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By Root 1190 0

always called her “adolescent sexual promiscuity” was actually prostitution. Having been sexually abused as a child, she had garnered great sympathy from her audiences, who saw her as a victim of vicious predators and someone who had gone on to do great things to help other victims. Why mar that now? Why put forward something that could obliterate all the goodwill she had accumulated? Viewers might not be prepared to accept their heroine as a former hooker, or overlook the gulf between adolescent promiscuity and selling yourself for money. No one wanted Oprah to chip away at the pedestal on which she stood. “Why give them a club?” was the general reaction of those who wanted to protect her. She had constructed a revered public image as someone who had triumphed over racism, poverty, and sexual abuse, and to now admit to something like this might diminish all that. Her enemies would pounce, her fans could feel betrayed, and her sponsors might withdraw. It was simply too big a risk.

In the past Oprah controlled the release of information about herself, except for her sister’s tabloid revelations about her teenage pregnancy. Her sister had alluded to her prostitution, but even in that case Oprah had issued a carefully worded statement about her pregnancy and been allowed to retreat into silence without being subjected to the probing questions of reporters. She would not be given the luxury of that kind of control on a thirty-city book promotional tour during which she could be asked the kinds of questions she frequently asked of others, especially young women, who had sold themselves for money.

A reading of a few of Oprah’s past shows indicates how she attempted to explore the subject of the world’s oldest profession, prostitution:

“Profiling Prostitutes” (11/6/86)

“Call Girls and Madams” (10/29/87)

“Housewife Prostitutes” (9/5/88)

“Suburban Teens: The New Prostitutes” (9/25/88)

“Who Really Goes to Prostitutes?” (10/31/96)

“Living a Secret Life” (9/21/04)

“Children Being Sold into Sexual Slavery” (11/2/05)

“Inside the Lives of Young Prostitutes” (5/8/06)

“Inside the Notorious Bunny Ranch Brothel” (4/29/09)

Oprah wanted to play a prostitute on-screen after hearing Gloria Steinem’s true story about a woman who had been jailed for prostitution and wondered why her pimps and her customers weren’t in jail with her. The woman went to the prison library for law books, and upon her release continued studying until she finished high school, attended college at night, and finally became a lawyer. “I’m definitely going to do a lusty romantic role,” said Oprah, “based on that true story.… I’ll get to be a hooker and have a pimp. Can’t wait for that.”

After reading Endesha Ida Mae Holland’s autobiographical script about her childhood as a prostitute and her eventual involvement in the civil rights movement, Oprah joined four other women in 1991 to finance a production of From the Mississippi Delta at New York’s Circle in the Square Theatre.

Years later she returned to the subject of prostitution in one of her After the Show segments, which she taped for the Oxygen network. She interviewed the writer Jeannette Angell, who received a master’s degree from the Yale Divinity School and later wrote a book titled Callgirl, chronicling her three years as a prostitute. The book is blunt and unapologetic about what she did to pay for her education. “It’s really the ideal college job,” Angell told the Yale Daily News. “I hate to say this but it’s true. It’s the perfect way to get through school because you have a minimum of time commitment for a maximum of money.”

Oprah was less than hospitable to Angell, and from her facial expressions and cold tone of voice, she appeared to look down on her. “Boy, was your high school shocked,” Oprah said. “Did you feel bad … did you feel high about it? Is it like a blind date? I’m just curious how do you do that? Do you get more [money] for … um … other things? Is there at least a pretense? … Do you have a conversation first?”

The writer soldiered through the segment and tried to laugh off what