Not for Book Club: Kitty Kelley Takes on Oprah

By Marc Schneider Posted Jan 22nd 2010 07:48AM

Kitty Kelley, the queen of gossipy and unflattering (but extremely best-selling) celebrity biographies, has a new subject that isn't gonna like it: Oprah Winfrey.

The author's publisher announced Thursday that her 544-page unauthorized 'Oprah: A Biography' will be released April 13, with a huge first printing of 500,000 copies. We've got a hunch Oprah won't be adding this biography to her book club.

Kelley says she has high regard for Winfrey, but also felt committed to writing the truth. Kelley says she devoted the past three years to examining Winfrey's life. She says she came away "full of admiration for her accomplishments and fascinated by her complexity."

David Drake of Crown Publishers said it was time to get a closer look at the TV icon.

"Oprah has spent years eliciting intimate confessionals from her subjects, but she herself has a carefully guarded persona," Drake says, according to EW's Shelf Life blog. "This is the first complete portrait of her -- it will reveal Oprah as she has never been seen before."

But what will it actually reveal about her? "It will cover all aspects of her life...It will be evenhanded. Kelley understands Oprah's cultural importance and that is something she covers at length."

Winfrey has apparently known about Kelley's book for some time. Drake says that a few years ago she said "something along the lines of, 'I'm not encouraging it, I'm not discouraging it; this is America.'"

Kelley is known for her salacious biographies about the Kennedys, the Bush's, Nancy Reagan and Frank Sinatra. Critics have called her books "Kitty litter" and she's been accused of libel, but has never been sued.

Tags: Kitty Kelley, oprah winfrey

Comments

(27)

Friday 22 January

By Sheryl

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How boring can your own personal life be, if you have to dedicate it learning about someone else's? That is pretty pathetic!!

By flyfishrev

MAYBE WE'LL FIND OUT OPRAH ISN'T THE 'ANGEL' THE MEDIA MAKES HER OUT TO BE!!

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She never claimed to be an 'Angel'...BUT if you people and the media can support ppl changing sex partners like they change underwear, running behind celebs like they are more important than the rest of the world, celebs getting caught w/ drugs and DUI's and getting a slap on the wrist, then I guess Oprah IS an angel.
But devoting time and energy to find 'dirt'on ANYONE....is a waste of human life. Oprah, obviously has some type of power over this woman.... why else (other than pure greed) would she waste so much time.

By Jeanniegenie

And you would be happy about that?

Sunday 18 April

By Doris Ledbetter

To bad Oprah isn't white; she sure wants to be.

By teds1000

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Why is this Kitty person writing books like this? She has her own set of huge issues and someone needs to write about her and her secrets. She is a mean, sad, and angry person who is hurting enough to hurt others. She is pathetic.

By Kathy

And dont you (we) wish we had her money!! FYI, that is the reason she does it, why do we watch soaps, nighttime dramas, we all live vicariously to some degree, it takes us away from our mundane life occasionally.. and a goodl laugh or huge GASP, reminds us of our human condition. I intend to buy it..I found her fair in the other two I read.. not (too) salacious. lol

By jstice4ever

while I don't really care about oprah in any way and could care even less about a book on her, I have to ask: how are people able to write these unauthorized books without the permission of the people being written about? You would think that these "authors" would be liable for slander lawsuits.

By Andy

If you noticed, the article said that the author has been accused of libel but never sued. That tells me her writings are most likely true. As for the permission to write about someone, these people are public figures which opens the door to scrutiny and reduces the privacy factor.

GREED and ENVY Pure and simple, and that in and of itself is sad.

By rena

BE GLAD WHEN OPRAH IS GONE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

DAVID LETTERMAN NEEDS TO GO......

By Karen Davenport

I agree, he always "feeds" on the undermining of everyone else. He needs to look in a mirror (yuck) and see what type of person he really is. After his improprieties; he blew them off like it was a joke. Now all he does is talk about the failures of other people. They all need to go away. I think late-nite TV is done.

By Andie

Just another example of greed. Let's take someone who devotes much of her clean, earned money to good causes across the globe and try to "dirty" her up. I won't be buying the book!

By jerome

Winfrey is such a fraud. She has so many people bull s***ed-up. It will be no big loss to daytime TV when she finally quits. Maybe they will put on something that is truly educational for people to watch and not such mindless garbage that her show portrays.

Saturday 23 January

Garbage....LOL, I guess you don't watch 'scripted' reality t.v....talk about garbage at it's finest.

By MSM

Never read a Kelley book and don't plan to start now. Good griefffffffffffff

By Bucksnort

I can't wait to real all about ORCA!

You can't 'real'....LOL....read, if you can't spell.

By jeri

my hopes are:that oprah take dave letterman & conan O'brian with her & all 3 are lost at sea.never to be heard of again.jaroy

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