Oprah Has Money, Snags Interview

By Laura Oppenheimer in Arts & Entertainment on Jan 19, 2007 7:00PM

No shocker here: Oprah Winfrey tops Forbes' first ever list of the richest women in entertainment. Winfrey, whose media empire includes her namesake talk show, O Magazine, a book club, a satellite radio station called "Oprah & Friends," etc, etc, etc, has an estimated work of $1.5 billion. Forbes estimates that she pockets $225 million annually. She is also the only female black billionaire. The number two spot on the list is held by J.K. Rowling, with Martha Stewart coming in at number three.

The venerable Ms. O recently opened up Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy for Girls in South Africa, spending a cool $40 million to do so. We thought it sounded like a lot of money when we wrote about it last month... but now we realize that it's just chump change to Lady O.

Oprah also has the distinction of being the first person to interview Shawn Hornbeck, the 15-year-old Missouri boy who was kidnapped and held for four years by Michael Devlin. Devlin was arrested last week after kidnapping another Missouri boy, 13-year-old Ben Ownby. On the show, which aired yesterday, Hornbecks' parents told Oprah that they believe their son was sexually assaulted, and that he did not contact them because he was afraid for his life. We know nothing could ever make up for the horrible experiences he must have had. But maybe Oprah has an extra one of those cars she gave away a couple of years ago. Maybe?

Image via Kingworld.