Oprah_ A Biography - Kitty Kelley [115]
Speaking on behalf of the Jewish community leaders, ADL representative Barry Morrison said, “We were all satisfied that Oprah Winfrey and her staff did not intend to offend anyone and that Oprah was genuinely sorry for any offense or misunderstanding. During the meeting, constructive recommendations were made and there was an extensive exchange of information which led to a greater understanding of Jewish perspective on the part of Oprah and her staff.”
Not everyone was pleased with the outcome. “It’s an inadequate response to the harm that may have been done on that broadcast,” said Phil Baum, associate executive director of the American Jewish Congress. “It’s not our sensitivities she ought to be concerned about. It’s a question of the integrity of her show. This apology cannot possibly reach anything like the people [7,680,000 homes, according to the A.C. Nielsen Company] who were exposed to these statements.”
Oprah refused to make an apology on her show or publicly comment on the program or the statements, but privately she embraced her two major defenders and kept Mrs. Brady and Judge Marovitz close to her for the rest of their lives. Both were invited to all her parties, and because of them she became more involved in Jewish causes.
When Judge Marovitz died in 2001 at the age of ninety-five, the elite of Chicago assembled in his courtroom on the twenty-fifth floor of the Dirksen Federal Building to remember him as, in Mayor Richard Daley’s words, “a true friend and wonderful human being.” Covering the memorial for the Chicago Sun-Times, Neil Steinberg was surprised to see Oprah in the crowd. “Every man would like a woman of mystery at his memorial,” he wrote, “and it was fitting that Winfrey filled that role at Marovitz’s service.”
“I love him,” Oprah said. “He was beyond wonderful. He was one of my inspirations. He was a dear friend to me when I most needed him.”
“And what exactly did Marovitz do for you?” Steinberg asked.
Winfrey smiled, sphinxlike: “I’m not saying.”
Two years later, when Harriet Brady, then eighty-six, was dying in the hospital, Oprah visited her often, and later attended her funeral. They, too, had become close over the years, and it was a relationship Oprah valued because Harriet Brady, wealthy in her own right and socially established, wanted nothing from her. “Oprah feels so ripped off by everyone that she appreciates people who, as she says, ‘don’t bleed me,’ ” said Bill Zwecker, the newspaper columnist and television commentator who had been covering the talk show host since she moved to Chicago.
Shortly after making her peace with Jewish America, Oprah was hit with a nasty blind item by Ann Gerber in the Chicago Sun-Times (May 14, 1989):
Can it be true that the lover of one of our richest women was found in bed with her hairdresser when she returned early from a trip abroad? The battle that ensued brought her screaming out on to Lake Shore Drive, shocking her staid neighbors.
Although Oprah did not live on Lake Shore Drive, she knew she was the target of the gossip columnist, and she was irate. “She was angrier than I’ve ever seen her,” recalled Patricia Lee Lloyd.
Three days later, on May 17, 1989, Ann Gerber responded to the calls she had received from Oprah’s staff with another item, this time naming names:
Rumors that TV talk show star Oprah Winfrey and the hunk Stedman Graham had a major rift (one version has Oprah shooting him) just aren’t true, friends insist.
The media flew into a frenzy, calling Chicago police and area hospitals to try to confirm the story, with no success. Oprah issued an emotional denial on her show (May 19, 1989):
I have chosen to speak up because this rumor has become so widespread and so vulgar that I just wanted to go on record and let you know that it is not true. There is absolutely no truth whatsoever