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Oprah told Cybill Shepherd, “You can say penis and vagina on this show.” So Shepherd proceeded to do so as she discussed her love affair with Elvis Presley. “A few things he had to be taught; he liked to get himself a big plate of chicken-fried steak, but there was one thing he wouldn’t eat.”

The audience gasped. “Did you teach him?” asked Oprah.

“I sure did.”

When Lisa Marie Presley appeared on the show Oprah asked her why she had married Michael Jackson. “Was it a consummated marriage?” Again, the audience gasped, but Oprah admonished them. “You all damn well know you want to know.”

“Yes,” said Lisa Marie. “It was.”

Oprah invited Patrick Swayze and Wesley Snipes to discuss their movie about drag queens (To Wong Foo Thanks for Everything, Julie Newmar). “I want to hear about the gender-benders,” she said, “because how did you tuck in the penises? How did you keep them down—the peni? I mean—oh, God—is the genderbender the same as a jock strap? Is it … sort of the same thing?”

“Sort of,” said Swayze, “but it just yanks the other way.”

“Yeah,” said Snipes, “it’s like a sock.”

Despite her predilection for the risqué, Oprah dropped basketball’s bad boy Dennis Rodman from her show because she said his book, Walk on the Wild Side, was too raunchy. “After reading the book, I did not feel that it was appropriate for my viewers,” she said.

Over the years The Oprah Winfrey Show became a Mecca for celebrities: Ben Affleck, Kirstie Alley, Jennifer Aniston, Drew Barrymore, Beyoncé, Mary J. Blige, Bono, Lynda Carter, Cher, Bill Cosby, Kevin Costner, Billy Crystal, Matt Damon, Johnny Depp, Cameron Diaz, P. Diddy, Robert Downey, Jr., Clint Eastwood, Michael J. Fox, Richard Gere, Robin Givens, Hugh Grant, Tom Hanks, Florence Henderson, Julio Iglesias, Michael Jordan, Ashton Kutcher, Jay Leno, David Letterman, Jennifer Lopez, Susan Lucci, Paul McCartney, Matthew McConaughey, George Michael, Bette Midler, Demi Moore, Mike Myers, Paul Newman, Gwyneth Paltrow, Brad Pitt, Sidney Poitier, Lionel and Nicole Richie, Chris Rock, Diana Ross, Meg Ryan, Brooke Shields, Jessica Simpson, Will Smith and Jada Pinkett Smith, Steven Spielberg, Jon Stewart, Barbra Streisand, Luther Vandross, Denzel Washington, Robin Williams, Stevie Wonder, Tiger Woods, and Renée Zellweger. They all understood that by appearing with Oprah they would be safe, secure, and swaddled—able to sell their shows, films, records, products, and, most important, themselves.

Wynonna Judd came to talk about her weight; Julia Roberts announced she was pregnant with twins; Madonna denied she’d adopted a baby from Malawi as a publicity stunt. Later, in reviewing all the celebrities she knew, Oprah told her audience, “Céline Dion, Halle Berry, and John Travolta really became friends of mine.” She interviewed Tom Cruise nine times over the years and gave an entire hour to reuniting the cast of The Mary Tyler Moore Show because, as she said, “I wanted to be Mary Tyler Moore.”

“My wife [Academy Award–winning actress Shirley Jones] and I did the Oprah show a couple of times,” recalled Marty Ingels from his home in Beverly Hills. “Once was: ‘Couples Who Have Some Secret to Hide.’ We were on with Jayne Meadows and Steve Allen. She found him in bed [with another woman]. Blew us away … I made a big mistake by trying to kid around with Oprah. I said, ‘C’mon, Oprah. You don’t like Jews. You won’t let me talk.’ Whoa. Big mistake. Apparently, she’s been accused of being anti-Jew—Anyway, we never got on again and here’s the reason: we didn’t get paid by Oprah.”

Ingels explained that according to AFTRA (the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists), all performers are to be paid a minimum fee ($537 in 1997) for their appearances, whether or not they perform, but Oprah claimed to have a special arrangement with the local union and didn’t pay anyone. Ingels demanded an investigation by AFTRA. “It’s wrong that this billionaire lady should make her own rules different from any other talk show.… Why