Popwatch: "Oprah is still maybe the biggest single cultural force of our time"



Never underestimate the power of "The Oprah (tm); we try not to, after our own fashion (The Corsair pops a Pouilly-Fumé Baron de L 2002). Entertainment Weekly, which, for some odd reason does not link to this magnificent blog (Exaggerated cough suggesting feigned detachment), makes today a pretty strong statement -- they, of the Time-Warner-funded pop-cultural credibility (Averted Gaze)-- say that Oprah Winfrey, our Oprie, is "still maybe the biggest single cultural force of our time." And what was the proximate cause of these lachrymore tears of mirth from such a snarky precinct more inclined towards peals of theatrical laughter?

Cormac McCarthy's The Road, arguably the best novel of 2006. From Popwatch:

"In 2005, I loved Oprah.

"But we didn't make her our Entertainer of the Year (she lost out to Lost), and in early 2006, I didn’t like it when she filleted A Million Little Pieces' author James Frey on national TV, so — since I tend to be relatively busy from 4 to 5 p.m. — I stopped paying so much attention to her. But on Tuesday, she won me back. That’s when she used her Oprah powers to get Cormac McCarthy — the great and reclusive 73-year-old literary lion who’s only been interviewed twice in 40 years, and never anywhere NEAR a television camera — to talk to her about his astonishing novel, The Road, selected by Oprah for her book club a couple of months back. At the top of Tuesday's show, she related how she called the writer and asked him to be on her show. He said, 'No way am I gonna do that!,' and she said — presumably in the same soft but undeniably arm-bending tone that coaxed poor James Frey off the cliff when she nailed him for making up his memoir — that she was gonna give him 48 hours to reconsider, and would call back at EXACTLY ten minutes to 3 in two days’ time. Even though by the sound of it he’s barely talked to anyone even vaguely reeking of media in 40 years, how could McCarthy resist? It was OPRAH. When she called back, he said yes."

We have to admire Oprah's mix of low with, occasionally, a dash of high culture -- the literary world. It would be so easy for Oprah to stick with the tried-and-true New Agey-Hollywood chat formula that causes the shut-ins to squeal in ecstasy (so brilliantly parodied on SNL by comedic-goddess Amy Poehler), but, damn it, she doesn't. And we are all better for it. Here's to you Oprah -- on this EW -- which, shamefully ignores us -- and The Corsair agree. (Popwatch)