are much friendlier if she comes back in July, right now they are just trying to get inside out of the cold.

Oprah asks about the duet with Beyonce. Alicia says she and Beyonce have wanted to work together for years. They’ve been friends for a little while now, and were able to grow up together in the business. “They were both on Columbia Records at the same time, and so have been able to watch each other flourish.

She knew that recording her album was the right time to do a duet, so they recorded “Put It in a Love Song” Wow, says Oprah. “We had so much fun,” she says. “It was insane, and the people were just unbelievable.” They recorded the video in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; the crowd applaud.

Oprah says that there are some really hot photos, did the press go insane? Everyone came out to see them, wherever they were… Oprah say that she’d have come and seen them.

Oprah says it is amazing, that Alicia is celebrating 10 years in the music business, and Oprah remembers that the first time Alicia was here at barely 20 years old she did her national TV debut on the Oprah show. Look at her braids and her tuxedo thing. Now she has sold millions of albums, and won 12 Grammy awards. Oprah says that Alicia, of all people has been able to hold on to that space inside herself and she does that so beautifully in this crazy world. Alicia says first of all thank you very much for that compliment, that means alot to her. Her family and having people who truly love her and know who she is on the inside around her, very close are a big part of that. And being conscious about others keeps her grounded. Oprah has been a huge supporter of her and her work with Keep A Child Alive and that allows her to be part of the world, which means the world to her. Oprah knows Alicia is going back to Africa- yes she’s taking five Americans with her and if you text “alive” to 9099 you could be part of that trip to see what changed her life. The clinics and orphanages that she is part of, and the beautiful people there. That is important to keep her grounded in the bigger picture. “I think really being conscious about others is a very big part of what keeps me grounded,” she says. “I’m able to really see what happens in the world. I understand people’s experiences.” Oprah says that the way to stay grounded is to take what you have to give and share it with the world. Alicia feels you learn so much about yourself, “It makes you feel good, and I feel like you learn so much about yourself. You learn that there’s more than just what meets the eye, in our four walls,” she says. “It makes you feel like kind of super fly.” Super fly says Oprah.

Oprah asks how her new world tour is going. “It’s amazing,” she says. “This time, I have to say, I feel more powerful and more strong than ever before. I feel more motivated, more dedicated, more focused.” They’re going to Detroit, Canada, New York, the West Coast. She’s calling the world tour The Freedom Tour. Alicia has a huge hit out now with Jay-Z “Empire State of Mind”. Since she was a teenager, Alicia says she’s dreamed of working with Jay Z. “When I was 16 years old and trekking into Columbia Records with my Timberlands on and my headphones on, I was riding on a train listening to him” she says. “Fast forward all these years later, and we’re both from New York. We have this really powerful song that resonates with the world, because it’s about achieving your dreams.” It’s become a New York anthem. It’s amazing, they both say.

Oprah asks who she’d like to work with. She likes to work with interesting people like Jack White, that was good. She’d love to work with Kings of Leon. “I love an artist named M.I.A. who’s like really kind of quirky and has her own style. I love that.” She’d love to work with Prince. With Prince, says Oprah, that would be interesting. Prince if you’re watching, says Oprah.

This is the new CD the Element of Freedom, where Oprah says that Alicia looks beautiful on the cover. She sings the new song, “Try Sleeping With A Broken Heart”. Oprah says “you go into a zone at the piano girl, I love it”

So much fun, says Oprah, that was their flash mob with the Black Eyed Peas. Ocoee Florida Middle School used The Oprah Show flashmob as inspiration to get fellow teenagers to read. Take a look at this, it’s about something she loves.

Students hold up books and perform to people singing about reading books. That’s so cool, says Oprah,  Joining via satellite; the principal, reading coach and student body of the school. The Principal was dancing in the front of the video, it was an amazing day and she wanted to inspire the school. It was the reading coach’s idea, she saw the Oprah Show and wanted to get the whole school out on the lawn to do that. Oprah asks if its difficult to get teens to read when they have so many distractions. With their other interests, especially those who struggle, not being able to read well can affect your whole life. Being seen with a book is not always cool, and they wanted to change that. Oprah notices that everyone in the video had a book in their hand, did they go the library? They were asked to bring out their favorite book, and if they didn’t bring one, the teachers helped them out. Oprah asks to speak to Danny and asks him what it was like to be in the flashmob.  Danny says it was just amazing, oh my gosh, getting all these kids dancing and making a music video and getting on her show, it’s so awesome, oh my goodness. Oprah says that talking about reading is a good way to get on her show. Another student Alex says that it was so much fun and even those who didn’t know each other got out together and that now people are reading so much more and passing their tests and their scores are through the roof. That’s fabulous says Oprah.

Oprah has heard that the school library is outdated- it was built for 1100 students and now they have 1700 students so it needs an upgrade. Target are giving them 2000 books and a wall to wall facelift of the library so they have comfy seating so they can keep reading and reading. Thanks to Target who do great things for education across the country, revamping K-12 libraries. Yay Target. Oprah tells the school that they have to go back to class now. Watch the Oscar show and don’t text and drive.

WHAT WE LEARNED TODAY:

Diane Sawyer says she should be in rehab for her curiosity

Diane Sawyer doesn’t understand a world that lets doctors use vodka for anesthesia and cleaning wounds

At lunchtime, Diane Sawyer eats soup from home in a plastic cup.

Oprah says when shy people come on a talk show and don’t want to talk, its very irritating.

Oprah says that Alicia Keyes, of all people, has been able to hold on to that space inside herself and she does that so beautifully in this crazy world

A VERY QUICK SUMMARY:

The way to stay grounded is to take what you have to give and share it with the world.

Nick Schuyler a personal trainer, had befriended NFL players Corey Smith and Marquis Cooper at his gym. Marquis was married with a 3-year-old daughter he adored. An experienced fisherman, he often took friends out on his 21-foot boat. Corey, the youngest of six from a tight-knight family, had just finished his season with the Detroit Lions. At the last minute, Nick invited his best friend, Will Bleakley, to join them.

On a chilly Saturday morning the men left a launch in Clearwater, Florida, at 6:30 a.m. They dropped anchor 70 miles away off the Gulf of Mexico. In late afternoon, when the weather turned, they decided to turn back. And then disaster struck. The boat flipped, tossing all 4 into the rough open water 70 miles from the shore. When the group didn’t return home, Marquis’ friend called the coastguard at 1.27am. The coastguard began the search but they only knew that the boat was a single engine boat, they knew the size and the passengers, but not the location. Nick’s sister got the call on Sunday morning that they were missing. Their Mom knew instantly that something had happened to Nick.

Coast guards helicopters planes and boats faced grueling conditions and 14 feet waves. Looking for the white speck of the upturned boat was like looking for a fingernail in a shag carpet. Overnight temps dropped to 40 degrees, hypothermia became a major concern.  “All the processes in the body just slow down, so your mind starts to slow down and you cannot think,” Dr. Mark Rumbak says. “One of the main symptoms of hypothermia is the hallucinations, and you could become very aggressive. You could just start fighting and you could start beating somebody up, or just slipping off your clothes and just running away. You just become very confused and could do something that may, in fact, cause your death.”

When reporters found out that 2 NFL players were missing, it triggered a media frenzy. Nick’s mother was beside herself. She remembers thinking that if they don’t find them when its light, they’ll be in trouble.

On Monday morning, the weather finally broke and the Coast Guard intensified their search. After days of searching for over 2 days for more than 24,000 square miles of ocean, a lookout made a miraculous discovery at 11:46 a.m. “It turned out to be the white upside-down hull of the boat,” Capt. Close says. “Then they saw Nick sitting there with his life jacket.”

Theres’ only one person who knows what happened on that boat. The sole survivor, Nick Schuyler is here today, welcome Nick. Oprah says that it was a boys trip and at some point Nick became sea sick, so he had his ski jacket on.  Everyone else wore wind pants and wind jackets. Marquis had shorts on. They knew a storm was coming and they had talked about not going out so far. Still, Nick says they decided to go all the way out. It was one of Marquis’ favorite spots. Nick says he’s not an avid fisherman, but Marquis knew what he was doing. It was his last weekend before he left to Oakland for camp, and he wanted to make one last trip.

Around 4pm they realized that they needed to head back. When Marquis decided to turn the boat around they realized the anchor was stuck. Nick says the same thing happened the week before when he, Corey and Marquis were fishing in the same spot. They had to cut the line and leave the anchor behind.  This time, Nick says Marquis didn’t want to lose another anchor. They tried a couple different maneuvers and turned the boat around and pulled it from every which angle. The anchor’s rope was attached to the front of the boat. Will suggested untying the rope, reattaching it to the back and gunning the engine to move the anchor. “Our intention was, ‘Okay, if we gun the motor, we’re either going to rip this thing out or the line’s going to snap,’” Nick says. Oprah asks why they didn’t cut it like the previous week- they didn’t want to waste another $200. No one thought that it would flip the boat or that it was a dangerous move.

As Marquis gunned the engine, Nick says the boat began to flip. “Marquis was driving. Within maybe two seconds, it slowly flipped over to the left. The water was very cold, 64-degrees. They attempted to flip it back, there’s nothing to hold on to, there’s no leverage. Physics worked against them. They were in shock. The waves were already crashing in, they were tired and didn’t have life jackets on.

The tragedy made headlines around the world. With the lifejackets trapped underneath the boat, they were left stranded clinging to the boat. Oprah says that the book is one of the most harrowing stories of survival that she has ever read.

Nick says Marquis kept apologizing. ‘I’m so sorry you guys,’ Marquis said after about a half hour in the water. He must have said it ten times, he felt it was his fault because he was the captain. There’s these stories out there that Marquis was an inexperienced boater, which is absolutely not the truth. He knew what he was doing. He had been on the water a hundred times, a thousand times, and he was an experienced fisherman. Who would think that a 1” rope would flip this boat with 4 big guys on it? In the beginning they thought they’d get out of it. Oprah asks if they had been drinking. Cory didn’t drink, Marquis was leaving town so Nick had thought they’d have a whole lot of beer and that Cory would drive the boat back. But with the conditions, that was not the case- Nick had 2 beers over 4 or 5 hours. Everyone was coherent when this happened.

Will took charge and took off his clothes to swim under the boat. Marquis would give instructions and Will would go and look. He was able to swim underneath the boat several times and retrieved three life vests and a floating seat cushion. Nick says Will gave everyone a life jacket and strapped the seat cushion onto his own back. That’s quite a friend says Oprah. Absolutely says Nick.

As darkness fell, Nick says the men assumed their positions on and around the boat. They worked together through the night to help each other. Marquis was face-down, straddling a cooler on top of the exposed bow. Nick was next to Marquis, crouching with one foot on the hull of the boat and the other on the swim platform. At Nick’s feet, Will perched on the swim platform next to the engine. At Marquis’ feet, Corey held on to the boat, the only one submerged in water.

Oprah reads an extract from the book on page 49 stating that Marquis was insecure. As conditions deteriorated, the waves threw them from the boat over and over again. “We’d hear them approach and scream, ‘Hold on,’ trying to brace ourselves.” It was like trying to ride a bucking bronco. Marquis must have come off the boat 20 or 30 times. Nick probably came off 15, sometimes you’d be thrown off just as you were climbing back on. There was a grim determination and a lot of Oh my God’s. At first they were Oh my God I can’t believe this is happening, and then they were Oh my God this might be it.

By about 10pm that night they realized that it was deeply serious. Nick says Corey kept stating, ‘No way in hell I’m going out like this.’ Corey had a waterproof watch on with a light so they could keep track of time. Oprah says at some point Will brought up a bag of cellphones. Yes, says Nick, Will was able to find a ziplock bag with cell phones- without Will, Nick wouldn’t be here today. Nick was trying to make calls or texts to 911, and all it says was ‘Connecting, connecting, connecting,’. He was trying to conserve the battery but also hoped that they’d float closer to a cell phone tower.

Nick has written about his terrifying ordeal in the book Not Without Hope. After 9 hours in the sea, Marquis and Corey started to show signs of hypothermia, like aggression and disorientation. Oprah remembers that at 2.30am they noticed a change in Marquis. They’d been talking through the night, but then Marquis began to get very quiet. “So we’d be like: ‘Coop! Coop!’ And he wouldn’t answer at first. … Some time would pass, 10 seconds later… ‘Yeah, I’m all right.’ They didn’t think anything of it, they were frightened but were thinking that they’d be rescued. They knew that Marquis’ wife would call at midnight if they weren’t back.

Nick says they talked about their families and what they would change in their lives. Will had mentioned stuff about being closer to his brother, Blake. Marquis just talked about how much he loved his family and Delaney, his little girl. They all had a million thoughts going on that this could be it.

Marquis started to lose some motor functions, and he started to foam at the mouth. Nick says Marquis also began to hallucinate. He kept saying things like: ‘I need to get underneath the boat. I need to cut the rope. I need to get the anchor,’ Nick says. At that point, he knew, okay, we’re in deep trouble. That wasn’t Marquis. That’s not the kind of guy he is. The elements were definitely taking him in.

They were being pounded by the waves and taking in salt water. They show again the footage of the doctor saying that hypothermia may make you do things which will endanger your life. Nick says he did everything he could to keep Marquis from leaving the boat. He positioned himself up on the boat where he straddled the motor. He had pulled him up with the help of the other guys, and pretty much bear hugged him. Around 4 a.m. on Sunday, Nick was still holding onto Marquis. They had been in this position for roughly over an hour, and it was a fight to hold him down; he was trying to struggle to get away. They were all saying to him ‘Hold on. They’ll be here any minute. Relax, Coop. You’re good. We’ve got the anchor.’

Oprah asks Nick to talk about letting go of Marquis. Nick and Will had checked Marquis’ pulse a few times, and then Will said, ‘He’s not there.’ At that point, they tried to flip him over and give him CPR, which was virtually impossible with the waves. The hypothermia was setting in with Corey, who was becoming disorientated; aggressive and pulling on all of them. Nick said Corey was starting to fight as well, whichwas not Corey. “The hypothermia was definitely set in,” he says. “There was no way that I could hold onto Corey and Marquis at the same time.” Nick had to decide what to do. Nick says he faced an impossible decision. If he didn’t let Marquis’ body go, he couldn’t help Corey. If he held on, he could lose them both. ‘I just kept telling Coop, ‘Coop, I’m so sorry,’ he says. Will said that he had to let Marquis go, and Nick agreed. It was the worse thing. He let him go, and Marquis slowly sunk. He rolled off Nick’s right side and Nick watched him until he couldn’t see him anymore.

Oprah asks if there was a moment to grieve- no Corey was much more verbal and aggressive than Marquis had been. He was very aggressive, screaming. Saying some things that they had never heard Corey even joke about. Which, once again, was not Corey. He said things like I’m going to kill you, clarifies Oprah. He said things that were hard to take in, but it is hard to forget the last words says Nick. Oprah says that he was literally out of his mind. Yes, says Nick and he was literally using his legs to leapfrog off the boat. Nick was holding on with his right hand, and Corey was shooting, so he was literally ripping Nick’s arm trying to get away. He had jumped one time across the back of the motor, and he had sliced my hand, sliced my arm on the motor prop, Nick says. In that moment, Nick says he let go of Corey. Corey then jumped into the water. He was roughly 6, 8 feet off the boat and they couldn’t reach him at that point. Corey ripped off his life jacket and rolled his body forward in the water. He kind of did a swan dive and put his feet in the air and just kicked down. They didn’t see him after two seconds.

Nick was left with his best friend in the world. They’d been in the water for 15 hours. Will told Nick something he says he’ll never forget. “He said, ‘I don’t think I’m going to make it another night,’ Nick says he didn’t say anything at first then he said  ‘They’re going to find us today.’

Will began to display the same signs as the others; he wasn’t aggressive, he was helpless. Nick was fending for both of them at that point, they were operating on 20%. The waves continued to batter them, pulling them off the boat and into the cold, churning water. After a while, Will could no longer pull himself back on the boat. He didn’t have the strength. Nick was trying to pull up a 225-pound man with not a whole lot of leverage. Will went in the water one time, and his life jacket shot up. It kind of choked him. His first reaction was, ‘I’m going to take the jacket off.’ So he took the jacket off, and within a few seconds that thing was yards away. I thought about going to get the jacket, but then I’d have to leave Will, jacketless, alone.” Nick held him for some time with the waves banging banging, banging. He was on one side of the motor. Nick was on the other. They both kept going under, and Will was coughing. That happened probably five or six times. Then one time Nick was calling his name, and he was just not there.

Oprah asks if Will had drifted off. No, says Nick  Will was dead. Nick says he fought to hold onto his friend’s body. “I was beyond devastated. I tried to climb back up on the boat holding a literally lifeless body,” he says. “He just got away from me, and there wasn’t a whole lot that I could do.” Nick watched as his friend’s body slowly disappeared into the sea. He had to watch his best friend sit there floating in the water. Before he died. Nick said, ‘I love you, man’, and Will said the same.

Oprah reads some of Nicks thoughts from the book “I needed to live long enough to tell the story, even if I was found alive and died later. I felt useless and worthless. It seemed like every time I thought it couldn’t get worse, it got worse. I hoped I would be found, but I experienced what no person should have to experience. It was awful. Three are gone. Now it’s my turn. It’s just a matter of time. I didn’t have any choice but to go on.”

Being sick and the jacket probably saved his life, his mom gave him the jacket. He was alone from Sunday night. “I was very sad,” he says. “I kept thinking about the guys, of course, and my family.”  Oprah says did he ask his Aunt and God if they were up there to help him? Yes. Nick started to say his final prayers. “I kept picturing my family, my mother, particularly,” he says. “I just could not picture my mother attending my funeral. That’s by far the worst thing that any mother would have to go through.”

He never gave up hope, but to see three guys die in his arms, three athletes, and he already had been so sick before they started. Nick says he saw the Coast Guard’s boat approaching but thought it was a hallucination. He was hunched over, “I was like, ‘There’s no way,’” he says. “I kind of stood up for a second and I’m like, ‘Thank you, God.’ I took my jacket off, swung it around like a towel, and I just broke down.”

The lives of the men who died at sea will be remembered for much more than the accident which took their lives. Corey’s family are very proud of his achievements and say that he is deeply missed. His coach at the Detroit Lions says that his heart was bigger than everyone else’s. Marquis Cooper was his parents pride and his sisters biggest fan. His wife misses his smile and his gentle spirit and his daughter Delaney was the joy of his life.

Will Bleakley’s mom, Betty, says her son had a twinkle in his eye and made everything fun. She’s grateful she told Will she loved him the last time she talked to him.

Oprah asks what Nick told Will’s parents about the day he died. He was in the hospital the second day and he knew it was one of those things he had to do. “I wanted to emphasize how without Will, I would not be having this conversation with you right now. Will saved my life.”

Oprah says that there has been controversy over the book. Some of the family members involved believe Nick is profiting from their tragedy. Nick says that he has heard some things too and that unfortunately his relationships with some of the families aren’t where he would like them to be. But at the end of the day, “I’ve said since day one, the most important thing for me has been the Bleakleys, the Smiths, the Coopers and the three guys.”

A few months after the accident, Nick was approached and they said, ‘Here’s the deal: They’re gonna do a book, with or without you,’” he says. “I wanted to do it for the right reasons, for the three guys and their families.” Oprah asks about the money. He has set up a foundation and is giving to charities. Unfortunately he has not been able to speak with the families. The money has never been a thing. He didn’t want to talk about it at first because it was so fresh, a year ago but it feels like a month.

Corey’s family have said that Nick’s depiction of Corey’s last hours as aggressive was not the Corey that they knew. Nick repeatedly stated that it was not the Corey he knew. Corey was the big teddy bear that everyone loved.

Marquis’ wife Rebecca asked Oprah to read following statement: “The last morning I saw Marquis, I kissed him goodbye and told him I loved him, as I have for years. My family and I didn’t get the chance to bring him home, to lay him to rest. I’ve heard conflicting reports stemming from Mr. Schuyler of what happened on the day Marquis, Corey and Will died, but never once heard or been told of my husband’s last words, whether he spoke of Delaney and I. How is it that Mr. Schuyler has enough recollection and material to write a book, yet has never once sat down with our family to tell us how Marquis died?  Marquis was not an inexperienced boater or a careless friend. He was a husband worth fighting for in life, and in his absence still today.”

The hardest thing right now for Nick is this relationship. He has talked to Will’s parents and two of Corey’s sisters and that “More than anything in this world, I would love to tell her the story, and I’ve always wanted to tell her the story,” he says. “I’m willing to do whatever it takes.” The setting was never right to have the conversation, even though they were friendly after the accident. Oprah says this is a lesson everyone facing loss can learn from. “For everybody, there comes a moment when things need to be said and everybody always wants to know the answer to the question, ‘Why?’ … Particularly when somebody dies or there’s an awkward situation. You don’t know what to say, so you end up saying nothing. And then that nothing ends up creating really bad feelings because somebody should have said something, and nobody really knows what to say. Even if you can, just say, ‘I don’t know what to say.’”

Oprah asks if he misses them. Every day. He had only known Marquis for a little while, and Corey even shorter, but he was with Will 2 or 3 times a week. Oprah asks if he’s ok. His friends and family have been out of this world. “Without them, who knows?”

Nick says one of the reasons he wrote Not Without Hope was to help this happen to anyone else. Here’s what the Coast Guard says everyone should take away from his story:

• Boaters should always leave a ‘Float Plan’ with someone ashore—including a description of the boat, names of the people onboard, where exactly they are going, and when they are expected back.
• Boaters should always wear lifejackets.
• Every boat should carry an Electronic Position Indicating Radiobeacon (EPIRB). An EPIRB is water-activated and will broadcast an exact position via satellite to rescue centers.
• Visual distress signals such as flares, strobe lights and even flashlights can be critical in helping the Coast Guard find someone in need of assistance.

Oprah thanks Nick and wishes him well. His life is a testament to live more consciously, so please no more texting in the car. Thank you.

WHAT WE LEARNED TODAY:

One of the main symptoms of hypothermia is the hallucinations

Sufferers become very confused and could do something that may, in fact, cause their death.

Seasickness caused Nick Schuyler to put on his ski jacket, which probably saved his life.

Wear life jackets and tell people exactly where you are going when going out to sea.

Watching 3 of your friends die in your arms is incomprehensibly terrible.

A VERY QUICK SUMMARY:

When something so awful has happened that you don’t know what to say, say something, even if you are saying that you don’t know what to say.

Jessica says that all of that just about destroyed her, come on out Jessica. They hug. Five years it’s been since she was last on the show. She is doing very good. Oprah says that all the tabloid craziness becomes overwhelming, it has to get to you. Jessica hasn’t allowed herself to ignore it, it’s everywhere. The judging voices were in her head when she went to sleep. Her lowest point was the mom jeans conversation, with people talking about her weight for a whole year. They couldn’t stop talking about it. Oprah says that she is so out of it that she saw the picture and and said she really liked the belt. Oprah asks if the conversation about her weight bothers her- of course it does, says Jessica, it would bother any woman. When we first saw her, Jessica had invited cameras into her marriage with Nick. Oprah asks if she feels that she  brought all the attention on herself? Jessica says that she didnt know what she was signing herself up for, but ultimately it is her responsibility, she didn’t know it would be this harsh. Oprah says that she began to feel for Jessica seeing her on the cover of all the major magazines week after week. Oprah thought there’s an entire industry making money on Jessica. The sad part is when it came out, she didn’t want to sit down and talk about it, she felt guilty in case she made people who were bigger than her feel bad. She didn’t want to feed into it. She loves her curves, she doesn’t want to be a size zero. She doesn’t want to look like her role in Daisy Duke every day. Going through security at the airport getting a pat down, the woman said you’re not really big. Jessica celebrates women of all sizes and thinks we are all beautiful. Oprah thanks her and says that she knows how it is to have your weight talked about. She asks about the Playboy article.

Jessica couldn’t read it, she was so disappointed, sad and discouraged, it wasn’t the John she knew. She’s not angry, well a little bit, they dated 2 years on and off. She doesn’t want people to know how she is in bed- it could have been worse, her phone has been ringing off the hook. Oprah understands that she’s angry, there’s a code between people who have shared intimacies – you shouldn’t share that wth the world. Jessica felt absolutely betrayed, she hopes John gets his life together. He apologised, she didn’t accept it. She’ll let it go.

Oprah says its very difficult to be written about, its very hurtful. Who does Jessica go to- her incredible family, her best friends. Jessica says that all the negative press nearly broke her down. The mom jeans incident sparked the idea for her new VH1 series, The Price of Beauty. With her two best friends, celebrity hairstylist Ken Paves and Cacee Cobb, Jessica hits the road to discover the beauty secrets of women around the world. They  traveled to seven different nations to see what lengths women go to in the name of beauty. In every country, local beauty ambassadors helped them discover unique rituals and traditions. In Japan, Jessica and her friends have fish eating pedicures, where the fish eat the dry skin off your feet explored, and in India, they learned about a detoxifying beverage made of cow urine. In Morocco Jessica became interested in learning more about herself to discover the heart of a woman that makes her beautiful.

Oprah says that beauty is all an illusion, it’s what we says it is, or what others say. In Paris, Jessica met Isabel Caro, a former model who nearly starved herself for fashion. She created a controversy with her naked anorexic 62lb body on billboards, to create awareness of eating disorders. Jessica said this story really hit home. Rosemary, their beauty ambassador, told them how models have become obsessed by someone who has been affected by this. Isabel is trying to overcome anorexia, she tells of the fashion designer who told her to lose 10lbs, and that’s how she ended up anorexic.3 years ago she was in a coma, and when she came out of it, then she decided to start eating little by little. Jessica knows of the pressure when people tell you to be skinny, the effect on Isabel scares Jessica for how it can effect so many people. Isabel is trying to get a law passed stating that you can’t model if you are too skinny. Jessica says that what Isabel is doing right now makes her one of the most beautiful people that they have ever seen.

Oprah say that Jessica was deeply affected- it makes Jessica very emotional. The pressure that the media put on women to be thin and beautiful is so unfair, it’s disgusting. If Jessica can do something to make this better, she will, that’s why she did the show. She has never suffered from an eating disorder, although she has tried every fad diet that there is. Oprah asks her if she minds sharing what size she is?  Jessica says that she is a size 4, well she fluctuates from 4-6. The mom jeans were a size 4. Oprah is outraged that the jeans were a 4. Jessica says that she is 5′3″. The largest that she has been is a size 6. Oprah is visibly distressed that Jessica gets called fat at a size 6. Jessica says that she doesn’t want other people to feel fat if they are a 6 or whatever size they are. Oprah says my lord, size 8 is a goal.

Ken Paves is the king of Hollywood hair and has been on the show a bunch of times. Oprah says that he is the nicest most gentle person. Ken says that he came back from their trip embarrassed and ashamed of the industry that he is in. It has alienated so many people like Jessica who feel like they don’t fit within that idea of beauty. What they learned around the world is to celebrate real women, real beauty. Looking around the studio he says he nearly fell off his chair when he saw the audience who are all examples of real beauty. They marvel at the multi-cultured audience. To watch Jessica grow on the mission and watch her become so ok with herself was the greatest part of the journey. Jessica says that no one else can define beauty but herself, no one’s words, compliments or love can define it, only what she has inside herself. She has finally relaxed and she doesn’t care what people says about her weight because she thinks she looks great. Oprah thinks she looks great too. Oprah guarantees this, this is the way the universe works, it always tests us in many ways to see if we really got the lesson. Next week, Oprah predicts, there will be many more stories to test Jessica and it’s just a test, that’s all it is. Oprah hopes she’s got it because she looks beautiful. Thanks to Jessica and Ken.

Maria from Finland reports about the Finnish sauna which is relaxing and good for the skin. They use lingonberry, peat and honey for their skin. Ouside the sauna it’s 5 degrees fahrenheit in the snow and Maria jumps into the snow in her bikini. Oprah thanks Maria for the beauty secret.

China is growing by leaps and bounds and this is having a big impact on the beauty industry. Lisa Ling travels to Shanghai to reports how the Western influence is defining beauty for girls in China. 30 years ago, the pursuit of beauty was banned. Mao required that every man, woman and child was to dress in masculine, military-style uniforms. Any display of femininity—like long hair, makeup or jewelry—were strictly forbidden. If a woman broke the rules, she faced severe punishment. Five years ago, Vogue magazine launched a Chinese edition. Angelica Cheung, the editor-in-chief, says it’s been a success since the first issue hit stands. They were the first Vogue to actually make a profit in the first year. They stll have to teach the basics of style and explain more, for example they have to explain what the 60’s meant in terms of style.  Angelica says, in the past 10 years, women in this Communist country have started to enjoy all that the beauty industry has had to offer. The beauty industry in China is booming. Go into any store that sells cosmetics or skincare products throughout the country, and it will be packed. In fact, next to tourism, automobiles and real estate, beauty is the fourth-biggest industry in the biggest country in the world.

The Western look is all over the place in Shanghai. They go to the worlds first ever Barbie store- Barbie is skinny, blond, blue eyed with big breasts. They interview a teenager  who says that they can’t change their coloring, but they should follow the look of Barbie as much as they can; they should try. A nine year old and ten year old just bought Barbie’s -they really like the blue eyes. They don’t like Chinese dolls.

Lisa joins Oprah by Skype. Oprah says that the Chinese preference for Western beauty, which disturbs Lisa so much, reminds Oprah of the test many years ago when African American girls always chose white dolls over black. Lisa found it to be disturbing, Barbie is an impossible standard to uphold. Over the past decade, Lisa has traveled to China more than a dozen times, and in that time, she’s seen this beauty boom affect women’s lives dramatically. Lisa says that in the early years, it was so obvious when you would see someone from the mainland because she just didn’t really have any style, it wasn’t important, Lisa says. Even in a group of Caucasians, the Chinese women would flock to her -she looked sort of like them but was dressed differently with make up. they were obssessed with what she was. Now, when you go to China, it is so incredibly modern, and you see some of the most stylish women you would see anywhere. It’s changed remarkably in a very short period of time. Oprah asks if this is a good thing? Lisa thinks what’s happening in China is symbolic of what has happened all over the world. “Is it a good thing when women are completely obsessed with enhancing their look and becoming more beautiful? It’s a hard one to say because we all sort of are. … But is it a little sad? It is, because it has changed so quickly. It’s, I think, always unfortunate to see large groups of people becoming sort of slaves to the whole machine, if you will.”

Arni from Bali demonstrates a beauty ritual she does twice a week- she makes a face mask of honey and banana. She has a frangipani flower, they use the oil for aromatherapy. Oprah could live in Bali right now.

Ten years ago, cosmetic surgery was also banned in China, but today, it’s a multibillion-dollar industry. Lisa took cameras inside Shanghai’s Ninth People’s Hospital, one of the largest in the nation, to meet men and women waiting to get nipped and tucked. In the plastic surgery waiting area, she meets a college student and a woman in her 60s. Both women are there for the same modern trend procedure—eyelid reshaping surgery. They both walked in, met their surgeon for the first time and, in just two hours, were on operating tables. Every year, thousands of people request this popular procedure, which reshapes the smaller Asian eyelid into a larger, more Western shape. Dr. Sun Baoshan, a Chinese plastic surgeon, says he’s seen a dramatic increase in patients over the past few years. They still look Asian at the end, he says. “Four years ago, we had only 30,000 surgeries per year here, but last year we had 40,000 cosmetic surgeries at this hospital alone,” Dr. Sun Baoshan says. “This year, it will be 50,000.”

There are 16 operating rooms on one floor, every room is full, some have two beds. The women who had surgeries will go home with a new face, just like ordering off a menu. Oprah is dazzled by the fullness of the waiting room. Lisa has never seen anything like it- the number of people having surgery is staggering, because the country is so much bigger.  The Chinese have always saved their money and now they are splurging a little to enhance their appearance. Oprah asks her to explain the look of the eyelid after surgery- she has down a show on it before and can’t see what it is that people are trying to achieve. The Asian eye has a layer of fat on it which is removed to give more of a Western-style eyelid. In China the best surgeon charges around $300, in the States it probably costs $3000.

Americans are no strangers to extreme plastic surgery, but while in Shanghai, Lisa learns about a radical new procedure that’s gaining popularity in China. Imagine this —leg lengthening. Height is a sign of status, and oftentimes, it’s a prerequisite for success. Minimum height requirements are not unusual for many jobs, for admission to some colleges, even to land a date. The obsession with height hads fueled a shocking controversial surgery which can help patients grow anywhere from a few inches to a full foot.

At the Shanghai Height Increasing Specialized Institute, Lisa meets Dr. Bai Helong, a Chinese doctor who modernized the leg-lengthening procedure. He says his patients want to be taller for many reasons. China has 1.3 billion people, so getting a job is quite difficult. As a result, a short person not only experiences difficulty in getting a job, but also trouble in their marriage, love life, family, career and many other areas. The patients that Lisa met did not want to have their faces on camera. Jessy, a 27-year-old who’s interested in undergoing the procedure, says she’s willing to take a year off work to grow a few inches. Currently, she’s 5′3”. She wants to be 5′6” or 5′7”. Just being tall makes her feel much confidence she says. She’s always jealous when she sees tall girls walking around. I just want to be just like them.” She is nervous and concerned about the risk and pain, but she thinks she can handle it.

Dr. Bai’s patients go to great lengths to stand a few inches above their competition. Pain is definitely a part of the procedure, which is both horrifying and miraculous, Lisa says. To lengthen the leg, holes are drilled into the leg bone and screws are inserted to stabilize an adjustable leg brace. Then, surgeons carefully saw the leg bone in half below the knee. The braces slowly stretch the bones apart. Over time, Dr. Bai says new bone grows into the gap and increases the person’s height. Tony is a professor who has already grown 2 “. He shows Lisa how he turns the screw in the brace 90 degrees to lengthen the gap. He says some people feel a slight tingling, he feels nothing. Most patients are out of commission for at least six months after the surgery, and others remain in seclusion from friends and family for a full year. At this time, the bulky braces are removed, and the new bone is hard enough to withstand normal activity. Jessy says that the opportunity to grow taller offers the opportunity to perfect herself. Oprah asks Lisa about the extremes we all go to to make ourselves acceptable. Lisa says that the patients she spoke to seem happier and more confident. It costs anywhere from $10,000 to $40,000. No one wanted to be on camera, there is still a stigma attached to the procedure. Oprah likens it to people who have facelifts and claim they had a vacation and a haircut.

Uchenna from Nigeria says that in Nigeria beauty goes along with brains. Hair is a big deal, many have brazilian or Indian hair extensions, she calls it the United Nations of Hair. This is seen in stars such as Beyoncé and Riyhanna, its not about not being Nigerian, but by being influenced by what Global stars are doing. The biggest trend in Nigeria is eating the freshest food that you can find to look fabulous. Uchenna joins Oprah by Skype. Oprah asks if the ideal body type is changing. Yes, it used to be that voluptuous women were the ideal, now women are working out, eating less, they have celebrity workout videos for the first time. Oprah thanks her.

Oprah reads an email from Anthony from New Jersey. When he was texting and driving he crashed into a divider. His entire life flashed before his eyes and he heard Oprah’s voice say I told you so. He thanked Oprah for showing him that there is nothing about him that makes him invisible to the dangers 0f being alive. He’s lucky to be alive. Yes you are, says Oprah. Say yes to the pledge, take the no-phone zone pledge. Thank you everybody.

WHAT WE LEARNED TODAY:

Jessica Simpson says that the pressure that the media put on women to be thin and beautiful is so unfair, it’s disgusting.

Jessica says that no one else can define beauty but herself, no one’s words, compliments or love can define it, only what she has inside herself.

Oprah guarantees that this is the way the universe works; it always tests us in many ways to see if we really got the lesson.

Barbie is an impossible standard to uphold.

Minimum height requirements are not unusual for many jobs, and some college admissions in China, leading to the controversial leg-lengthening procedure.

A VERY QUICK SUMMARY:

Oprah says that beauty is all an illusion, it’s what we says it is, or what others say it is.

He is TV’s most famous film critic, for over 40 years people have checked out his opinion before going to the movies. He started out with the Chicago Sun-Times in 1966, and one year later he was their film critic.. In 1975 he received a Pulitzer Prize for his work and debuted his TV show with Jean Siskel. Their signature move was such a hit they even trademarked their catchphrase, two thumbs up. For the next 24 years, they became household names, on top of the film world. But in 1998, Siskel was diagnosed with a brain tumor and died less than a year later. Ebert was devastated, but the show went on because that is what Siskel would have wanted. Another blow came in 2002 when Roger was diagnosed with thyroid cancer which spread to his salivary glands and jaw. He endured surgery after surgery. In 2006 the cancer had taken his voice, forcing Roger to leave his show after 30 years.

Even though cancer has changed the face that we know and love, and taken his voice says Oprah, Roger has not slowed down one bit. His reviews are still read worldwide. Earlier this week, Roger and his wife Chaz, invited the show into their home. They go see a movie in the morning, which is their usual routine. They see 2-4 movies a day. She needs to be nearby in case Roger needs anything. They have a variety of signals meaning I love you, tell them what you know or read the note, he needs the mens room. They watch the new Polanski movie, Ghost Writer. He then meets with TV execs to discuss the possibility of a new show. They head home. They eat lunch in separate rooms- his wife feels it is unfair for her to eat in front of him when he can no longer eat what he wishes. SInce he lost his jaw he lost the lower floor of his mouth, so if he ate there’s nothing to support it. He has his lunch private, it is in a gravity drip bag, suspended from a pole which goes into a port in his stomach. After the lunch they watch Alice in Wonderland in 3D. Then it’s home for dinner, writing and a little exercise. Then it’s back out for film number 3.

Oprah welcomes Roger to the studio. They hold hands, he does the sign for I love you. Roger is able to communicate by typing his words into a computer. He is feeling terrific. They have loaded in some answers. He doesn’t remember the last the words that he spoke aloud as he didn’t know they’d be his last words. They were probably to Chas as they wheeled him in and he hopes that they were I love you. On the other hand they may have been Good morning Doctor. Oprah says that the amazing article in Esquire Magazine said that he can talk in his dreams- yes he talks in them all the time, just like he did in real life. He remembers childhood memories, in his mind he would taste the root beer he had with his father. After he lost his sense of taste, he replays the taste of that root beer over and over. Oprah says wow, that’s beautiful. Oprah asks him to tell us what her brother in law says about this- he sais that he told his brother-in-law the story and that he was fixated on root beer. Johnny asked if he had thought of that memory in 60 years, and Roger hadn’t. Johnny said that it might be that when the Lord took away Roger’s drinking, he gave him back that memory. Oprah loves that story, the audience applaud.

In a new Oscar poll from Yahoo, 36% pick Jeff Bridges for best actor, 74% say Sandra Bullock will take home gold and 41% say the winner will be Avatar. Robert’s wife of 18 years Chaz is in the studio. 4 years ago he lost his voice and the ability to eat or drink due to complications from thyroid cancer. But today he is cancer free, the crowd applaud. Roger is using computer technology to speak to us with a generic voice, but a company in Scotland is using cutting-edge technology to use his actual voice. They take hours of Roger’s past movie commentaries and create a new, computerized voice from those clips. Chaz hasnt heard Roger’s real voice since July 2006. Chaz is excited to hear it. Though it won’t be perfect, Roger says he’s looking forward to sounding like his old self again. The voice says “It’s what they call a beta. It still needs improvement, but at least it sounds like me,” he says. “When I type anything, this voice will speak whatever I type. When I read something, it will read in my voice. I have got to say, in first grade they said I talked too much. And now I still can.”

Chaz is moved to tears. She thinks that it’s incredible that that’s his voice. She asks him what does he think? “Uncanny,” his voice answers. “A good feeling.”  Oprah says to Chaz as one woman to another, Chaz is incredible and makes her proud to spell her name Woman. She refused to let Roger die. Chaz called Oprah and said she refused to let him die, and she stood by him and has been with him and taken care of him and shown what true love is. Chaz says that it  has been intense. When she married Roger, she knew what an amazing man he was. He is smart. He’s funny. He’s very respectful of women. “He’s appreciative of other cultures,” she says. “It’s hard to find someone like him. And I didn’t want to lose him. I just refused to give up on him. If there was anything in my power to help him live, that’s what I was going to do.”

Chaz reads an extract from Roger’s journal; “I believe that if, at the end of it all, according to our abilities, we have done something to make others a little happier, and something to make ourselves a little happier, that is about the best we can do. To make others less happy is a crime. To make ourselves unhappy is where all crime starts. We must try to contribute joy to the world. That is true no matter what our problems, our health, our circumstances. We must try. I didn’t always know this, and I am happy that I lived long enough to find it out.” Oprah says that’s beautiful and the crowd applaud.

Roger says that he is done with surgery, he is never going to eat or drink or talk again. Surgery would be just to patch his face back together, and he will not go through with that. This is the way he looks and his life is happy and productive, so why have more surgery? People ask if he minds that Esquire Magazine ran the photograph. He doesn’t mind at all, no one looks perfect, we have to make peace with the way we look and get on with life.

Oprah loves that, thank you. The crowd applaud. Oprah wants to ask this, does Roger  miss food? Roger nods and gesticulates. Oprah says that she read that in Esquire that he misses the socialising around food. Chaz says that he misses the camaraderie. Every now and then he’ll ask her to eat something that he used to enjoy and he’ll try and enjoy it vicariously. This Sunday is Oscar night, here is what we haven’t heard for years, Roger’s predictions in his voice.

“I can’t remember a year when it seemed easier to predict the Oscars,” he says. “Of course, those may be famous last words.”

Best Supporting Actress: “Mo’Nique will win for her powerful performance as the cruel and damaged mother in Precious.”

Best Supporting Actor: “Relative unknown Christoph Waltz won the Best Actor award at Cannes for Inglourious Basterds and has never looked back.”

Best Actress: “Few people saw this one coming, but Sandra Bullock made a dazzling comeback in the Blind Side. I think she’ll win.”

Best Actor: “I pick Jeff Bridges for Crazy Heart. His great performance swept the Critics’ Awards, and I think he has the momentum.”

Best Movie: “The only dicey category is Best Picture. Up in The Air was the early front-runner, and Avatar could win after its record-breaking profits. But I think it’s a win for Kathryn Bigelow’s The Hurt Locker.”

Best Director: “I also pick Kathryn Bigelow for best director. If you vote against her, you’ll be going against years of precedent that say the winner of the Directors Guild Award will win the Oscar. ”

Oprah says that she really wants to meet Kathryn Bigelow. Both Cbaz and Roger will be at the Academy Awards, Oprah says that they will see them there. She thanks them.

They show a clip of Morgan Freeman in Invictus. Oprah says wow, that was the best actor nominee, Morgan Freeman. This is Morgan’s fifth Oscar nomination. He received his first Oscar statuette in 2005 for his supporting role in Million Dollar Baby, as you may recall. He joins us by satellite from Malibu, California. They say hi. She asks what it means to be asked to play the great Nelson Mandela. ”I was anointed by him, so to speak, back in the mid-90s when he was asked, ‘If his book became a movie,who would he want to play him?’” Morgan says. “He said me. So I knew somewhere down the line that I would be playing Nelson Mandela, in something”. Morgan told him long ago that if he was going to play Nelson Mandela, then he would have to have access to him. Morgan said ‘Listen, if I’m going to play you, I need to have access to you,” he says. “So over the years, we became friends, and I watched him very carefully and learned how to be him a little bit.” They show a photo of the two of them together, Oprah says she loves that shot. Oprah remembers the first time she went to Nelson’s house; she was a nervous wreck. She asks if even he, the great Morgan Freeman was a little intimidated?  What do you say when you meet somebody like that, someone that great, someone world renowned and so high in your estimation of human beings? He says, all you can think of to say is, ‘I’m honored to meet you, sir.’ And then shut up. Oprah says that she learned that too, it’s better to sit and listen when you meet him.
Morgan has been nominated for five Oscars, 1987  Street Smart, 1989 Driving Miss Daisy, 1994 one of Oprah’s favorite movies of all time, Shawshank Redemption (the crowd cheer), 2004 Million Dollar Baby, which he won, and now Invictus.  Oprah hears that Morgan sat with Nelson while he watched the movie- was he scared? No, says Morgan, he was concerned. “If he didn’t like it, I didn’t think he would say anything, but if he did like it, he wouldn’t be able to hide it,” Morgan says. “And he wasn’t able to hide it.” Mandela didn’t say anything to Morgan at all about the film. Wow, says Oprah. There’s that sphinx thing about him, says Morgan. “But when I came onscreen, he leaned over and said, ‘I know that fellow.’ So I took that to mean he recognized himself in me, and that was a big plus.” Oprah asks if he got a hug or a well-done? Nothing, says Morgan. Morgan has the pledge with him, he will not text while driving and will use a handfree  headset if necessary. Oprah asks him to repeat the pledge after her in his Morgan Freeman voice. They thank each other.

We’re getting in the mood for the Oscars on Sunday night. Critics are calling Colin Firth’s performance in A Single Man a career-defining performance. Firth plays a gay college professor grieving the sudden death of his partner . Directed by fashion designer Tom Ford, A Single Man is a work of art. The film is set over the course of a single day in 1962 Los Angeles—the day Colin’s character, George, decides to kill himself. Facing his own suicide, George sees the world in a more wondrous light. Colin Firth’s performance is captivating and earned him his first Oscar nomination.

Welcome Colin Firth. The crowd go wild, he and Oprah hug. Oprah says that he should be so proud of himself, Yes says Colin, he’s proud of Tom. This was a lonely experience for an actor in a way, especially in Colin’s department because a lot of the film was spent alone. The days he had the help of the other actors were a wonderful ride. But of course then you become very intimate with your director because this is a very, very personal story. It’s very personal to Tom. Oprah says that the scene where he gets the phone call is brilliant, is what acting is all about. She doesn’t know where he went but she could watch it over and over and cry. The crowd applaud. Colin says that the movie was shot in just 21 days. Tom set up the shot and then got out the room. The cameras rolled and there was no editorializing, no words on a page, no shouting cut. He put the phone down and the cameras rolled over 11 minutes. Tom preferred letting Colin’s imagination take over, although Tom sculpted the scene in the cutting room.

Oprah say that she heard he was going to send an email. Yes says Colin, and then the fridge guy came. He wrote the email, he still has it in his outbox, he’ll show it to Tom one day. He says that he was fascinated by Tom. This is not a man you easily bet against. Everything he’s touched has turned to gold, really. And he just thought he didn’t want to disappoint Tom. This was clearly a very personal project put squarely on Colin’s shoulders. “There was all sorts of reasons in my life when I thought—you know, I was fatigued, I’d been working a lot—I wouldn’t go there. Then I suddenly thought: ‘What an incredible leap into the unknown this will be. There’s so many improbable things here. It’s not a conventional story.” The film deals with so many human issues. Oprah clarifies that this was just the script without the deliciousness. Colin says he was ready to send the email stepping down from the project when a repairman rang his doorbell to fix his refrigerator. “That was enough time for me to reconsider,” he says. “It was just that pause before pressing send which can prove critical.” Though A Single Man is a film about grieving, Colin says it is also about falling in love with life again. “It sounds like an almost absurd comparison, but one of the films it most makes me think of in terms of its subject matter is It’s a Wonderful Life,” he says. Yes, me too says Oprah. It couldn’t be more different, all the people were angels. Playing George given Colin a real sense of what he has to be grateful for in his own life. The present moment, for a start, which is really all we have, is something to be absolutely cherished. Even though George is so sad, the world he is presented with is so incredibly beautiful. It remains for Colin like a fragrance. A Tom Ford fragrance says Oprah.

Oprah says that the film is a sensual delicious delight that you want to spoon. It was directed, produced and paid  for by Tom Ford. He’s credited with reinventing Gucci during his 10-year reign as creative director with provocative collections and ad campaigns. Five years ago, he launched his own label, and today there are 21 Tom Ford stores around the globe, making him fashion’s billion-dollar man. Last year he made the leap from fashion to film and it is no surprise that critics say that there is no more visually arresting film to see this year. Come on out Tom Ford. The crowd applaud. He and Oprah hug, he shakes hands with Colin Firth. Oprah says that the film is delicious and yummy Tom says thank you. “Fashion is a reflection of where we are in contemporary culture, but it moves, moves, moves. It doesn’t last,” he says. “In film, you create a world that’s forever sealed. It lasts forever. You can put in an old movie from the ’30s and you’re emoting and living and breathing with these people. And if you’re someone who likes to design things, build things, create things, that’s as close as you get to, you know, being God in our world, and it’s permanent”. Oprah asks him how he knew he could do it? He says that if you want to do it, do it. Of course he was afraid of a lot of things but he never let that stop him. He had a vision. “I think that’s the most important thing is that you have to have something to say,” he says. “You have to feel that you have something you want to communicate, and then in both fashion and film you have to work with a team of people to help you do that.” He wrote the script and ended up with a role that was very hard to cast. Oprah says that she’d heard the film was autobiographical, but that Tom is here and is not depressed. “This was my midlife crisis on screen; I put it on the screen and was done with it” he says. “When I first read the book, I was 20 years old and I didn’t quite get the sort of—well, Christopher Isherwood who wrote the book was a student of Vedanta. He spent an enormous amount of time learning to be present, and I didn’t pick up on that at all, and I’d come to a point in my life where I left Gucci where maybe I had let the material side of the world pull me a bit away from my spiritual side, which has always been there. And this book is about living in the moment. It’s about appreciating the connections we have with other people and reminding ourselves that that’s what’s important in life. I needed to be reminded of that at this moment.”

Oprah says that watching the movie she was reminded of her friend who wrote The Power of Now; this is a wonderful way of teaching people. Tom says that he gave everyone on the set a copy of the book as it was so important to the film. Christopher Isherwood’s first line in the book, and in the film, is waking up begins with saying am and now. That was what the book was about in 1964.

Oprah has read that Tom’s a perfectionist and that he looks at people- she says that she really needs her eyebrows done. Tom says she’s fine. Colin says that happens whenever Tom walks into a room, people feel that they need to fix something about themselves.Oprah heard that Tom cut Colin’s hair because the stylist said that Colin didn’t want his hair cut so could Tom do it. Oprah asks what Tom looks like when he’s slumming it. Colin points at Tom in his immaculate suit. Tom says kind of the same but in a dirty t-shirt and jeans. Colin says that directors on a film set are almost morally obliged to fall apart. They are in their interior worlds, doing night shifts, getting up at 5am and getting grubby. They should be letting their beards grow out. Colin says that he was falling apart in front of the camera and Tom was behind the camera pristine. Oprah asks if fashion feels aah, now, Tom says that he loves both of them and hopes he’ll have a parallel career. “I’m working on my next film project, and I’m also about to start possibly designing women’s clothes and come back to that, and it’s wonderful to be able to bounce back and forth,” he says. Oprah asks how it feels now that the film is done.  ”I am the most proud of this of anything I’ve ever created in my life,” Tom says. “Other than personal relationships with people. That’s what I’m the most proud of.” Oprah  says that the movie will last forever and she wants to see it again and again. Thanks to Colin and Tom.

Tomorrow night tune in for the primetime oscar special, with Halle Berry, Penelope Cruz, Micahael Douglas, and Glenn Close, Big thank you to our friends at Sprint for making the Oscars possible. Sprint wants everyone to go home with a swag bag, the crowd stand up and are completely hysterical. They get 60 days of free Sprint service. Remember do not talk on your phone and drive, if you must, make sure that is hands free. Thanks everyone.

WHAT WE LEARNED TODAY:

Roger Ebert is never going to eat or drink or talk again.

He will not have any more surgeries- his life is happy and productive,

No one looks perfect, we have to make peace with the way we look and get on with life.

Nelson Mandela said that Morgan Freeman would play him in a film, and now he has.

Tom Ford always looks pristine, according to Colin Firth.

A VERY QUICK SUMMARY:

If ever you should find yourself in Nelson Mandela’s house, it is best to sit quietly and listen.

Oprah says that everyone is talking about a big celebrity marriage that is on the rocks, Jerry looks puzzled, Oprah says you know and whispers Tiger Woods. Jerry says oh they’re fine, he thought something happened. Oprah says that a marriage ref could could not come in to that. He says no it’s not funny enough, actually it’s too funny, that’s the problem. Oprah asks his opinion of it, and he says that it proves that golf is boring.  Oprah claps and the crowd applaud. That was his first thought- Woods is dominating the game and has everything you can get from a sport and he is bored out his mind. Oprah asks his opinion on the Jay/ Conan thing. He says he loved it, he loves stupid. He was on the side of smart against stupid, as always, He couldn’t believe it went on for so long. Oprah has always admired Jerry since she interviewed him for the O Magazine. She was complaining about the end of summer, needing some time for herself, and Jerry said “it’s yours to design, Oprah”. And that’s what she’d doing now. Jerry doesn’t think you walk away from a show, most TV is selling a box of air and fluff. He says that there is some nutrition in what Oprah does. Oprah says that she aims for nutrition everyday, and Jerry says not in this one. She says that they will have some nutrition by the end.

The Marriage Ref takes us inside the intimate battles taking part in  America’s marriages. Each week a celebrity panel debate the sides, like Tina Fey, Madonna, Ricky Gervais, but the final say is made by the Marriage Ref, standup comedian Tom Papa. Oprah asks if Jerry and Jessica have their own fighting rules. Jerry hates that Jessica has kicked coffee because she enjoys it. He needs to see her enjoy something, she should have it, she likes it. Tea is not the same, says Oprah. Jerry says tea is like yardwork. Jerry says that the Marriage Ref is very likeable, and the more of him you watch the more you need, it’s a good quality to have. Tom comes in. Oprah thinks that quality is wonderful, that people want you in their house. Tom  says its a nice thing, you don’t want to be the person that everyone is waiting to leave. Oprah asks what he and his wife argue about. Tom has a Kindle and whenever he starts to read it, his wife thinks it’s a neon sign to start talking. Jerry has learned that he has a number of tones.  When he was single, he didn’t have a tone, but now he has many. His wife discovered the first one, when he is parking and his wife is talking he has the car tone, the let me park the car we’ll talk later tone. He says that marriage is a musical. Tom’s tone is all grrr ” I don’t want to talk about this”. Women like to imitate how men talk, they do impressions. The men do the tones of their wives.

They have a new lingo for marriage arguments, “Kitchen Sinking It” is an argument about one issue, when the other throws in every thing that you’ve ever argued about. “Needle Across the Record Moment” is when couples argue and someone says someone so outrageous that it freezes everybody within a 6 block radius. Oprah says what about when someone says the most horrible thing you can think of. Tom says that’s when you take it to the limit, eg I wish you’d be here for breakfast and they say “At least I’m not at the bar sleeping with strippers”. Oprah says alot of men are using the Tiger Woods thing. “At least I…” is a good argument says Jerry.

Last night after the closing of the Olympics, we got a sneak preview of The Marriage Ref. Greg is trying to spice his life up with his wife Dianah by having a stripper pole in the bedroom. They can’t agree who is or is not respecting who. Greg says that it is for both of their gratification, Dianah disagrees. Alec Baldwin voted for the wife. Kelly Rippa sides with the wife, Jerry Seinfeld sided with the husband. Oprah has a show of hands in the audience, bring on the pole just won. Tom says that it’s not cut and dry because the guy wanted to spice things up with his wife, but there is nothing more unattractive than someone who doesn’t want to be on the pole. Greg and his wife are live from Skype. Greg does not accept the judgement, he says that it’s still going to happen. Tom says that it is not going to happen, having met Dianah. She took the doorknob off the bathroom after the show. That is the only place that she can go and have peace and quiet and wait him out until he’s asleep so that she doesn’t have to hear about the pole. Tom says that the program is so great because Dianah will always know that America agrees with her.

Oprah’s viewers sent in video tapes of some of their problems, Teri and Jim from Wausau, Wisconsin have a problem with tortoises in their living room- they have 5 in their home, 2 are almost 70lbs a piece. They have a whole refrigerator dedicated to the tortoises.She scoops their poo out of a paddling pool. Jim rode on the back of a tortoise, Jalopy, in Staten Island zoo as a child. It had a sarcoma and he had surgery  received radiation therapy. It was a life-changing experience, he ended up being a physician specialising in radiation therapy, in large part because of Jalopy. Teri thinks if she grew a shell, she’d be part of Jim’s life forever. They are in the audience. To Jim, the tortoises are like puppies, pets. Jerry asks Teri where she was when this started, it needed to be nipped in the bud. Teri says that unlike children, the tortoises can’t grow up and move away, they can live to be a hundred. Tom clarifies that there are 5. Tom says that when you get married you think that you marry the person that you are attracted to But that’s not it, marriage is a big sloppy mess, you marry inlaws, uncles, etc. This is Teri’s big sloppy mess. He thinks that bizarre as this is, they have created a family with the two of them and the turtles and they have to keep them together. Oprah agrees- she has 5 dogs and couldn’t give one up. Jerry says that dogs are pets, turtles are not. Oprah and Tom think that this is a family. Jerry says that the turtles don’t know that they are there. Tom says that they are expressing themselves too slowly to tell. Jerry says that an animal has to have a face to be a pet, an expressive face. Jim says he loves the turtles as much as they love him. Jerry says I’ll bet, zero. Oprah says that maybe they are using them for love and shelter. Jim says they love him. Oprah and Tom say that there needs to be discussion about future tortoises. Jerry says that they don’t need to go to the pet store, they are in the pet store.

Thurday nights at 10pm on NBC, Jerry says that all marriages have ongoing spats which go on and on. Emily from North Carolina has been losing sleep- her husband Will sleeps on the screened in porch in 17 degree weather. He urinates in a frozen blue bucket at night. They slept in the bed together for the first 6 years of their marriage, but the last two years he’s been on the porch at night. He loves to sleep out under the stars hearing the creek. They have a 2 year old and she wants to spend time together. He has dreams of the Appalachian trail, which he has decided to bring to the backyard. Jerry says that he loves the “under the stars” thing, but he’s on a porch with a roof, there’s no stars, in 4 seconds you’re asleep anyway. He say Will is out of his mind, he needs to go to camp with the other kids. The couple join them by Skype. Jerry says that they need to compromise and  sleep together at least some of the time. Will says that the bed creaks and he gets up to go to the bathroom and his wife gets upset if he misses the toilet or leaves the seat up, so now he has a bucket outside. Oprah asks if everything else is ok in their marriage, they say yes. Tom asks who empties the bucket. Jerry asks why is he  going in  a bucket- Oprah says for the compost pile. Tom says that when you’re married, few people enjoy the actual sleeping in the same bed part, he snores, his wife talks. Kings and queens used to sleep in separate quarters and meet for shared time. Using a bucket outside, Gary is no king. Tom says that they need to worry about what they are doing to their son’s perceptions of things. He says Will has to get back in the bed as the creaking is not nearly as bad as the bucket.

Sonia and Rob are from London and they sent in a tape- Rob opens things then opens another without finishing the first. He wants fresh all the time, he does the same with toilet rolls, He likes to use a good metre of toilet paper per wipe, and at the end of the roll, quite frankly there’s not enough left. He doesn’t throw it out incase Sonia wants to use it. They are on Skype. Sonia thinks that Rob should finish what he started. Oprah says that she is to the last drop. Tom hates that moment when you have to get the bit out the bottom of the jar. He doesn’t understand the toilet paper thing. Oprah says that Stedman went to get a new jar of almond butter and she wanted him to microwave the end of the jar that was there to get the last spoonful. Oprah knows how Sonia feels. Jerry says his advice is don’t be such a good accountant- don’t count everything, she’s playing accountant. She can get her own peanut butter. Tom as the   ref makes the final call, and lets Rob win. Jerry says that this will not help anyone. On the show, they are not trying to do serious issues, they are just trying to have a laugh. The couples have to love each other. Jerry loves being married and has found that now the relationships with his male married friends have deepened. Single friends think they are in a relationship; Jerry says that they are playing wiffleball and he is in Iraq. Oprah laughs.

Oprah asks Jerry about Blackberry issues which started with their shared producer. Jerry can’t do the creepy head down thing where people are reading their Blackberry and looking at you with one eye. There is a need for Blackberry etiquette- when someone is talking you cannot check your Blackberry, period. Its like going to the hardware store when you have to wait while you are being served because the phone rings- you should prioritise real humans over virtual humans. He does not text or talk on the phone while he drives. He used to, but he lost a frind in a fatal accident who was on a phone. Tom had a headset through his iPhone which was more dangerous than talking. He now uses Bluetooth. Jerry and Tom are gven the pledge to sign.  Oprah thanks them. It is a good thing says Jerry. Oprah says that it took us a long time to do this for drunk driving, and she wants to make it so that no more people have to die. Jerry says that Oprah is the only person who can do this, because it has to become a collective conscience thing, a what are we doing? Oprah thanks him and reminds that The Marriage Ref is on this Thursday at 10pm/ 9pm Central on NBC.

WHAT WE LEARNED TODAY:

Jerry Seinfeld believes that professional golf must be really, really boring.

Jerry Seinfeld says don’t be such a good accountant in relationships, don’t count everything.

Tom Papa says that marriage is a big sloppy mess.

There is a need for Blackberry etiquette- when someone is talking you cannot check your Blackberry.

Jerry Seinfeld says that Oprah is the only person who can do the No Phone Zone pledge, because it has to become a collective conscience thing.

A VERY QUICK SUMMARY:

Jerry Seinfeld says that animals need to have expressive faces in order to qualify as a pet.

Here is what is up for bid, take a look- the crowd applaud. A Carolina Herrera dress that she wore with her interview with the cast of The Secret Life of Bees. Adam says even if it’s pricey, give it to a friend or sell it if you haven’t worn it for two years. The pants that Oprah wore to interview Lisa Marie Presley are fabulous, but a size 8. Oprah says she’s not getting there again but she keeps hoping. Adam says that it’s the rule; if it doesn’t fit you now then it has to go. If you want them as inspiration, hang them up as closet art. Oprah has a collection of pocketbooks from the stage when she had visions of herself as a lady who lunches saying dahhling really, but she never had a chance to go to lunch. The truth is she is a roomy tote girl. Adam calls it fantasy dressing. Oprah received shoes from Jessica Seinfeld  in a size 11, and she realised that she’s been wearing the wrong size all this time. She’s clearing out all the size 10’s and 10 1/2’s. Oprah finds a Chanel shoe that would still fit, but Adam says that she can’t wear ankle straps. Adam says that everything in your closet should promote joy, beauty and usefulness. If you don’t feel that then you should purge. Oprah doesn’t like to waste things, if she knows someone else will benefit, she’ll feel better. The official jacket of the Chicago Olympic delegation that they wore to Denmark- Oprah says that she would hang on to it if they had won their Olympic bid. Adam says if something brings up bad memories, then you should purge it. The black and white blouse that Oprah wore to surprise Jamie Foxx and Sidney Poitier. She loves it, but Adam says that she has duplicates and she hasn’t worn it for three years. Oprah says she feels the same anxiety for getting rid of t-shirts, it’s not just expensive things. The eBay auction starts on Monday and will run for ten days, all the money goes to her school in Africa. The starting bid on each item is $100 and to get the ball rolling eBay is giving a $100 gift card to everyone in the audience. They cheer. Happy bidding everyone.

The March issue of O Magazine is all about decluttering. Now that Oprah has purged, they can get more things. Adam’s is going to show his 5 must-haves for Spring using members of the audience. Once you purge you restock with a list. These trends for spring will last a long time, they are not trendy one-season items.

1. Spicy colors look good on everyone, they are warming on all. Saffron and paprika are the new neutral.
2. Every one should have  a glitzy top to dress up jeans or wear with a pencil skirt
3. The easy jacket- the new suit is seperates, looser and relaxed, like a boyfriend jacket
4. The printed jersey dress. Oprah says that she’s not buying it. She doesn’t like prints, the person from the audience like the dress she’s wearing, there’s a print for everyone and jersey is comfortable, easy to pack and feels like pajamas.
5. The utility jacket is a cross between a  military jacket and a safari jacket- Adam is loving this look. He and Oprah love all of J Crew’s stuff, especially the jacket. The masculine jacket over a feminine outfit adds some fun.

Oprah likes the idea of making a list and not buying clothing impulsively. It happens and becomes wall art. Oprah says its the fantasies we have of who we want to be. She wants to be a lady who lunches, but she eats everyday at her desk where no one cares if she has a pocketbook or not. Oprah thanks Adam and the ladies from the audience.

Jimmy Fallon is chiming in on Fridays Live from the Olympics in Vancouver. They say hello. He’s reading the new issue of O Magazine, he says he loves Vancouver and the Olympics. He has a leather bag full of dirty laundry to add to the auction. Oprah asks him what he thinks of the whole Jay versus Conan debate. He concentrated on his show and is happy to still have a job. He loves them both and is sure that it’ll sort out.  Conan is doing horrible and has a beard now, he’s still funny says Jimmy. Oprah asks him if he’s worried about his losing his job, he says no, has she heard anything? Oprah says that she heard Conan tweeted that he interviewed a squirrel in his backyard then went to commercial break. Jimmy says that he was supposed to be on that show but got bumped by the squirrel. Oprah asks what he finds funny- a good joke, someone falling over, someone falling over then trying to get back up and falling over again. Oprah asks if he was the funny kid in class or the one who was always in trouble? He says a little of both; in his 8th grade yearbook the prediction said that Jimmy Fallon will most likely replace David Letterman. Really, says Oprah. I swear says Jimmy, he principal was Nostradamus so that probably had something to do with it. He never thought he’d host a show but its so great, unbelievable fun. Great music, new bands, comedians, talking to Oprah, it’s fantastic. His 1 year anniversary  is coming up, 198 shows. Oprah says he should give her a call when he has 4374, which is where she is at now. Jimmy says that he has a great show coming up, Hall & Oates and Robert from the twilight movies who they are making fun of, Robert the Bother. Oprah hears that he does a great Neil Young impression- he picks up his guitar that was in his bag, and he’s going to do Pants on the Ground from American Idol. He sings, plays guitar and harmonica. He says that he can do Justin Timberlake going green. He sings of recycling. Late Night with Jimmy Fallon, weeknights on NBC, congratulations on a year Jimmy.

The Winter Olympics are wrapping up on Sunday and their own Ali Wentworth is in Vancouver to meet some of the stars. She is so excited to meet Shani Davis who is going to teach her how to speedskate, he’s coming any minute now and she has a huge crush on him. He skates, she holds on to his jacket behind. She falls over and the crowd gasp. She asks to see his medals. She goes to do some skeleton with John Montgomery of Canada. He shows her how to run beside it and dive on. He pushes her by the feet, she thanks him. They drink a beer on the ice. With the US women’s curling team she asks what curling is- it’s shuffleboard on ice. They show her how to throw the rock and sweep. She says the floor is clean. She says it’s so hard to do, and that’s why she plays bridge. Johnny Weir is going to teach her how to figure skate. He loves her artistic fingers… she’d like to do a full axel, he says that may be a little early. She curtsys, he says no,… smooth. They agree to go shopping.

Ali joins the studio by Skype. Oprah says Ali is such an adventurous woman. Ali says she gets sore from doing the dishes so all the sports put her in bed for the week. She’s glad Oprah got rid of the Manolo’s because she’s bought her some Olympic slippers which are cute for everyday with jeans. Oprah asks how she got the speedsuit on- Ali finds Crisco is tacky, but fish oil.. or 8-9 people  around who can help you is good too. Once she got it on, she realised that Jennifer Lopez and Beyonce wear things like that all the time, just to go shopping. Oprah says that when Ali danced with the Dallas Cowboy Cheerleaders that was the most daring thing she’s ever seen, and then putting on this uniform. Adam says that Ali’s one of those women who says yes to life. Ali agrees, that’s why she’s married to whom she’s married to- she would have said yes to anyone- seize the day and all that. She’s an arts and crafts girl not a sporty spice so it was fantastic. They have video of her ziplining across Vancouver with Jonny Weir. Yes to life, says Oprah. Ali says to all the ladies out there, don’t go on a zipline with a minidress, its’ not cute for the people below. Oprah asks if she’s still wearing her Olymic stuff? Ali says she feels it will never go out of style with the 2010 logo. She particularly liked the green ice dance outfit, it’s perfect with a utility jacket and flats for carpool pickup or going to the bank. Oprah says yes with the little jacket- Ali says it’s a feel good sort of outfit. Oprah asks about the olympic crush, Ali thinks the speed skater is the most gorgeous, sweetest,whitest teethed person she’s ever met. She hasn’t had the urge to tell anyone that her marriage band is a friendship ring in ten years. She was like a schoolgirl, there was no reason to hold onto his buttocks when skating, that was all her. He’s a Chicago boy. The crowd cheer. Ali says that he’s not married, he doesn’t have  a girlfriend and she wants to set Gayle up with him.

Mo’Nique was nominated for best supporting actress for her role in Precious. Gabourey Sidibe was nominated for best actress. Only in America can you go from unknown college student to Academy nominated actress overnight. Precious is up for 6 Academy Awards including best director for the brilliant Lee Daniels, welcome Lee. Oprah says that when he was directing it, had he any idea that this would happen? He thought it would go straight to DVD. It’s been quite a journey. Oprah thinks that (award nominated) Jeffrey Fletcher did a great job as the screenwriter. What was it about Saphire’s novel Push that made him think this could be a movie, because when Oprah read it in 1996, she never would have thought that it would be a movie? He says that it’s truth, it’s honest, it reminded him of home. Oprah asks if he grew up that way? He said yes, without the frying pan. He knew all these girls and people, it was a very personal story. Oprah remembers the Academy Award lunch for The Color People and being told enjoy the lunch, take the biscuit, because you’re not going to win the academy award. She took the biscuit and bronzed it, she still has it, but she heard that Lee was on the carpet crying. He was crying because Gaby was with him and they’d written a scene where she was on the red carpet and he looked over his shoulder and there she was. Was it art repeating life or life repeating art? It was a moment. Oprah asks how they chose Gaby- over 400 girls came in, and he always looks for the truth, at 7-11’s and bus stops. Gaby came in and talked  after the audition. Unlike the ten girls that were down to the wire, Gaby could articulate this role. Oprah says that’s what is so wonderful, only in America could this happen that this college student can sit in the Academy Awards and her  name will be called in the same breath as one of the best actresses of all time, Meryl Streep. It make Oprah say she’s going to cry. Amazing. Oprah asks what 6 nominations feeels like? Lee says it’s guttural, he started crying, he was on his knees thanking god. With Monsters Ball they got two but that was as producer whch is a different headspace. He says that he is friends with all his fellow director nominees but the media makes it into a competition. Oprah says didn’t she tell him that the whole ride is so fine? Is a party, they are so supportive of each other, they’ve learned so much,  its a kumbya. Oprah asks how it will feel to have his name called with the others- Spielberg told her years ago, regardless of what happens there is that one moment when the names are called and you’re all please Jesus and then you’re all is my face on straight. At the luncheon, Lee said they all gathered around and he asked to hold hands. Cameron says here’s Daniels with his Baptist kumbya. He said not at all,he just wanted to say that this has been the best time of his life and he has learned so much from all of them and he thinks that they all deserve to win. Oprah says that’s good, the crowd applaud. Precious is still in theaters and is a movie that you have to see, says Oprah.

Stay off your phone in the car. The countdown to the Oscars is on, just over a week away on March 7th, don’t miss the Oprah Oscar primetime special . This show is like no other, Barbara is great and she is the queen of all things, but on this special, Halle Berry and Penelope Cruise sit down together and interview each other. Golden Boy Ben Affleck sits down with his good friend and actor nominee Jeremy Renner from Hurtlocker and they realise interviewing is not as easy as it looks. The billion dollar cast of Avatar comes together for an interview, and if you havent seen Fatal Attraction for a while- Oprah watched it last night- take another look at it- Michael Douglas and Glenn Close sit own for the first time ever to interview each other as to how it was to make the film, including the steamy sex scene. Wow, says Oprah, tune in at 10pm for the Oscar Special on Wednesday night. Take the no phone zone pledge, and thanks to Progressive Insurance for helping spread the word. Oprah says that they need more people behind them . Have a great weekend everybody.

WHAT WE LEARNED TODAY:

Everything in your closet should promote joy, beauty and usefullness.

Oprah imagines herself as a lady who lunches and has bought accessories accordingly.

Jimmy Fallon finds good jokes funny. Also people falling over.

It is rumored that Vancouver 2010 Olympic souvenir wear will never go out of style.

The director of Precious thought the film would go straight to DVD.

A VERY QUICK SUMMARY:

Spice colors look good on everyone,  saffron and paprika are the new neutral.

OK, says Oprah, she can tell that Kirstie has lost weight because she has her strut on. When you loose 20lbs you start that strut thing. Kirstie says she’s working on it. The tabloids are obsessed about her weight, so Kirstie has made it into a new series. She says that she is good at making lemonade out of lemons. She says that everyone focuses on the before and afters, and she wants to focus on the everyday, what really happens. Oprah talks of the grazing moment in front of the refridgerator. Kirstie says that everyone focuses on the befores and afters when you diet in the public eye- remember the bikini- Oh God, says Kirstie. The new reality show is what happens in between. Cameras follow her wherever she goes; never one to hide in the shadows, she’s coming our swinging with cameras of her own to film the paparazzi. Her quest to reach the size that’s right for her is the focus of Kirstie Alley’s Big Life, her new A&E reality show. Along for the ride are Lily and Drew, Kirstie’s two teenagers. Her loyal assistant Kelly and assistant in training Kyle have their work cut out for them. Add to the cast Kirstie’s own wild kingdom of 25 animals. Her handyman Tim becomes her chubby buddy, as he’s otherwise a bad influence.

Oprah asks why do a reality show when Kirstie always says that the cameras bother her? Kirstie wanted to control them- there are usually 10 paparazzi outside her house at any moment, but when they are filming there are none- so you don’t film their license plates. Oprah asks if it’s been cathartic? Kirstie says that it has been joyous, actually, she talks of the poem Invictus with the last two lines  I am the master of my faith and the captain of my soul. Kirstie says that she had forgotten that she is the captain of her soul. Oprah asks how she can forget that? She’s Kirstie Alley, living in Hollywood, Nate did her kitchen… Kirstie says that it’s hard not to succumb to the pressures around you as a celebrity because it’s so open. She loves being open, but you get so vulnerable when it’s too open, its hard and you can start seeking approval. Oprah asks why is it different this time, because cameras following her around aren’t a big enough reason to loose weight. Kirstie says that she knows she can’t use the F word on Oprah, but she doesn’t give a f- (beep). You don’t, says Oprah. No, says Kirstie. Once she realised who she is- the girl with 2 beautiful children, a great career in acting, all these awards and friends and families and  her health. She just thought who are all these (beeeeeep) who are trying to bring her down and make her less? They’re not going to do it again. The crowd cheer. They show footage from Kirstie’s show of a photographer taking pictures of her in her garden- and the photo landed on the front page of a tabloid a couple of weeks later. Oprah says that is not the sort of photo that you want on the front page. Kirstie says you don’t know what to do, you’re already fat then they pad you with a bush in front of your stomach. Then youll be in the grocery line the next day and people will say you’ve done well and lost weight. She says that it is cathartic, because you have to face yourself. Oprah asks if Kirstie is relieved when other celebrities are going through things to take the pressure off her? Kirstie says she is in good company. Kirstie hates the paparazzi, she says that she’s not nice to them. If she’s at a restaurant or event that’s appropriate, but when they shoot her kids, who they’ve been stalking since they were babies, it makes her mad. And they are looking for shots of her being angry and the best way to do that is to shoot photos of her kids. Oprah says she can’t imagine how it is to have cameras following you, although she is going to do it for the last year of the Oprah show, how is it? Kirstie says she thinks Oprah will like it, the first few days she hated it but she was the producer and so she couldn’t cancel. Its a hybrid between a film and a talk show. They are so everywhere that Kirstie makes an announcement over the intercom that someone needs to get out of the bathroom when she needs to go. Oprah reminds her to take the mic off.

They show footage of her being weighed and disputing the amount, she asks for the amount in British stone as it sounds like less weight- she only needs to lose 6 stone. Oprah asks her if 90 lbs of weightloss is the goal; yes. Oprah asks why a weight and not a body thats right for you. Kirstie says she took some of Oprah’s advice that she normally doesn’t take, but she doesn’t know yet where that magic point is where she will feel vibrant and alive and beautiful. Kirstie says she’s 59, she’s been fat for 5 years of her life but you’d think she’s been fat for 50 years of her life. At 140, 145, 150lbs she was good. Oprah says that working out adds bulk, Kirstie asks Oprah what the number should be. Oprah says its a feeling, not a number. Kirstie says that when she struts around for most of the day, she’s done. She’s been doing this for 7 weeks and lost 20ish pounds. It’s her decision but her muse is Mr Jamie Foxx,  Kirstie likes to imagine herself with Mr Jamie Foxx- she disrobes and thinks yeah, or Jamie turn the light off. She loves Jamie Foxx, she Twitters about him, because he is so talented; brilliant actor, musician, funny… Oprah doesn’t know if Kirstie is aware of it, but Oprah and Jamie are special friends. Kirstie is not aware of that. Oprah says that he is a dear friend, and she got a Valentine from him and he sends the best presents. Kirstie says maybe when he sees this show he’ll send her a present. Oprah says for her birthday he sent this amazing, one of a kind statue of her mentor, and years ago he had an amazing portrait done of her by this great artist. Kirstie says she is so happy for Oprah. Oprah says that anybody who is going to be with Jamie needs to be able to share, as there will be other girls. Kirstie says she doesn’t envision matrrying him, but maybe being in Italy with him for three weeks. Oprah asks what she’d most like to do with him, Kirstie nodds wistfully and is silent. She says that her daughter is sitting in the front row but that her muse could be her icebreaker. Oprah says that she heard Kirstie told People magazine that she wants a bootie call from Jamie. Yes, says Kirstie along with 3 million other women. Oprah says that she and Jamie have a special relationship, but she desn’t want a booty call. A flatscreen TV slides into place on the set behing them, with Jamie Foxx live by satellite.

The crowd whoop, Kirstie turns around and screams, she covers her eyes and says oh my God. Jamie says that he will be a bootie call with Oprah’s permission. Kirstie goes to kiss him and touch the screen. Jamie says that he won’t go too wild as her kids are in the audience. He says she is all beautiful, stop worrying about what she weighs, just focus on “being you, wonderfully you”. Kirstie says that’s why she loves him. Kirstie tells him that she loves him because he is not just good looking, he’s talented, generous, thoughtful , funny… Jamie sings that he’d like to drive down her alley tonight… Oprah says that she told Kirstie that Jamie was going to come to the studio but he’s working on his album. He says that he ia making some beautiful love music, so we can all have love and make love. Kirstie says she knows somewhere where he could use that music. Oprah asks Kirstie what she means when she calls herself a Foxhound. She won’t say it in front of Jamie. Jamie was aware of this crush because years ago he went to Kirstie’s dressing room and expressed what a fan he was. He is always a fan and is rooting for her, he says they can do a bootie call segment as a weightloss motivator. Kirstie says he can be her icebreaker. Oprah thanks Jamie for having her on his radio show, the Foxhole. Jamie makes a plug for his show, says they pass out gift baskets for everyone on Monday that they talked about on Friday. Kirstie wants to go on the Foxhole, Jamie says anytime. Oprah thanks Jamie, says that she is friends with both Jamie and Kirstie, Jamie wishes Kirstie good luck on the show and says that even if she doesn’t loose any weight, she is still beautiful. Kirstie thanks him and blows kisses.

They show footage of Jim, Kirstie’s handyman having dinner with Kirstie. She hasn’t been on a date-date for ten years. She didn’t want anyone telling her how to raise her children, but now they are older she would consider a boyfriend. Her motivation for weightloss is hating the way that she feels. Oprah clarifies the ten years issue- its been 10 years since she was in love. She wasn’t open to someone else’s interpretation of how to raise her kids, and she’s had so much fun being a mother and raising her kids. She’s an older mother and she wanted to spend quality  time with them. She’s having a ball being at home with them while she does her show. Her daughter Lily in the audience says that she enjoys having the cameras there now. Kirstie says they film 4 days a week and they leave at 6pm, so they have a lot of time without the cameras.

She is loosing the weight this time, she created a weightloss line and she is using that, her new company Organic Liason is something she’s very proud of. The Rescue Kit focuses on suppotrting the body 24-7. they are a calorie based program. They are trying to get people to liase from regular food to clean food. She gets up at 7am, she’s a mono-eater so she has the same thing every day- an organic English muffin with an egg on it. Contrary to popular whatever she says, throwing away the magazine, she is very healthy with low blood pressure, cholestorol etc. She drinks Rescue Me, then eats something at 10am, a little Greek yogurt with Stevia and cinnamon- its like the richest yummiest thing in the world. Dinner is often barbeque chicken- 3 wings with skin, Oprah says that a skinless wing is a pitiful thing. Kirstie likes that you still have to work at them. She’s trying to eat less meat. She’ll eat a big salad which is a new thing for her. She’ll eat Green Soup 3 times a day, 60 calories a cup, the recipe is on their website, www.organicliason.com. The soup contains all kinds of organic greens, pureed, a chef from Australia helped her to formulate it. Oprah says that now Kirstie has created her own weightloss program, she doesn’t have to be a spokesperson for anyone else. Kirstie says that she speaks for herself.

On a previous show, Oprah hears that Kirstie has a long list of people who want them to decorate her house. She does, she can decorate a whole house in 4 hours but they can’t be there, she doesn’t want their opinion. Lots of emails came in asking Kirstie to do their house- she goes down to a family in Texas. Stephanie and David Summers show her around and promise to give her the keys to their house. It’s all beige except for one navy room, that they say is decorating gone bad. They decorated that room after being inspired by Kirstie on the Oprah Show. They swear that Kirstie can paint whatever color she likes in their room. Kirstie says that she is the fastest decorator in the world. Oprah can’t wait to see it, she hasn’t watched the footage yet. Kirstie doen’t like sayings on the wall, a room should make you relaxed, don’t do business or paperwork in your bedroom. Kirstie goes to Lowes and picks up everything she needs. She heads to Crate and Barrel, then back to the house with the construction crew. She gives the bathroom a facelift. By the next morning, it’s starting to come together. Kirstie is happy. The big reveal- the couple say Oh my word, Wow, wow, wow, that is too cool. They are very excited that the bathroom and bedroom are so beautiful and amazing, they realise the carpet is new and Stephanie starts crying. They really appreciate it. Kirstie says enjoy it, make another baby in here.

Stephanie and David join them by Skype, they haven’t yet made another baby. They like the bed, its beautiful and comfortable, they love it, love the color. Kirstie decorates fast as she has no time for bad ideas, all decorators have to be a little ditsy. Oprah wishes the Summers’ many happy days and nights and tells them to go ahead make a baby.

Kirstie Alley’s Big Life debuts on March 23rd on A & E. Over 135,000 have taken the no-phone zone pledge including almost every one of the Minford High School in Minford, Ohio. A teacher showed the class the episode and said that you could have heard a pin drop. The whole class took the pledge, followed by the rest of the school. Follow their lead and take the pledge at Oprah.com today, thank you everybody.

WHAT WE LEARNED TODAY:

Kirstie Alley has a new reality TV show that follows her daily weight loss journey.

Kirstie Alley swore on Oprah, twice, and was beeped out.

Jamie Foxx agrees to be Kirstie Alley’s booty call, with Oprah’s permission.

Kirstie Alley is also a speed-decorator.

Oprah says a skinless chicken wing is a pitiful thing.

A VERY QUICK SUMMARY:

Kirstie Alley has created her own weightloss program and is following it on her own reality TV show.

Andrew Young was the right-hand man for John Edwards for more than a decade. He was next to the rising star through good times and bad. When tabloid stories broke suggesting that Edwards had fathered a love child with his mistress Rielle Hunter, Young did what most can’t fathom- the married father of three took the bullet for his boss and said the baby was his. In his new book The Politician, Andrew details how he helped his former boss carry on a two-year affair behind his wife’s back, while she battled cancer. It didn’t take long for the story to unravel- the lies, the cover up, and rumors of a sex-tape destroyed the career of the presidential hopeful.

Oprah welcomes Andrew Young  to the studio. Oprah doesn’t normally watch other people’s TV shows, but she was watching the 20/20 piece and yelling at the TV. She thought that Bob Woodruff did a great job, but she wanted Andrew to answer more fully if looking back on this he sees that this was stupid. He says its stupid, immoral, ridiculous. Andrew says that he is scared to death of public speaking so perhaps his emotions didn’t come across. Cheri, his most wonderful wife, and he have lived with this for several years and she stayed with him through all this. Oprah says that is what we really don’t understand. Andrew says John Edwards was more than just his boss. He and his wife had worked with the Edwards’ and become close personal friends. He had volunteered for his Senate campaign in ‘97 and ‘98. And when he first met them, they were the most inspiring people to work for. He loved them. Andrew says he and John grew closer as their friendship evolved and John became like a big brother. They went to basketball games. Oprah says that in the book Andrew says Edwards was like a father to him, and Andrew clarifies that Edwards reminded him of his father.

Andrew’s wife Cheri,  is a pediatric nurse. He says that 10 days after the Iowa caucasus, they had 12 hours before the National Enquirer would release photographs. Oprah backs up a little and says that Andrew had known of, and helped to cover up, the affair since 2006. The National Enquirer was going to reveal the discovery. Edwards called them at Petsmart when they were buying a turtle aquarium. He threw in what you’d expect—he said that the presidency is at stake. He talked off good versus evil, but the closing thing he said was, “Andrew, Elizabeth is about to die.” … He made them all believe that Elizabeth was going to die within a matter of weeks, it was imminenet. What he said was it would be a short term thing so that his wife didn’t die in disgrace, it wasn’t about the presidency. Andrew and Cheri had only 12 hours to make a decision. They made the wrong decision on so many different levels, but they truly believed in John Edwards. Andrew loved him like a big brother and  loved Elizabeth like a big sister. He asks, does that make it right? Absolutely not.

Oprah asks what part of him could make it ok to tell that lie, that’s what she really can’t understand after reading the book and watching the interviews. She finds it to be bigger than taking the fall for John Edwards, it was about deceiving all of America that would vote for him. Oprah asks if a part of Andrew asked if he thought that this was the most crazy thing ever when he got the call. Andrew says he was sitting in a minivan outside of Petsmart looking at Edwards on the cover of Newsweek and it makes the argument about how he could win the presidency,- it was like a surreal bubble that came around him. He knows it doesn’t make sense. There was a part of him that was always on call when John needed help, if he was in hot water. He has records of all the phone calls, after the story was released, within 24-48 hours derogatory things were being said about Andrew by Edwards and the campaign.

When Elizabeth heard of the affair, Edwards said that he slept with Rielle one time, but that Andrew was having an affair. Andrew says that didn’t make any sense as Rielle was traveling with him all the time and he was at home with his family in North Carolina. Elizabeth then became angry with Andrew, as she thought  he was immoral. But, he says, it was more than that, whenever she was suspicious of anything, he had become the one that she had come to blame things on. He was worried- the Edward camp had fired a lot of people. Elizabeth insisted that John fire Andrew,  but John kept him because he was the fall guy. Andrew says that he should have noticed that he was being blamed whenever something was going on. Oprah asks if there were other women and he says there were things that he should have noticed. In the book, which he wrote when his father was dying, he writes no holds barred, warts and all. He speaks of all the ridiculously stupid things that he did to his family, to his wife. He tried to tell the truth about what modern presidential politics are like and how cutthroat it is.

According to Young, Edwards began his affair with Rielle Hunter in 2006, 10 months before he began his campaign. In May 2007, Hunter became pregnant while the campaign was in full swing. Edwards then hatched a plan that Young would claim to be the father. In December the press snapped a photo of a visibly pregnant Hunter and speculated that Edwards was the father. Young released a statement saying that he is the father at Edwards’ request, and he and his family and Rielle Hunter went into hiding at high end homes and hotels bankrolled by two of Edwards supporters.

Oprah says he talks of the comparison of love and devotion for his father and for Edwards, but she is wondering at what point do you feel that you are selling your soul? His Dad was a minister and got Andrew involved in politics- he had an affair of his own that destroyed his career. Obviously Andrew went through a lot with a therapist. Oprah thought that this would mean that he would do the opposite for Edwards. Andrew says it doesn’t make sense, it was as if he was trying to put Humpty Dumpty back on the wall to save his family from what they had gone through. There was a part of him that didn’t want this to happen to Edwards.

Oprah says take politics out of it; If Edwards was just his friend, and was doing something stupid, wouldn’t you just say stop that? Andrew says that most of your friends aren’t some of the most charismatic, powerful people in the world who intimidate you. Edwards was his friend, but also his boss. Oprah asks if they thought that they’d get away with it. Andrew says that they did get away with it that no one in the mainstream press… Oprah interrupts to say that no one in the public believed the story so they didn’t get away with it. The crowd applaud. Andrew asks to finish his sentence- from December to July when he was caught, Edwards led all the polls.  Oprah says that the baby was down the road  when Obama was meeting with Edwards about possibly being the vice president. She says that they all knew this- did they think they’d get away with it? Young says that in Washington, there’s a sense that once someone becomes president they can get away with anything with the billionaire lawyers. They didn’t think it was right but they were so far in. Oprah says it makes her so angry that they would all take the risk that Edwards could become Vice president or Attorney General, it’s not right. Andrew says that they were cut off from their families and were scared to death. Andew says that when he first met the Edwards’, their son had just died. All the things that Edwards wanted to do for poverty and healthcare- Andrew just loved him. He agrees that this means nothing if he lies about the baby and the relationship- what else could he deceive us on? Young says it gets worse- Edwards asked him to steal a diaper so he could prove it wasn’t his child with a DNA test. He kept out of that one. They were also asked to find a doctor who would fake the DNA result, and Edwards offered to sign an affidavit with the National Enquirer to say that he hadn’t done any of this. Oprah says she heard them say that the presidency was at stake, and this is why they did it- why would they want this lying deceiving person to be president when they have his mistress in their house? In December they did believe in him, despite those faults. Oprah apologises that she won’t let him answer the question, she’s just so frustrated. She says sometimes you make a decision, and you’re in the mess, and the mess just gets messier and messier. He says it’s like a rabbit hole- he worked 16 hours a day, 7 days a week for 8-9 years, so after this he was home with his kids and getting to put them to bed. Oprah says yes, but they were home with the mistress. They go to break.

They show the footage of John Edwards denying that Hunter’s baby is his in an interview on Nightline with Bob Woodruff. He denies that he knows who the baby is, and  says that he would gladly take a paternity test. Edwards says that he doesn’t know if Andrew Young is the father. Oprah shakes her head and says “oh, please”. That was Edwards lying, she says. Cheri, Andrew’s wife is now in the studio. Oprah asks what they thought when they first saw that tape. They watched it together and it sent shivers up their spines. Andrew says he couldn’t lie that good if Cheri caught him drinking a beer in the garage. Edwards makes you believe him even though its all lies. He is sorry for what they did but also sorry for people across the country who gave money they couldn’t afford to the campaign, slept in gyms, and volunteered. A woman in the audience says that she gave $500 to John Edwards and she’d like her money back. The crowd applaud. Oprah says on behalf of all wives, what spirit allowed Cheri to say yes Rielle could move in with them. Cheri says he told me, Edwards wants me to claim the baby.  She looked at him and simply said: “Why in the world would you even tell me about this? You say no. We have done enough.” She wants to let everyone know what they did for that family over the previous 8-9 years. They did everything, they both did. Cheri would cook breakfast. Whatever he wanted, whatever they needed. When they came back from D.C. and didn’t have a car, they used Cheri’s car. She was without a car. Or Andrew was without a car. It was extreme. They never, never said no. Andrew was so valuable to them.

Later that night, Andrew and Cheri had a long conversation and she still wasn’t on board. They had a call with John and Rielle, which Cheri just listened to. John said this was his chance. They’ve worked so hard, he was so close. Then he spoke of Elizabeth, that she was very ill. She was going to pass very soon. He could not, could not let her know this. They had two huge things in their lap- the presidency that he could win, and the family. Oprah interrupts to ask why they wanted him to be president when he was willing to carry on such a deception. Cheri says she didn’t think of that, only of her responsibility. Oprah says it’s every person who donated. Cheri says that the last two years have been hell, and they are paying for the consequences. Oprah asks if they wanted a role for themselves in DC if he became President, because that motivation she could at least understand.  Andrew says he wanted to take the kids and work in different consulates, experience different countries. Cheri says that by this point they had done so much, invested so much, and this was Andrew’s career. He believed in Edwards so much; “America was fooled. We were all fooled”.

Oprah says would they have come clean  if Edwards had said he would take care of them and set them up. Young says that they waited 2 years and that Edwards had promised that this would be a very short term thing. Within 2 weeks of Andrew’s book being published, after 2 years, Edwards announced that he’s the father, signed the custody papers  and goes to see Rielle and so all these things happen as the book comes out. Cheri says that living these lies has been horrific. She was criticized for being happy in an interview and she was just so relieved that the truth was out. The lies that Elizabeth has told about them, mostly Andrew… Oprah asks if they feel that they also betrayed Elizabeth. Cheri says yes, and she’s very sorry that Elizabeth has a terminal illness but the thing that she doesn’t understand as a nurse (Oprah wipes away Cheri’s tears) working with childrens and families with various terminal illnesses- she doesn’t understand Elizabeth because of how she’s treated them. She’s seen interesting things with how she’s treated others, but they’ve always been safe. She doesn’t understand the voicemails – why would Elizabeth, if she knew the truth, why would she target her? And if she thought that Andrew was the father, why did she target her? The voicemails were downright bizarre and threatening. She called and said take care of your concubine… Oprah says that they must understand why Elizabeth is so upset. Andrew tries to interrupt and Cheri stops him and says that he listens to her now, he agrees, the audience laugh. Cheri tried to protect Elizabeth- Oprah asks if she protected her by harboring the mistress of her husband. Cheri says that now they know that they were wrong, wrong, wrong in their decision.  Oprah says that in an interview with her, Elizabeth said that if the baby is or isn’t Johns, it has nothing to do with her, which Oprah thought was interesting. Any wife who has been lied to and deceived knows that- and she and Elizabeth talked about this off-camera- the feeling that everyone else knows but you. Andrew says that it has broken his heart that his best friend lied repeatedly and drove over him with a dump-truck- he can’t fathom what Elizabeth has gone through.They had to step up and take care of their own family. Oprah says she is surprised that Edwards didn’t take better care of them.After the baby was born he didn’t speak to them. They were in California away from their families and support structure.

For 8 months, they moved from house to house with Rielle. They show photos of Rielle very pregnant then with a newborn. Cheri admits that it looks like they were a happy family and they weren’t but they had to make do, for the children. Rielle stayed in one end of the house and they stayed at the other end. Oprah asks if they all got along. After a pause, Andrew chuckles and says no. Cheri says that they were polar opposites. Oprah asks what they were thinking? Andrew says that the baby was born in February and in March the Senator stopped speaking to him. The night the baby was born, Andrew called Edwards and told him to call. Edwards refused. A switch went off for Andrew, when he realised that not only was he disposable, everyone was disposable. On July 22nd,  Edwards called and said he’d been caught, which was eerily like what happened with his father years before. Edwards was crying and distraught, Andrew said Senator please, don’t make a comment until they know what they have. Edwards got caught in the lies and half truths he told Elizabeth. the only person the Woodruff story made sense to was Elizabeth. He told her that Rielle had made him come to the hotel room because Andrew hadn’t paid child support, and that she was going to blackmail him about their one night stand, unless he paid child support. And that is why Elizabeth said why don’t you take care of your concubine on the voicemail says Oprah. Cheri wants to go back to talking about when they were living in California, when they wanted to get out. They didn’t feel that they could, they were controlled by three attorneys and millionaires and billionaires. They lived in California, they were  building a house in North Carolina and didn’t know how the next month would pan out, how they’d pay for the house, where the kids would go to school. They had their health insurance paid for them…

Oprah asks if he was offered a lot of money for the alleged sex tape- Andrew says its not an alleged sex tape, it shows Edwards but not Rielle. They got alot of email offers but never took them up. Oprah asks what the tape shows, Andrew says no comment and Rielle says she’ll speak. Andrew says no and grabs her hand. Oprah says go ahead. Cheri says that Edwards is naked, performing sexual acts and the woman is holding the camera. Oprah thanks her for the information. Oprah asks if they ever thought of selling it- the mean thought may have crossed their minds but they never acted on it. They found it in July 08 and told him in August 08- Oprah says that she would be very nice to anyone with that tape. Andrew says that the Edwards’ had successfully got them kicked out the house they were renting- Oprah says that makes no sense- Cheri says the tape allowed them to get through the last two years of hell. Finally after being controlled by millionaires, Edwards got busted, they got dumped back in North Carolina and their house wasn’t done. This was the worst time for them but they’d found the tape in a bedroom that Rielle had stayed in. Oprah says that Edwards had to be out of his mind to be filmed naked when running for the presidency of the United States.  Andrew thought it was narcissism gone wild. On top of this it was 3 1/2 months before the election  and he was having sex with a visibly pregnant woman while his wife is dying of cancer. They left the tape in Andrew’s house that they were renting with realtors trooping in and out. Cheri says that the tape was her security after the millionaires and billionaires that had been controlling them. Was she going to do anything with it? No, but she had something to prove from what happened. Oprah asks what they learned from this, that there are huge life lessons to be learned from this. Rielle is suing them to return the photos and videos to her, and says that their statement that there is a visibly preganant woman on the video tape is false and her invasion of privacy has been horrifying. Oprah asks for their final thoughts- in the book Andrew speaks of his fathers betrayal and that he tried to make peace through the brother,  father, friend figure- John. His dad taught him that we can make a positive difference from our actions. Andrew was seduced by the politics, power and money when the job with this viable world leader dropped into his lap. The things that matter the most, Andrew says he already has the. The lesson is that most of us have what we want already, money doesn’t change that. It made their marriage stronger. Cheri says that they have always had  a strong love and trust for each other and with this they hit rock bottom and made it through. Now they are closer, the kids are great, she has her husband back and the kids have their daddy back and he listens to her. The book, The Politician, will have you screaming at the pages, according to Oprah. Both John and Elizabeth Edwards have released statements saying that the book contains false allegations and exaggerations. Edwards claims that Andrew Young is motivated by financial gains and media attention. Oprah appreciates that they allowed her to ask the questions that she still had, and hopefully the Young family can go home and don’t have to do another interview.

WHAT WE LEARNED TODAY:

Oprah doesn’t normally watch other people’s TV shows.

Filming a naked sex tape while running for the US Presidency is stupid.

Having an affair while your wife publicly battles cancer and you run for President is not a good thing to do.

Even if your boss is like a father/ brother/ friend to you, claiming that his love child is your love child will not be easily understood by others.

Narcissism gone wild will always end in tears.

A VERY QUICK SUMMARY:

Sometimes you make a decision, and you’re in a mess, and the mess just gets messier and messier.