Celebrity profiler Kitty Kelley is famous for her unauthorized biographies, but getting her juicy, revealing “Oprah: A Biography” on to shelves might have been the most challenging yet. Though Random House eventually picked up the bio, the Oprah Winfrey Book Club is one of the biggest sales generators in publishing today, so it was challenging to find a publisher who would even consider stepping on Winfrey’s toes with an unauthorized biography.
Getting press for the release has also been tricky. Kelley was featured on the Today Show Tuesday morning, but she told Matt Lauer that Barbara Walters, Larry King and David Letterman all turned her down, and she thinks the rejections were due to fears of backlash. ”I don’t think for a minute Oprah got on the phone and said ‘Barbara, don’t have Kitty on,’” Kelly told Lauer. ”She doesn’t have to. She is that powerful.”
Kelley didn’t get the chance to interview Winfrey for the book, but she talked to 850 other sources, mostly on the record. Most importantly, according to Kelley, she immersed herself in interviews Winfrey has given over the years to other journalists. Kelley claims that these interviews have allowed her to tell Winfrey’s life story, “in her own words.”
Despite Winfrey’s refusal to participate in the project and what Kelley sees as her media interference, Kelley clearly has a deep affection for her subject – “I can’t think of a better life story. She gave me a gift.” Kelley said of her investigation of Winfrey’s life. ”When you finish reading it, no matter what’s inside, you come away being inspired.”
