Oprah Biography: Kitty Kelley "Aims for the Jugular" Says New York Times Review

Simply titled Oprah: A Biography, the new unauthorized biography of talk-show host and media mogul Oprah Winfrey releases Tuesday, April 13, 2010. Biographer Kitty Kelley, author of many unauthorized, "tell-all" biographies on big names such as Elizabeth Taylor, Frank Sinatra, Nancy Reagan, and the Bush family, collected over 800 interviews with Oprah's family and acquaintances and, although never interviewing Oprah herself, gathered information from almost 3,000 existing interviews given by Oprah throughout her career.

But does this biography offer any new information that Oprah herself has not shared with viewers over almost twenty-five years of her television show?

According to the New York Times review of Oprah: A Biography, which criticizes Kelley's interpretations on her questionable sources (the number of which increases, the review says, from 2,732 in the text to 2,932 in the closing acknowledgments), "Ms. Kelley simply replays the televised version [of The Oprah Winfrey Show]. She has nothing new to add to these stories."

The only real "gotcha" in Kelley's biography, says the Times, is that Kelley claims to know the real identity of Oprah's biological father. While interviewing Oprah's cousin Katharine Esters, Kelley says the woman revealed the name of Oprah's biological father and swore Kelley to secrecy.

Kelley's brand of gossipy biography often reveals intimate details of a her subjects-the meaning of such details she feels free to interpret as she likes. In her previous writings, she has suggested that Nancy Reagan and Frank Sinatra had an ongoing affair, and claimed that George W. Bush snorted cocaine at Camp David during his father's term as president.

In Oprah, Kelley apparently sticks to her protocol. Reviews say that the biography includes ruminations on the most personal details of Oprah's life: her history of teenage promiscuity, her experience of giving birth to a baby boy when she was fifteen, and the sexual abuse she endured from a family member.

In addition, it seems that Kelley opens yet again the often-debated discussions on Oprah's relationships with her boyfriend Stedman Graham and her best friend Gayle King. USA Today lists among the "dished" details that acquaintances have labeled Stedman "boring," and that a friend of Oprah's "wouldn't be surprised if Oprah was gay."

However, Kelley is careful not to declare a definitive accusation on that subject. "Relax, people," she says in an interview with USA Today. "I know people are expecting me to 'out' her. But I think she's just asexual. She's poured all of her energies into her career. And if she is, she is never ever, ever going to come out."

Many of Oprah's celebrity friends, like Maya Angelou and Maria Shriver, declined to be interviewed by Kelley for the biography. And as Kelley makes the rounds to promote her book, she is being shunned by many of Oprah's friends in the business. Barbara Walters, Larry King, and David Letterman have all declined to have Kelley on their shows to promote Oprah.

Though Kelley has received criticism for her tell-all biographies, she has also received awards and accolades for her writing. Her work has appeared in the Wall Street Journal, the Washington Post, and yes, even the New York Times, who ultimately declares Oprah: A Biography relatively innocuous, saying that it "aims for the jugular. It doesn't draw blood."

Sources:

Maslin, Janet. "The Queen of Talk Declined to Speak" http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/12/books/12book.html

"Kitty Kelley's new Oprah bio has plenty to talk about" http://www.usatoday.com/life/books/news/2010-04-12-kelley12_CV_N.htm?csp=34&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+UsatodaycomBooks-TopStories+%28Life+-+Books+-+Top+Stories%29&utm_content=My+Yahoo

Kitty Kelley, Amazon.com
http://www.amazon.com/Kitty-Kelley/e/B000AP77I8/ref=sr_tc_2_0?qid=1271091015&sr=1-2-ent