Soap Oprah

“I think it pisses God off if you walk by the color purple in a field somewhere and don’t notice it.”

Oprah mania is sweeping Australia, all because of a clever marketing ploy and a modest AUS 6 million outlay. Channel 10 has been counting it down like a visit by the royals. I guess she is the queen of talk shows. I wouldn’t be surprised if they start making memorabilia. Perhaps that’s just the Poms who like to plaster every teacup, banner and t-shirt with something tacky?

Three hundred and two fortunate guests (handpicked after being identified as Oprah’s loyal followers) and crew have the ‘trip of a lifetime’ to our wide brown land. Oprah surprised all her guests a few months back with her most generous freebie yet and it is tipped to be worth 100 million in advertising revenue to Australia. The Oprah show is viewed in over 35 countries worldwide.

Her talk show will be hosted at the Sydney Opera House twice and only 12,000 tickets are available to Australians, not to mention the sponsor held seats. There will also be a roving tour of the eight Australian states and one more show at a mystery destination. I’m tipping ‘the rock.’

I was reading about the audience do’s and don’t brings and ‘fire’ is listed as one of them, along with the usual drugs, weapons, cameras and umbrellas. You can’t even leave the queue for a wee!

I have a lot of respect for Oprah and the empire she has created. She has come a long way since her role as Sophia in the Steven Spielberg film, The Color Purple, in 1985

The film was based on a 1983 Pulitzer Prize-winning novel by Alice Walker and gives readers an insight into the American South during the 1920’s-1940’s. It is told in the naïve first person narrative of Celie, a young African American.

The story is written as letters to God, documenting her life and ill-treatment at the hands of her father. As a young 14 year old she is matter-of-fact about her father raping her: “first he put his thing up gainst my hip and sort of wiggle it around. Then he grab hold of my titties…And now I feels sick every time I be the one to cook.”

As the book progresses, Celie begins to find a voice and peace with her own life with the help of her sister Nettie, Sophia and Shug Avery. This book is about the love and support of women and resilience in the hardest of times.

It’s a classic with strong tones of feminism and deserves to be read. Put it on your holiday reading list and if you are less inclined to pick up a book, it is also a Broadway musical, instigated by Oprah of course.

I thought Harpo Productions, the company that produces Oprah’s shows, was something to do with the character Harpo in The Color Purple, but it’s just Oprah’s name spelt backwards.