When Whitney Houston sat down on The Oprah Winfrey Show, Oprah looked like she wanted to ask Whitney for an autograph. Likewise, Whitney seemed as if she wanted to tell the world that O was her play cousin.

It was a love fest between two people who seemed to genuinely care about each other. Of course, now a tabloid is saying one hates the other person’s guts.

Per the National Enquirer:

“Bad blood has been simmering between the superstars for years over Whitney’s struggle with drugs – and their secret feud exploded off camera when the pop diva angrily blasted Oprah as a liar!

‘Whitney knew Oprah’s show could help her clean up her tarnished image after years of drug use and her troubled marriage to Bobby Brown – and Oprah knew the interview could help her sagging TV ratings,’ says an insider.

‘But Whitney felt Oprah needed her more than she needed Oprah. Whitney was contacted by various media outlets vying for the ‘big get’ interview with her during her comeback campaign.’

Whitney, 46, had her pick of the litter, but chose Oprah because she wanted to appeal to her viewers and knew that if Oprah pushed her too far during the interview she was going to push back and expose some of Oprah’s own secrets!

‘Whitney will never forget that when she was down and out, Oprah wanted nothing to do with her,’ an insider told The Enquirer. And that pissed-off Whitney to no end . . .”

I trust the results of Amy Winehouse passing a drug test than I do the Enquirer.  What happened — did Jennifer Aniston have a slow week?

Contributor: Carrie Blackshaw

She may have gotten rid of a good 160 pounds, but that doesn’t mean she doesn’t feel like the fat girl when she looks in a mirror.

Star Jones recently took a seat on the Oprah Winfrey Show this week and came clean about her weight loss controversy and her abrupt exit from The View.

“I’m still 300 lbs. in my head some days,” the 47-year-old  tells Winfrey.

Jones said talking about her body left her feeling  “a little off kilter.”

“I was a little late getting up [today], and I’m always up at 6 a.m. But I realized that we were gonna talk about this and it scared me a bit.”

Pressed by Winfrey about what scared her, Jones responds, “Disappointing people. I was ashamed … That’s the word, that is actually the real word. I was ashamed that I couldn’t control my weight, that I was an addict for all practical purposes, that I had never stuck to a real diet, that I’d never stuck to a real exercise program.”

And as for losing her job? She says her weight was to blame.

“I was hurt and upset initially,” she says. “I’m so sorry that I placed a burden on my colleagues. I never asked them to lie and don’t know where the Pilates and portion control” — an explanation for her dramatic weight-loss that circulated at the time — “came from. I think a tabloid actually wrote that.”

No word on her failed marriage. Maybe we’ll have to wait another few years to get the goods on that diddy?

Our girl Jennifer Hudson says she’s doing just fine.

On today’s live Oprah Winfrey Show, the singer and Oscar-winning actress says she’s happy to be performing now and that singing at the Super Bowl was therapeutic for her.

“[I'm] in a very good place,” she told the talk show maven.

We’re so glad to hear that, ma. Can’t wait to see you on tour.

Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich says that in choosing a successor for Barack Obama’s Senate seat, one of the names on his list was extremely familiar to the public: Oprah Winfrey.

“She seemed to be someone who had helped Barack Obama in a significant way to become president,” the embattled politico – whose impeachment trial started today for his allegedly attempting to sell Obama’s vacated Senate seat to the highest bidder – told Diane Sawyer on Good Morning America.

The governor, 52, was eventually dissuaded, he said, because “she probably wouldn’t take it, [and] if I offered it to her how do you make sure it doesn’t look like a gimmick?” reports ABC News.

Despite tons of rumors, talk show maven Oprah Winfrey won’t be hosting an inaugural party for President-elect Barack Obama.

A Harpo spokesperson confirms that Winfrey won’t be sponsoring a party when she hits the road later this month for the inauguration.

“Everybody’s calling me about a party. I’m like, ‘Isn’t somebody else having a party?’…I don’t know about the party thing yet…There is extreme party confusion,” Oprah said. “I’m trying to get to the bottom of it myself!”

A Milwaukee store filed a lawsuit against Vernita Lee, the mother of billionaire
Oprah Winfrey, claiming the talk show host’s mom is behind on her bill of
more than $150,000.

According to the Milwaukee Journal
Sentinel:

A high-end Brookfield fashion store is suing over a past-due bill of more than $150,000
run up by a customer whose perks, the store says, included private showings and
delivery service. The customer: Oprah Winfrey’s mother.

Vernita Lee of Milwaukee has had an open-ended charge account with Valentina since
January 2004, the civil complaint says.
It says Lee racked up a bill of $155,547.31 in purchases and interest as of July
1, and that she was required to make a minimum monthly payment of $2,000 to the
store. Valentina attorney Joseph Niebler Sr. said Wednesday that Lee stopped making
the monthly payments. He said the store tried to resolve the bill before filing
the lawsuit in Waukesha County Circuit Court and continues to pursue a resolution
out of court.

“There isn’t any ill will; it’s a matter of contract,” Niebler said.

The lawsuit says that Lee has told store officials she does not believe she owes
the money. Reached by telephone, Lee declined to comment about the case. Her Milwaukee
attorney, Nathan Fishbach, did not return a phone call. She also has two Chicago-based
attorneys, Steve Gistenson and Michelle Schindler.

Her famous daughter was not available for comment, according to a representative
from her Harpo Productions company in Chicago.

Lee has until a Sept. 19 hearing to answer the complaint. A non-binding mediation
session is scheduled for Sept. 16, court records say.

Barack Obama must love seeing his mug splashed across the chest of Halle Berry but
he didn’t react positively to Ludacris’ new rap that calls Hillary Clinton
a b%@^*, says John McCain “don’t belong in any chair unless he’s paralyzed” and
insults Jesse Jackson and George W. Bush.

Obama campaign spokesman Bill Burton issued a statement, condemning Luda for his,
well ludicrous, lyrics.

“As Barack Obama has said many, many times in the past, rap lyrics today too
often perpetuate misogyny, materialism, and degrading images that he doesn’t
want his daughters or any children exposed to. This song is not only outrageously
offensive to Senator Clinton, Reverend Jackson, Senator McCain, and President Bush,
it is offensive to all of us who are trying to raise our children with the values
we hold dear. While Ludacris is a talented individual he should be ashamed of these
lyrics.”

Yet Luda and other rap stars have the nerve to wonder how come Oprah doesn’t often
have them on her show.

Luda, who encourages blacks to get out and vote in the new rap, and Barack were
cool so what does this do to their relationship? The two met privately in Chicago
and talked about young people back in 2006 before Barack announced his plans to
run for president. He seemed conflicted about Ludacris in his recent cover story
in Rolling Stone, saying,
“I know Jay-Z. I know Ludacris. I know Russell Simmons. I know a bunch of
these guys. They are great talents and great businessmen, which is something that
doesn’t get emphasized enough. It would be nice if I could have my daughters
listen to their music without me worrying that they were getting bad images of themselves.”

In other Barack and celeb news, McCain shows how old and outdated he is by taking
a swipe at Barack in a new TV ad that calls Barack, “the biggest celebrity in the
world” and flashes footage of Barack then Britney Spears then Paris Hilton to give
the impression that Barack is all celebrity and no substance while questioning his
leadership. Uh, couldn’t his ad men have thought of some more current celebs than
these two irrelevant chicks whose time has come and gone?