Unauthorized Bio Queen Kelley To Pen Oprah Tell-All

NEW YORK (December 13, 2006) — Congratulations, Oprah, you have been selected by Kitty Kelley as the subject of her next tell-all, unauthorized biography.

“Oprah Winfrey has fascinated me for many years — as a woman, she has wielded an unprecedented amount of influence over the American culture and psyche,” Kelley said in a statement issued Wednesday by the Crown Publishing Group, an imprint of Random House, Inc.

The book does not yet have a title and a publication date has not been set. Financial terms were not disclosed.

Kelley, whose many best sellers include biographies of Frank Sinatra, Nancy Reagan and the Bush family, has a long history of writing books as loathed by their subjects, and disputed by critics, as they are fascinating to readers.

Among her more notorious allegations: that Sinatra and Reagan may have had an affair while she was first lady, and that George W. Bush snorted cocaine at Camp David when his father was president.

For the Winfrey book, Kelley “plans to interview hundreds of sources, many of whom have never before spoken on the record about her subject,” according to Crown. While the author has spoken disparagingly of the Bushes, likening them to the Corleones, she appears to have a higher opinion of Winfrey.

“She has built an empire around her personality and has been one of American’s most admired business women and philanthropists,” Kelley said in her statement. “Oprah’s story is one of hope, promise and realization of the American dream.”