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The Unauthorized Oprah
Here's one page-turner that can count itself out of Oprah's Book Club.
Kitty Kelley, the first lady of scandalous exposés, has set her sights on the first lady of talk, announcing plans to chronicle Winfrey's every misstep—and, possibly, good deed—in an unauthorized biography.
"Oprah Winfrey has fascinated me for many years," Kelley said. "As a woman, she has wielded an unprecedented amount of influence over the American culture and psyche. There has been no other person in the 20th century whose convictions and values have impacted the American public in such a significant way."
The 64-year-old biographer, whose exhaustive and oft-vicious skewerings of high-profile figures always makes for bestseller-list domination, is aiming to have her Winfrey opus in bookstores in roughly three years.
Which makes for plenty of time to dig up the dirt on the daytime queen.
Kelley said she plans to interview "hundreds of sources" for the would-be scather, "many of whom have never spoken on record" about her 52-year-old subject.
Which is pretty much standard operating procedure for the biographer.
Kelley made her name penning the explosive 1978 biography Jackie Oh!, detailing Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis' battle with depression and her husband's womanizing ways.
Subjects falling prey to some of her more scandal-packed tell-alls: Nancy Reagan, whose biography the New York Times deemed "encyclopedically vicious"; Frank Sinatra, who Kelley claimed had an affair with Reagan; the British royal family, which described the sexual insatiability of Queen Elizabeth II and, due to the country's strict libel laws, was not even allowed to be published in the U.K.; and most recently, the Bush dynasty, in which she claimed President George W. Bush snorted cocaine at Camp David while his father was in office.
While the subjects of each of Kelley's biographies have loudly and routinely denied such allegations, none has ever successfully sued the author.
Still, Kelley is denying that she's setting out to write an equally biting biography of Winfrey—though perhaps not for lack of trying.
Kelley told the Washington Post that she has been researching the book for roughly two months and has yet to dig up major dirt.
"So far, I don't see anything negative on this woman," she told the paper. "I think she's a real icon...She's much more complex and complicated than just a talk show host. Maya Angelou has said she sees her as a true missionary. Everybody has a different take on Oprah."
Another possibility as to why secrets aren't spilling out of Winfrey's closet is because the professional talker has made a practice of opening her life up to her minions—er, viewers. Winfrey herself has already spoken out about her childhood sexual abuse, ill-fated early pregnancy and series of poorly chosen paramours.
As with all Kelley's previous subjects, Winfrey has chosen not to cooperate.
"Yes, she is aware of the book," her spokesperson told the Post. "She has no plans to contribute."
With or without Winfrey's help, the book will likely be another major success—even though some publishers reportedly, and understandably, shied away from distributing the work. Earlier this week, Kelley signed a deal with Crown Publishing Group, an imprint of Random House.
While none of the deal's financial terms have been disclosed, Kelley is likely heading for a windfall, telling the Post simply that "Oprah is a multimillion-dollar subject."
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