Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
Host renowned for getting her celeb guests to talk openly
HARRY and Meghan’s interviewer Oprah Winfrey became American royalty when she was anointed the world’s chat show queen.
The launch of her own TV programme in 1986 created a television juggernaut that netted her £1.8billion.
When Hollywood stars and other wealthy celebs wanted to talk on the small screen, she was recognised as the go-to person.
For 25 seasons after The Oprah Winfrey Show was first screened, its host, now 67, sat alongside her famous guests – giving them the confidence to speak openly about their private lives.
Highlights included her 1993 ground-breaking interview with Michael Jackson at his Neverland Ranch, which provided two of her highest-rated shows. Other A-listers
to grace her sofa were Liz Taylor, Bette Midler, the now-disgraced Bill Cosby and Tom Cruise, famously leaping on her sofa pronouncing his love for Katie Holmes.
But it was not just Oprah’s ability to talk to celebrities. US housewives felt they could identify with her and her constant battle with her weight.
In another popular show – Diet Dreams Come True, in 1988 – she wheeled out 67lb of fat, equal to her weight loss success at the time.
The show ended in May 2011, leaving her to concentrate on her production companies.
In 2017 CBS announced that Oprah would join 60 Minutes as a special contributor on a Sunday evening news programme – and that is the show on which Harry and Meghan will appear.
A MAN who bought a painting from a market stall for pennies has discovered it is by a unique artist who paints in his sleep and could be worth as much as £10,000.
Santiago Taute, 39, haggled for the colourful work he spotted in Ecuador in 2001, beating the stallholder down from five dollars to one, or 73p.
It was only after he moved to the UK from Spain and married his art lover wife Delia Taute, 31, that he realised its actual value.
Delia thought it looked very similar to work by
British artist Lee Hadwin, who she had met at an exhibition years earlier.
Lee, 46, who was born in Wales and now lives in London, paints while sleepwalking. He sold one piece to Donald Trump for £100,000, and has now confirmed Santiago’s A3-sized work is his, valuing it at between £8,000 and £10,000.
Engineer Santiago, who is from Ecuador but now lives in Aldershot, Hants, said: “I liked the look of the drawing because of all of the colours and ended up purchasing it for one dollar with a few other souvenirs. I moved from Ecuador to Spain and then to England, leaving a lot of my belongings in storage in Spain.”
When he had his belongings shipped to the UK last year, he showed the painting to Delia, who recognised it and contacted Lee, who confirmed it was a piece he had painted in Australia in 2001.
Lee said: “I am shocked and stunned. How it has made it over to Ecuador is anyone’s guess.”
Delia said: “It’s a one in a million story. I mean, how often do things like that happen?”
EXPIRED smartcards for the Strangford Ferry service will be honoured after Infrastructure Minister Nichola Mallon extended them by a year.
The boat continued to operate throughout the pandemic with essential workers still moving between Portaferry and Strangford seven days a week.
But movement by non-essential travellers was greatly reduced and many had unused cards during the crisis.
Ms Mallon said: “I acknowledge that many people have been avoiding nonessential travel during the lockdown periods so I have decided to extend by one year, the expiry date for all unused journeys that have expired since the start of the first Covid-19 lockdown period.”