Oprah_ A Biography - Kitty Kelley [234]
“She [Oprah] was as cold as she could be,” Eckford told David Margolick of Vanity Fair. “She went out of her way to be hateful.”
Margolick, who spent time with Eckford and Massery to write their story, added, “Characteristically, though, Elizabeth felt sorrier for Hazel. She was treated even more brusquely [by Oprah].”
Still, people flocked to the Church of Oprah. Online there were twenty-eight thousand websites devoted to getting on The Oprah Winfrey Show, and late-night television’s David Letterman, who had been excommunicated for years, began an “Oprah Log,” begging to be invited. Oprah ignored him, but he persisted. “It ain’t Oprah til it’s Oprah,” he told his audiences night after night. Soon his fans began holding up signs in front of the Ed Sullivan Theater, in airports, and at football games: “Oprah, Please Call Dave.”
After eighty-two nights, Phil Rosenthal advised Oprah in the Chicago Sun-Times, “This is a call you have to make.… Every night … he is making you look like a humorless, self-important diva who spouts all kinds of New Age platitudes about forgiveness and positive thought but stubbornly clings to grudges. He’s not the one who looks bad in this. It’s a funny bit, and so long as you refuse to play, you’re the butt of it.… You’re simply digging in your heels, being stubborn, petty and stupid.”
Oprah was still steamed about Letterman’s jokes over the years:
Top Ten Disturbing Examples of Violence on TV:
No. 6: Unknowing guest gets between Oprah and the buffet
Top Ten Least Popular Tourist Attractions:
No. 3: The Grand Ole Oprah
Top Ten Death-Defying Stunts Robbie Knievel Won’t Perform:
No. 8: Screwing up Oprah Winfrey’s lunch order
Top Ten Things You Don’t Want to Hear from a Guy in a Sports Bar:
No. 1: “Oops—time for Oprah.”
Top Ten Things Columbus Would Say About America If He Were Alive Today:
No. 6: “How did you come to choose the leader you call Oprah?”
Top Ten Dr. Phil Tips for Interviewing Oprah:
No. 4: Grovel
Rapprochement came on December 1, 2005, when Oprah finally agreed to appear on Letterman’s show and then allowed him to escort her to the Broadway premiere of The Color Purple, prompting People to surmise:
And now, ladies and gentlemen, the Top Ten Most Likely Reasons Why Oprah Winfrey Ended Her 16-Year Rift with David Letterman and Agreed to Appear on His CBS Late Show December 1, 2005:
No. 10: She is producing a Broadway musical, The Color Purple, across the street.
Nos. 9–1: See No. 10.
“At last our long national nightmare is over,” said The Kansas City Star.
Letterman behaved like a starstruck schoolboy. “It means a great deal to me, and I’m just very happy you’re here,” he gushed to Oprah. “You have meant something to the lives of people.”
An estimated 13.5 million people stayed up to watch that night, giving Letterman his biggest audience in more than a decade. The next day Washington Post TV writer Lisa de Moraes observed: “Letterman had become that which he once mocked. An Opraholic.”
It wasn’t simply a late-night comic who wanted to bathe in the reflected glory of Oprah Winfrey. To promote his 1,008-page memoir, My Life, former president Bill Clinton appeared on her show (June 22, 2004), sat with her for her Oxygen segment Oprah After the Show, and, hugging her and holding hands, took her on an extended tour of his home in Chappaqua, New York, to accompany a long interview in O magazine. On the show, Oprah made a point of saying that “nothing was off-limits,” as she directed the former president to read all the pages dealing with his sexual indiscretions.
“What were your feelings toward Hillary during those many times you betrayed her?” she asked.
“I always loved her a lot,” he said, “but not always well.”
“Weren’t you afraid of getting caught?”
Clinton dodged the question, saying he was