Word: harpo
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...Oprah Winfrey Presents. She's the name journalists use to get readers' attention, as I have here. She also, you recall, played the earth-mothery Sofia in Steven Spielberg's 1985 movie version of The Color Purple. And there's a character in the book, film and show called Harpo, which as all know is Oprah spelled backward and the name of her production company...
...ramshackle mansion, honeycombed with a floor plan impossible to master; Voltaire called it "a labyrinth without a thread." Likewise, while our Constitution opens with a stirring preamble, "We the people ...," it quickly settles into a tedious recitation of items, articles and sections, bulging in their seeming infinity like Harpo Marx's coat pockets, detailing all manner of governmental powers and functions--related to everything from dockyards to coinage. In fairness, how could anyone reasonably expect such a document to compete, in our romantic imagination, with another resounding with trumpet fanfares extolling life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness? Just...
...Four Marx Brothers--Groucho, mute Harpo, Italianate Chico (pronounced Chick-o) and straight man Zeppo--weren't the fathers of every aggressive film comic from the Stooges to Sandler, they were surely their Dadas. And they're seen to best effect on The Marx Brothers Silver Screen Collection (UMVD, $59.98), which gathers the five Paramount farces they made from 1929 to '33: The Cocoanuts, Animal Crackers, Horse Feathers, Monkey Business and Duck Soup. Compared with the bounty of extras offered on the recent package of seven other Marx Brothers films, the new DVD is pretty skimpy: no commentary, no documentaries...
...mostly giving up the book club now, maybe it's just part of her larger slow-motion retirement. Last month Oprah's company Harpo announced she would leave her show after the 2005-06 season. She has played with the idea of quitting before, but wrapping up her book club may be her way of saying, Look, I can quit while I'm ahead. The cities of Chicago and New York launched book projects that attempted, as she did, to mobilize whole populations to read the same novel during the same month. Whole populations shrugged. What mere government has Oprah...
...recognition. Winfrey, 47, has ruled as the queen of daytime talk television since the mid-1980s. Her show now airs in 112 countries. Her seal of approval for a book guarantees skyrocketing sales. And last year she pulled off the most successful magazine launch in history. Winfrey's company, HARPO ENTERTAINMENT, includes Internet ventures, rounding out her TV, film and publishing deals. Reigning as the nation's top tastemaker, she is worth an estimated $800 million, with a fan base whose loyalty and buying power are unrivaled...