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By Root 1201 0

and then 5 days of celebration, beginning with a dinner, hosted by Stedman at Chicago’s Metropolitan Club for 75 people, including Oprah’s father and mother.

The next day they boarded Oprah’s jet and flew to California, where she was guest of honor at a ladies’ luncheon for 50 at the Bel-Air Hotel, her favorite LA retreat. The guests there included Salma Hayek, Diane Sawyer, Maria Shriver, Toni Morrison, Ellen DeGeneres, and Céline Dion. The following night there was a dinner dance for 200 at a neighbor’s estate in Montecito, and the next morning a Sunday brunch for 175 people at the San Ysidro Ranch, all of which was filmed for a second Oprah show. In addition, Oprah invited People to cover the dinner dance staged by her party planner, Colin Cowie, full of what he called JDMs (jaw-dropping moments): 50 violinists, 200 waiters (one per guest), a chocolate-and-raspberry pound cake gilded with twenty-three-karat gold, music by Stevie Wonder, and wall-to-wall celebrities, including the Bel-Air luncheon ladies and their husbands and partners, Tom Hanks and Rita Wilson, John Travolta and Kelly Preston, Robin and Dr. Phil McGraw, Tina Turner, and Brad Pitt and Jennifer Aniston.

For “The Legends Weekend,” Oprah selected twenty-five black women she considered to be legends:

Maya Angelou (author/poet/actor/producer/director)

Shirley Caesar (singer)

Diahann Carroll (actor/singer)

Elizabeth Catlett (sculptor)

Ruby Dee (actor/playwright)

Katherine Dunham (dancer/choreographer)

Roberta Flack (singer)

Aretha Franklin (singer)

Nikki Giovanni (poet)

Dorothy Height (activist)

Lena Horne (singer/actor)

Coretta Scott King (activist)

Gladys Knight (singer)

Patti LaBelle (singer)

Toni Morrison (author)

Rosa Parks (activist)

Leontyne Price (opera singer)

Della Reese (singer/actor)

Diana Ross (singer/actor)

Naomi Sims (model)

Tina Turner (singer)

Cicely Tyson (actor)

Alice Walker (author/poet)

Dionne Warwick (singer)

Nancy Wilson (singer)

Inexplicably missing from Oprah’s list were her onetime friend Whoopi Goldberg, the singer Eartha Kitt, acclaimed opera star Jessye Norman, respected broadcaster Gwen Ifill, and Secretary of State Dr. Condoleezza Rice. Of the twenty-five women Oprah selected as legends, seven did not attend: Katherine Dunham, Aretha Franklin, Nikki Giovanni, Lena Horne, Toni Morrison, Rosa Parks, and Alice Walker. “Just too many television cameras,” said one who did not participate. “Too much Oprah.”

The “young ’uns,” as Oprah called those following in the footsteps of the “legends,” included:

Yolanda Adams (singer)

Debbie Allen (actor/dancer)

Ashanti (singer)

Tyra Banks (model/talk show host)

Angela Bassett (actor)

Kathleen Battle (opera singer)

Halle Berry (actor)

Mary J. Blige (singer)

Naomi Campbell (model)

Mariah Carey (singer)

Pearl Cleage (poet/playwright)

Natalie Cole (singer)

Suzanne De Passe (producer/writer)

Kimberly Elise (actor)

Missy Elliot (rap artist)

Pam Grier (actor)

Iman (model)

Janet Jackson (singer)

Judith Jamison (dancer/choreographer)

Beverly Johnson (model)

Chaka Khan (singer)

Gayle King (editor, O magazine)

Alicia Keys (singer)

Audra McDonald (actor/singer)

Terry McMillan (author)

Darnell Martin (director/screenwriter)

Melba Moore (actor/singer)

Brandy Norwood (singer)

Michelle Obama (community affairs executive)

Suzan-Lori Parks (playwright)

Phylicia Rashad (actor)

Valerie Simpson (singer/composer)

Anna Deavere Smith (actor/playwright)

Susan L. Taylor (editorial director of Essence)

Alfre Woodard (actor)

Oprah began the weekend with a luncheon at her estate on Friday (May 13, 2005), during which she gave six-carat diamond teardrop earrings to “the legends” and ten-carat black-and-white diamond hoop earrings to “the young ’uns,” all presented in red alligator boxes inside of which were engraved silver