Oprah turns 58, a Pilsen man has been charged with a weekend rape, and other news. more ›

We shared some of Oprah's more absurd moments with you earlier, but it's finally time to say a last goodbye, farewell and sayonara to the Big O. more ›

When mixologist Adam Seger of hum Botanical Spirits was tapped to devise a cocktail menu for the wrap party celebrating the Oprah Winfrey show's series finale taping, held Tuesday night at the Four Seasons Hotel, he mustered a spread with pomp fitting of the occasion. A dose of that "look under your seat" penchant for drama, if you will. Well, that plus about 18,000 fruit "caviar pearls" and a host of other fanciful goodies. more ›

Tickets for a two-part Oprah Winfrey Show taping titled "Surprise Oprah! A Farewell Spectacular" will be available to randomly selected registrants at Oprah.com between 10 a.m. today and 11:59 p.m. tomorrow. Executive producer Sheri Salata said, "As most of our viewers know, being surprised is not one of Oprah's favorite things." (We see what she did there.) more ›

It's really happening: Oprah's Harpo Productions announced yesterday that her May 25th show will be her last show ever. It is safe to say that her final show will be incredibly outrageous, considering how extravagant and wild her show is during the holiday season (three words: Oprah's Favorite Things). Oprah hasn't dropped any hints about what she was planning for the May 25th finale, but she tweeted last week that she was "hard at work planning the final shows." more ›

A new restaurant chain promising "healthy" eating will begin opening restaurants around the country this fall. "LYFE Kitchen," which is based in Chicago and owned by two former McDonalds execs and Oprah Winfrey's personal chef, is betting that now is the moment for healthy food to make a killing in the market. We love healthy food, but this concept has some issues from the get-go: their horrible name, their definition of healthy food and their strange gender politics. more ›

In case you missed it, Oprah made her audience go totally crazy on Friday after unveiling her Favorite Things and bequeathing them upon a crowd of anxious and teary-eyed. What was the audience reaction like? Nothing short of epic: more ›

United Airlines unveiled a Boeing 757 today painted in colors to commemorate the Big O's farewell season. more ›

Catch up with the places to read and be seen on the literary scene with our rundown of local events centered around all things written. more ›

Recession? What recession? Economic collapse? Pay it no mind. Job losses? Pshaw, we say! Forbes has let loose with it's annual list of people who make us feel poor and a smattering of Chicagoans made the annual 400 richest Americans list, including Tribune Company Owner Sam Zell (No. 60, worth $4.4 billion), Oprah (No. 130, worth $2.7 billion), and a slew of Pritzkers. You can check out the list here and check out the Trib's photo gallery of Chicago's reps here. more ›

If we know Chicago as well as we think we do, chilly weather will sweep the city shortly. For a lot of us, that means more time spend indoors. And for some of us, that means books + blankets + glasses of Bordeaux. Here’s a list of what’s on our list to read this fall. more ›

Oprah's made another book club pick and, again, it's Jonathan Franzen and his new novel, Freedom. Of course, most know of the previous kerfuffle between Franzen and Oprah: in 2001, Oprah picked the writer's novel The Corrections as her book club pick but Franzen later expressed queasiness about the selection which got his appearance on the Big O's show - which had already filmed - canceled. Franzen later apologized about his comments but the damage was done. Still, according to a trio of booksellers who spoke to the AP (the announcement won't be officially made until tomorrow) Oprah has mended that fence enough to once again endorse Franzen's work. Reviews and sales of the book are already stellar and this will only help. more ›

We mentioned yesterday that in her latest fit of altruism, Oprah decided to celebrate her last season by taking yesterday's season premiere audience with her on a trip to Australia where she'll tape at the famous Sydney Opera House. We're sure the Aussies were all excited to hear about a visit from The Great O. Well, until they got her bill. Yes, everything comes at a price, even a visit from Oprah. It seems the big trip down will actually cost the Australian government to the tune of $3 million AUD ($2.8 million USD). Tourism Minister Martin Ferguson defended the move as meant to boost tourism: "Oprah is a household name and her star power has the potential to lift Australia's profile as a premier tourist destination." And Ferguson isn't the only one defending the cost. more ›

Oprah returned to the airwaves today, kicking off her final season and she did it in grand style, announcing that the 300 lucky audience members attending today's show were getting a free trip down to Australia with her. Oprah will be taping a show during her final season at the Sydney Opera House and we guess these audience members will be a part of that larger audience. John Travolta also appeared on today's episode and the audience also apparently got cell phones. The Sun-Times watched it so I didn't have to and they have more on what went down. more ›

The thumbs are returning. Those rumors earlier this year have turned out to be true after all: "Roger Ebert Presents At the Movies," a weekly half-hour film review program, will begin airing on WTTW in January. Coming close on the heels of the demise of "At The Movies," this is welcome news indeed. More from the press release: more ›

As Oprah enters the final season of her Chicago-based morning talk show, the show's website is giving visitors a chance to "Oprah-fy" yourself (kind of like the way you could Simpsonize or Mad Men-ize yourself). So because it's Friday and we have nothing better to do, here are seven Chicagoans (or Chicago-connected folks) we wanted to see Oprahfied. more ›

The Queen of Daytime TV is apparently mulling over the option of taking the final episode of her television show on the road... to Soldier Field. Yes, as she looks for audience members from her very first show (pssst, we found one for you!), plans are already moving forward on her final show. Well, the final show before she begins a completely new show which, you know, sort of undermines the whole concept of it being a "final" show but we digress. In an interview with TV Guide - excerpts of which can be found here - The Big O hints at things like potentially reaching out to President Obama to make an appearance, that frustration over the popularity of is what first motivated her to create her own network, and the possibility that she may take her final show to Soldier Field. more ›

Day 15 of the Blagojevich Trial picked right back up without missing a beat in the direct testimony of former chief-of-staff John Harris. And it stepped straight into the surreal even as it focused on something we already knew: Rod considered Oprah for the U.S. Senate seat left vacated by Barack Obama. From Sarah Ostman's report for the Sun-Times on Blago suggesting Oprah, a tape played featured this exchange: more ›

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• A new report outlines how police missed crucial clues in the first hours of the Riley Fox investigation.
• Prosecutors in former governor Rod Blagojevich's trial want the ex-gov to quit yapping about what he thinks of the trial. Inherit the Windbag, indeed.
• Kicking a President while his hands are full, GOP gubernatorial candidate Bill Brady says he could beat Obama in an election right now. Obama has yet to respond with a challenge to meet Brady at the flag pole after school or as to whose dad could beat up the other dads.

• The search is on in Wisconsin for a 9-year-old girl from Chicago who fell into Lake Michigan while kayaking.
• Responding to Stedman's comments from last week, Mayor Daley insists that the city really really does like Oprah.
• Two teens were wounded in an overnight shooting in Gage Park.

• U.S. Rep. - and GOP U.S. Senate candidate - Mark Kirk opens up about the award kerfuffle.
• Stedman speaks and he doesn't think we appreciate Oprah.
• Another student bullied to suicide.

Oprah may soon be leaving Chicago but she's just now opening a new outlet for her products at Water Tower Place. Considered a "microsalon," the shop, Oprah's second in the city, will open tomorrow on the second floor of the Water Tower Place mall. According to the Tribune, the new shop will, "carry select Oprah merchandise, including clothing, memorabilia and collectibles as well as items from the "O" signature baby collection. It will also offer an assortment of South African crafts and jewelry." Of course, if you want Oprah-related products, you don't have to go to the store, you can just log on right here, if that's your thing. more ›

• A City Council committee approved the $3 million settlement proposed for a woman who suffered a permanent brain injury in a crash stemming from a 2004 police chase (the car she was in was not part of the chase).
• The Tribune company has filed their bankruptcy reorganization plan but not everyone is happy about it.
• State business leaders are making a plea to keep locks on the the Chicago Sanitary & Ship Canal open - despite the threat of Asian Carp - for the sake of, well, business.

"All said very openly that it was because of Oprah," Kelley says. more ›

With the Oprahpocalypse having passed and her Chicago-based daytime show set to wrap in the fall of 2011, details about Oprah Winfrey's new network, OWN, are beginning to come out, including Oprah's new show. According to the Wall Street Journal, Oprah will be heading to night time with "Oprah's Next Chapter," which will likely air two or three times a week. more ›

The Big O will dodge a big trial as it was announced late yesterday that she's reached a settlement with Nomvuyo Mzamane, the former headmistress of Oprah's all-girls school in South Africa. Attorneys for the two women released a statement saying, "The two parties met woman to woman without their lawyers and are happy that they could resolve this dispute peacefully to their mutual satisfaction." The lawsuit was filed over comments Winfrey made about Mzamane after dorm matron Tiny Virginia Makopo was charged with sexual abuse of students at the school. After the charges were revealed, Oprah said that she had "lost confidence" in Mzamane and she was "cleaning house from top to bottom." According to the Associated Press, court papers indicate Mzamane is still employed at the school. more ›

• Chicago Public Schools CEO Ron Huberman warned of more layoffs and larger class sizes in another round of budget cuts is implemented.
• A judge ruled Oprah will have to face a defamation lawsuit stemming from comments she made about alleged sexual abuse at her girls' school in South Africa.
• Police are still searching for the driver involved in a hit-and-run on Interstate 80 this morning that killed a construction worker.

Fitness trainers Dina Castillo and Frank Nunez filed a breach-of-contract lawsuit in Cook County Circuit Court against Oprah Winfrey’s Harpo Inc., claiming they were not paid for several months of training for 300 Harpo employees valued at $63,000. According to the Chicago Tribune, in 2008 the married owners of Unicus Fitness were asked to create a customized fitness program for employees of Harpo and to appear on an Oprah Radio XM program hosted by Oprah Winfrey's former personal trainer, Bob Green. The couple sent a mass email to their clients announcing their March 2009 appearance and Harpo officials said the email violated a confidentiality agreement with the talk show's parent company, which terminated their O Fitness Challenge program. more ›

Bill Zwecker reports that Sun-Times film critic Roger Ebert is slated to sit down with talk show queen and one-time Ebert date Oprah. The pair will tape the interview on Friday for airing sometime next week. It's a great chance to read this terrific Esquire profile of Ebert if you haven't already. more ›