*A sudden flurry of Oprah activity made headlines over the weekend. TMZ.com reports of a class action lawsuit filed against the talk show mogul by a subscriber to her “O” magazine. Plus, the New York Post overheard Winfrey’s best friend Gayle admit to using the N-word in private as a term of endearment among her closest friends.
The class action lawsuit against O Magazine, the Hearst Corporation and Hearst Magazines, according TMZ, claims that subscriber Linda Hall ordered two one-year subscriptions in December, 2005 -- one for her, the other a gift. She says she paid in full for both subscriptions the same month she ordered them.
In April, 2006, Hall says she received a letter from Hearst Magazine, informing her she was "past due" and threatening that if she did not pay for the subscriptions, her credit standing would be put "at risk."
Hall claims she paid the invoice even though she had already paid for the magazines. Hall alleges the letter and invoice she received "are part of a nationwide scheme and artifice designed and implemented by defendants to trick, deceive and scare their subscribers into paying money to defendants for subscriptions which subscribers have already paid for in full.
Hall’s class action lawsuit seeks compensatory and punitive damages, as well as an injunction barring the alleged practice.
Meanwhile, Gayle King talks about everything under the sun on her XM Radio show. Last week, a topic focused on whether or not to put her ailing dog to sleep after he suddenly rallied from near death. Another day, King asked listeners if it was acceptable to wear red heels with black stockings and not end up on the worst dressed list…again.
In another conversation with listeners about the recent Michael Richards controversy, King admitted to using the N-word from time to time in private and among friends who also use it.
"In the privacy of my own home, with my closest friends, who shall remain nameless, we have used that [word] when we're talking about other people,” King told her audience, according to the New York Post’s Page Six. “I go back and forth between [using it as] a term of endearment, and [it being] just a very hateful, bad thing."
King wouldn’t say if one of her aforementioned “closest friends” was Winfrey, but the TV titan has been vigorously outspoken about her disdain for the epithet in any context, and even sparred with rapper Ludacris for using the word in his rap lyrics.
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Enjoy an intimate evening with smooth jazz
saxophonist Andre Delano (www.andredelano.com).
He'll be performing songs from his new Christmas
CD First Christmas and debut album Full Circle.
8:00 PM @ The Jazz Bakery 3233 Helms
Avenue Culver City, CA 90034 Ticket
Reservations: 310-271-9039 Cost: $20