Oprah Winfrey, the most powerful woman in the world.

Talk show queen Oprah Winfrey has topped Forbes’ list of the ‘World's 100 Most Powerful Celebrity’ for the second year running. Oprah, a black, is the most powerful woman on earth! Soon another black, Obama will be the most powerful man in the world residing at the White House. Not to mention the blacks dominating the world of sports and music and who can forget the Hollywood hunks, Denzil Washington, Will Smith and comedians, Eddie Murphy, Chris Tucker ,the versatile Morgan Freeman and the legendry Sydney Poitier!

At long last, Dr. Martin Luther King jr. can rest in peace - his great dream for America has come true. Dr King had said, "I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character"

This is the story of a young girl from Mississippi, born to a poor unwed teenaged mother, raised in a broken home , subjected to repeated sexual abuse from family members (she was raped at the age of nine) and having given birth at 14 to a son who died soon afterwards, Oprah studied hard and in due course won a scholarship to Tennessee State University.

At 19, she became an anchor of Nashville's WTVF-TV station and is the first female African-American news anchor in Nashville. At 29, she took over a low-rated half-hour morning talk-show, AM Chicago and within months she made it the top-rated show. Subsequently, AM Chicago is renamed The Oprah Winfrey Show. History has been created and there is no looking back for Oprah. In a field dominated by white males, she is a black woman of ample bulk but she makes it up by her genuine, frank apathy, hearty humour and above all understanding, sympathy and compassion perfectly attuned to her audience.

Oprah popularized and revolutionized talk shows by doing shows on physical and mental ailments in women , spirituality and meditation, gift-giving and home decorating shows, makeup makeovers etc. She introduced an intimate confessional form of media communication, guests with sad stories brings tears to Oprah's eye and they, in turn, reveal things they would not imagine telling anyone, much less a national TV audience. It is a talk show with group therapy session. She also brought in taboo topics of those times like gays, transsexuals, and transgender people and interviewed celebrities on issues that directly involved them. She has given credit to her team as well, who work backstage, by making them appear on her shows and highlighting their work.

At a show in 2004 she gave away to each member of the audience a new G6 sedan, the 276 cars were donated by Pontiac as part of a publicity stunt. On another show, she high lighted her Yo-Yo Dieting by wheeling in 67 lbs. of animal fat on o the stage , illustrating the weight she lost in five months on a commercial liquid diet.

Oprah is also an influential book critic- the books making it her show is a sure seller, likewise any author appearing on her show becomes a celebrity and their books bestsellers. She owns a very popular magazine O, the Oprah Magazine and a women's cable television network Oxygen. Moreover, she is the president of Harpo Productions Oprah spelled backwards.

Oprah wields so much influence that an unknown Obama’s fortunes changed when she endorsed him. But, ofcourse the majority of her audience who are white middle-aged women and supported Hillary Clinton accused her of betraying her sex.

Oprah aged 54, has been ranked the richest African American of the 20th century, the most philanthropic African American of all time, and the world's only black billionaire for three straight years. Likewise she is also the first African-American celebrity to land on the cover of Vogue, in the October 1998 issue.

Oprah is a source of strength and inspiration for millions of her admirers. Her life and her work are testaments to the enormity of her generous heart. She has touched so many lives and hearts by her compassion , sympathy and understanding . She has struggled with challenges and managed to transform her life , hence, without doubt she is indeed the most influential and powerful woman in the world. Her message is clear and empowering - I did it, and so can you!

Copyright © 2008 Hodgepodge Jottings. All Rights Reserved

Movie on Nehru and Edwina romance

The alleged love affair between Jawaharlal Nehru, India’s first prime minister and Edwina Mountbatten, wife of the last British viceroy to India is to be adapted into a film from the historical book “Indian Summer” by Alex Von Tunzelmann.

According to the Sunday Times report, English born Hollywood star Hugh Grant is likely to play Lord Mountbatten and Cate Blanchett his wife. The role of Nehru has not yet been finalised and it seems that the author has suggested to the filmmakers to look to bollywood to fill that part. The film rights for Alex Von Tunzelmann’s Indian Summer has been bought by the UK production house, Working Title. In fact, it was bought much before the book was published last year.

Alex von Tunzelmann, a young Oxford-trained historian and a first-time British author chronicles one of the defining moments of world history in the twentieth century – the partition of India and Pakistan . It focuses on the intertwined lives of the five most important characters: Mountbatten, Edwina, Nehru, Mahatma Gandhi and M.A. Jinnah. Indian Summer is set in the backdrop of the decline and fall of the British Raj in India and features a passionate and clandestine love affair between Nehru and Edwina Mountbatten, among various other scandals and outrages. The book is both entertaining and informative because of the references to gossips of the world history. The author had said that when she had stumbled upon this historical story with romance between two key characters she thought it was so “filmy” that it was like a real-life Casablanca - the 1942 film which is an all-time Hollywood hit and is set during World War II in the Moroccan resort.

Tunzelmann did not “like to say” how far the Nehru-Edwina relationship went but emphasised that they “were certainly in love”. Their friendship lasted all of Edwina’s life and it was even said that when she died at the age of 58 due to heart attack she had Nehru’s old letters in her hand. The Mountbattens had an extremely complex relationship, but neither ever seriously considered ending it. Both were supposed to have had affairs in spite of Mountbatten’s obsession with Edwina and Edwina's jealousy of other women in Mountbatten’s life. Mountbatten was supposed to subtly facilitate the friendship between Nehru and Edwina.

Thus, as regards to the romance in the historic events of the summer of 1947 that ended an empire and which is to be filmed and made to a movie, the Sunday Times said: “A film version of Indian Summer may not follow such a nuanced approach.”

Copyright © 2008 Hodgepodge Jottings. All Rights Reserved