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Oprah Gives Peace -- and Letterman -- a Chance

Oprah! Uma! Winfrey gives David Letterman a picture of her and Uma Thurman.
Oprah! Uma! Winfrey gives David Letterman a picture of her and Uma Thurman. (By Jason Decrow -- Associated Press)
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"You have meant something to the lives of people," he said. "We're just a TV show."

He stuck with that theme for some time: "It's more than a show," he said of her syndicated daily program.

"It's a mission," she agreed.

"I can't believe you're being this serious!" she said repeatedly. Really, she's got to work on her shtick if she expects to win the Nobel Peace Prize.

Still, you can't blame her for being a bit skeptical. Though she insisted "there never was a feud" between her and Letterman when she recently picked up an award for good-deed-doing -- not, however, the Nobel Peace Prize -- at the International Emmy Awards ceremony, the Chicago Tribune tells a very different, much darker, if slightly sketchy and lead-buried, story.

In 1989, Letterman's NBC show traveled to Chicago, and Oprah was his guest for what would be the last time -- until last night.

The reporter covering the Chicago taping little knew it would be the start of a 16-year kerfuffle that ended only because (a) Oprah produced a musical version of "The Color Purple" that opened last night right across the street from the old Ed Sullivan Theater, where Letterman's show is taped, and (b) a bunch of Oprah freaks started a movement to get her the Nobel Peace Prize, so she needs to bury all outstanding hatchets.

If the writer had known, he might have led his coverage with something a little yeastier than "David Letterman's first Chicago taping did, I suppose, live up to its billing Tuesday afternoon at the Chicago Theatre."

Five graphs in, the report got down to it:

"With little fanfare but with Larry 'Bud' Melman doing the Dave introduction, taping began," according to the 1989 Trib account.

It continued that Letterman "couldn't help that his interview with Oprah Winfrey uncomfortably disintegrated into discussions of black people in restaurants, satanic sacrifices and one scream of 'Rip her, Dave.' Robert Palmer, the model of urbanity, provided the show's obvious highlight, while comic Tom Dreesen was his amiable self."

Black people in restaurants and satanic sacrifices? Is it any wonder that Oprah, no matter how she may deny it, was a little miffed for 16 years?


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