The World According to Oprah

By Ali Trachta in Miscellaneous on Oct 21, 2008 3:41PM

Oprah talks, we listen, and a lot of the time we do what she tells us to do. But hometowner Robyn Okrant has been taking it to the extreme over the last year: buying, reading, consuming and believing just about everything Oprah tells her to. Per Oprah's decree, she has adopted a cat, purchased garden tools for a yard she doesn't have, and even voted for Obama despite previously having leaned Hillary, and she's blogged the entire experience. Matt Lauer caught up Okrant last week to see how things have been "livin' la vida Oprah," as Today appropriately quips.

Okrant was quick to point out that Oprah loyalty was not the impetus for this project.

“I think I’m an example of how ridiculous it gets when women follow icons or follow celebrities completely, so I know there’s a shade of the absurd in here,” Okrant told Lauer. “I am not an Oprah fanatic. Oprah’s like the popular girl in high school, and she tells us what to do and how to dress and we do it and we're happy because of it."

So what are the pros and cons?

On her Good Oprah list: using eco-friendly products, donating money and time to others and de-cluttering her life.

On her Bad Oprah list: buying expensive clothes that aren’t “her,” a decorating tip calling for sea life in every room and tossing graphic T-shirts that Oprah deemed unbecoming.

Okrant plans to pen a book documenting her year of O ... then Oprah will probably choose it as one of her Book Club picks, and the whole vicious cycle will begin again. -Sigh-

Photo by nayrb7.