Oprah_ A Biography - Kitty Kelley [191]
In her interview with Nelson Mandela, he talked about how he had changed himself in prison and learned to train his brain to dominate his emotions so that he could negotiate with South Africa’s racist white leadership. That interview, published in April 2001, should have been hailed as a journalistic coup for Oprah, but one Chicago critic saw it only as Oprah crowing.
“Sometimes self-esteem can look a lot like pathological narcissism,” wrote Carina Chocano in the Chicago Sun-Times. “The cover of this month’s O reads: ‘OPRAH talks to HER HERO, the awesome, inspiring, noble NELSON MANDELA.’ (OPRAH and HER HERO are [in] noticeably larger [type] than NELSON MANDELA.) Other articles include ‘O: What I Know for Sure,’ ‘Oprah on Setting Yourself Free,’ and ‘Five Things Oprah Thinks Are Great.’ (These include faux apples and pears, $18 each; a set of Murano glasses, $40 each; and a book called ‘Spiritual Literacy: Reading the Sacred Truth in Everyday Life,’ which helps Oprah ‘see the extraordinary in ordinary experiences.’)”
Editorially, the magazine presented Oprah’s commandments for Living Your Best Life:
Keeping It Off Forever: 10 Rules
12 Strategies for Getting the Best Health Care
9 Rules for Writing a Good Ad
12 Things a Stepmother Should Never Say
10 Easy Food Switches for an Extra 10 Good Years
9 Things Weight Loss Winners Know (that you don’t)
Once again David Letterman took a poke at Oprah on his late-night show by announcing “The Top Ten Articles from Oprah’s New Magazine”:
No. 10. P, R, A and H. The Four Runner-up Titles for This Magazine.
No. 9. Do What I Say or I’ll Make Another Movie.
No. 8. Funerals and Meetings with the Pope: Occasions Not to Use “You Go, Girl.”
No. 7. While You’re Reading This, I Made 50 Million Dollars.
No. 6. The Night I Nailed Deepak Chopra
No. 5. The Million-Dollar Bill: A Convenience That’s Long Overdue
No. 4. My Love Affair with Oprah, by Oprah
No. 3. You Suckers Will Never Know What It’s Like to Live in a Solid Gold Mansion
No. 2. Ricki Lake’s Home Phone Number and How She Hates 3 A.M. Calls
No. 1. The Time I Had to Wait 5 Minutes for a Skim Half-Decaf Latte
Oprah filled her “personal growth guide,” as she called her beautifully produced magazine, with advice pages from some of her “Change Your Life” gurus, to give “confident, smart women the tools they need to reach for their dreams, to express their individual style and to make choices that will lead to a happier, more fulfilling life.” She advertised O, The Oprah Magazine, on her website, Oprah.com:
O offers compelling stories and empowering ideas stamped with Oprah’s unique vision of everything from health and fitness, careers, relationships and self-discovery issues to beauty, fashion, home design, books and food.
Within a year she had a paid circulation of 2.5 million and had raked in more than $140 million in annual revenues. Her critics were dumbfounded by the spectacular success of her new venture, which enlarged her media conglomerate. But when Chicago reporters tried to interview her about her new magazine, she turned them down cold, still smarting from their negative coverage of her “Change Your Life” television. “I flew to New York for the magazine launch,” said Tim Jones, the business reporter for the Chicago Tribune, “and I was desperately trying to get an interview with her. After all, we are her hometown newspaper.… She wouldn’t talk to me, but she sure as hell talked to The New York Times.” In fact, Oprah called the Times’s media reporter, Alex Kuczynski, at home to thank her for a story about the success of O magazine. “It was about seven A.M. and I said, ‘Oprah.