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OPRAH FANS STILL TRYING TO GET HER A NOBEL PRIZE: Plus, talk show host is chosen to present at the Tonys.
*Some fans of talk show host Oprah Winfrey are stepping up their annual effort to get her nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize, the annual distinction that recognizes individuals and organizations for their humanitarian work, peace movements, human rights efforts, mediation of international conflicts, arms control and disarmament.
A message on the Oprah4PeacePrize Web site reads: "She truly deserves the Nobel Peace Prize. We intend to be celebrating an Oprah victory next December 2006 in Oslo, Norway."
Winfrey’s humanitarian efforts have included building homes for victims of Hurricane Katrina, as well as fighting AIDS, poverty and supporting the plight of women in Africa and other parts of the world. She promotes her causes by going on international philanthropic trips and distributing assistance through her charity, the Oprah Winfrey Foundation.
Rocky Twyman, founder of the Oprah for Nobel Peace Prize movement, said his Web site is seeking to garner 100,000 signatures to draw attention to the committee judging the nominees. The site calls Winfrey a "human angel of light who has revolutionized the entire world."
Twyman’s effort will face several challenges, the biggest being the rule requiring a Nobel laureate or other appropriate source to nominate Winfrey for consideration of the prize. Supporters have sought to enlist former President Jimmy Carter, who was awarded the peace prize in 2002. Winfrey and Carter have previously bonded over Mattie Stepanek, a young poet and Muscular Dystrophy Association goodwill ambassador who died in 2004 and was eulogized by both.
“We’re going to present some of our petitions to him about the effort and why we think it is significant,” said Lillian Huff, a former delegate to Democratic National Convention for Washington, D.C., who was among the delegation lobbying Carter.
The five secret members of Norwegian Nobel Committee, all selected by the Norwegian Parliament, are solely responsible for previewing the nominations and selecting the winners. The committee announces its decision each October and posts the winners on the prize's Web site. Laureates then receive their awards on Dec. 10, the anniversary of inventor Alfred Nobel's death.
Meanwhile, failed attempts to secure Winfrey as the host of the 2006 Tony Awards may have led organizers to establish their recently-announced host-by-committee system, in which more than 60 stars will take a turn heading the June 11th ceremony at New York’s Radio City Music Hall.
Winfrey was announced Wednesday as one of the 60, which also includes Alfre Woodard, Glenn Close, Hank Azaria, Bernadette Peters, Liev Schreiber, Kyra Sedgwick, Mark Ruffalo, Julia Roberts, Eric McCormack, Ralph Fiennes, Cynthia Nixon, Martin Short and Anna Paquin.
In a statement, the executive producers of the Tony telecast, Glenn Weiss and Ricky Kirshner, said: "The 60th Anniversary show is bigger than just one host. So we've put together a line-up of 60 stars from the stage to lead our celebration."
As previously reported, Winfrey’s production of “The Color Purple” scored 11 Tony nominations.
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