Oprah Winfrey shocks audience with free trip

Oprah Winfrey shocks audience with free trip

Oprah Winfrey surprised her talk show audience attending the premiere of her 25th and final season yesterday with an all-expenses-paid eight-day trip to Australia.

Some 300 audience members clapped, cried and hugged as Winfrey announced the trip and introduced pilot-actor John Travolta, who stepped out of a mock-up of a Qantas Airways jet rolled onto the stage.

�I started to think about where would I most want to go. Maybe I should take all of you with me to the other side of the world ... We�re going to Australia! We are going to Australia! You and you and you and you, are going to Australia!� she said.

Some of her show�s staff will also be flying to Sydney in December, where the Sydney Opera House will be transformed into the �Oprah� House for a taping of her show.

Previously, the famously generous Winfrey has given each audience member a new car, and recently handed staff members of her �O� Magazine Apple iPads and US$10,000 (RM31,000) cheque. She has also handed out school scholarships, money for homes, and financed a school for girls in South Africa.

In a surprise to Winfrey, Paul Simon turned up to perform a rewritten version of a song dedicated to her.

�The Oprah Winfrey Show� is syndicated to 215 domestic stations by CBS Television Distribution and to 145 countries by CBS Studios International.

Winfrey won�t be off the airwaves after her talk show ends, as her Oprah Winfrey Network is set to kick off on cable on January 1

Simon Cowell reveals depression battle in Oprah

"American Idol" judge Simon Cowell gets personal with Oprah Winfrey, opening up about his engagement to Mezhgan Hussainy, Paula Abdul's departure from the show, and his low points in life. 

Simon Cowell has showed off his softer side, telling Oprah Winfrey he has suffered from depression and admitting he had made "some absolutely horrific mistakes" in the past.

The normally abrasive American Idol judge said during an appearance on The Oprah Winfrey Show that he was prone to dark moods.

"I get very, very down," Cowell said.

"Pretty much depression. (But) what I always say is, 'You're taking yourself too seriously, so stop it'.

"At the same time, you should never put a painted smile on. When you're feeling down, you're feeling down."

Cowell, 50, has his own record label and also created the TV shows America's Got Talent and The X-Factor.



He said he sometimes felt drained by the demands of his work.

"You just become aware that a lot of people depend on you, rely on you, or you're not giving people the time you should be giving them. It's almost like a guilt thing - and that does drain me," he said.

Often seen as arrogant because of his stinging put-downs to aspiring entertainers, Cowell admitted he had a strong ego.

But life has not always been kind, he said.

He recalled the time 20 years ago when he lost his job, car and home and had to move back to live with his parents in Britain when a business deal went wrong.

"I made some absolutely horrific mistakes," he said.

"I believed my own ego, believed my own hype, believed my own abilities and lots of times it came crashing down. I thought I was absolutely untouchable."

Cowell's interview with Winfrey was broadcast a week before the May 26 finale of American Idol, which will mark the end of his eight-year association with the most-watched TV show in the US.


"American Idol" judge Simon Cowell gets personal with Oprah Winfrey, opening up about his engagement to Mezhgan Hussainy, Paula Abdul's departure from the show, and his low points in life.

"I've never been good at relationships," he tells Winfrey. "I never thought I'd be with one person. ... I never genuinely thought anyone would want to live with me."

He explains why he never thought he was the marrying type, saying, "I'm selfish, quite weird and I need time on my own to think, and I work all night." Cowell tells Oprah that he's quite moody and has bouts with depression. "I'm very dark when I'm in those moments. I'm very down. ... Pretty much depression. ... I just get down at times."

This is Cowell's last season on "Idol" and he discloses that he thinks the finale will be "emotional." Reflecting over the seasons past where he sat alongside former judge Abdul, he comments on her decision to leave the program, saying, "I think we had a great team. ... Paula, she's a survivor. She's got great instincts. ... She's going to come back on top."

Oprah: DNA Test for Dad?84 year old Navy man claim to be Oprah Dad.

Following up on a new paternity claim for the hugely popular daytime television host yesterday, reporters were yelled at and shoved by the usually unflappable Oprah. DNA testing would definitively prove whether the new man is the father, but she adamantly refused. Norh Robinson, an 84 year old navy veteran who is claiming to be the father, says he wants nothing to do with her fortune, and just wants to meet his daughter before he dies.

With the release of an unauthorized and unofficial biography about Ms. Winfrey by writer Kitty Kelly, the popular host has seen an onslaught of men claiming to be her real father. Kelly�s controversial biography questions just how bad the talk-show host�s childhood really was, and claims that Vernon Winfrey is not her real father.Check out the full story, with pictures and video below!




Robinson, who lives in the same small town that was the home of Ms. Winfrey until she was six, told the press that he wrote her a letter offering a paternity exam.

�I told her [in a letter], if she wanted, I�d give her one. I never got no answer. I never did get no answer. If I did, it didn�t get to me.�

Although he was clear of his intentions, he didn�t elaborate as to why he would choose to tell her now.

�I�m her real father,� he said. �I haven�t seen her since she was a kid. She was a little bitty thing.�

Reporters looking to confirm the claim posed questions to Oprah, DNA testing being their main focus, and were met with anger.

�I will not be taking a paternity test, ever!� she shouted. Then, when asked what other motive Robinson could possibly have, she yelled �Get out of my face!� and pushed a reporter aside to get into her SUV.

Later, during a presentation at the Matrix Awards, she talked about her friend Gayle King who was worried about all the rumors that have been surrounding the TV phenom since the release of her so-called biography.

�Every day, she�s getting herself more and more worked up about all of my new daddies that are now showing up. New daddies who are saying, �Hello daughter, call me, I need a new roof.� Well, this too shall pass.�

It looks like the chances of an Oprah DNA test are slim to nothing, and the host will not even be considering the possibility that the claim is true. Fair enough, I say. Vernon is who she considers her father, and he�s the one that�s been there for her. Why should she give credence to Robinson, even if he is her real father, when he�s been missing her whole life?