Oooohhhh... What?

By Chuck Sudo in News on May 18, 2011 2:49PM

Tony Peregrin for Chicagoist

Our own Tony Peregrin attended last night's Oprah-vival, the star-studded beatification of Oprah Winfrey. (Did Gayle King deny she knew Oprah three times before the cock crowed this morning?) Tony shared this photo with us and we let out a collective "WTF?" Tony explained that he and the rest of the housewives that made up the audience last night found these things wrapped in plastic and taped to their chairs. The flip side is simply blank but, when prompted by production assistants, they were asked to hold these up, blank side out.

As Madonna narrated and Oprah looked into the crowd, there were images projected on these cards of people and places she has affected and impacted over her life, and via her show. So these 22,000 blank-sided white cards became one giant projection screen.

Tony said that a more than a few people around him were confused about this; maybe that's another reason every third seat was stocked with a box of tissues. Tony also expressed a desire to put his card down and gawk at Madge. We're also guessing that many in the crowd were pissed that they only left with this and a copy of O magazine

This was a high-tech version Romper Room's Magic Mirror. (Only for Oprah's benefit.) That said, we'll be watching Monday to see how it looked from Oprah's perspective.