On Monday, Oprah revealed her secret, the secret that would leave us SHAKEN TO OUR CORE. That secret? She has a half-sister named Patricia. And the half-sister isn’t trying to famewhore or ask for some Oprah Bucks either. From what I’ve seen and read about Patricia, she really does seem like a nice, normal lady who just happened to find out that she’s related to Oprah. So, of course, Gayle King is worried. What if Patricia replaces Gayle?!? What if Oprah decides that she prefers Patricia to Gayle? What if Oprah decides she needs to give Patricia a job… GAYLE’S JOB?!? Yeah, that is what PopEater’s gossip guy is saying. Apparently, Gayle is having a little breakdown over this:

It can’t be easy finding out that your long lost sister is Oprah Winfrey and then appearing on her show in front of millions. However, that is easy as pie compared to meeting the TV queen’s longtime best friend Gayle King. “I can’t wait to meet Patricia,” she told ABC.

“Gayle must have mixed feelings about the arrival of Patricia,” an insider tells me. “Of course she wants nothing but the best for Oprah, but there has to be just a little tiny part of Gayle that is asking, ‘What now?’”

Oprah announced she had a half-sister a few days ago, but already her fans, and Gayle, are chattering about what role Patricia will play in the star’s life.

“Gayle is very protective about her relationship with Oprah and is not used to sharing her with anyone,” a friend of Gayle’s tells me, adding that the new addition to the family could be a “bigger adjustment” for Gayle than for Oprah.

But as Gayle has already said, Patricia has proved she’s an amazing person.

“This is extraordinary that somebody would have this information about Oprah, who as you know has been sold out on many occasions by friends, by co-workers, in some cases family,” Gayle said. “Patricia wasn’t trying to get Oprah, she was trying to find her mother … having Oprah as a sister, a half-sister, was a bonus.”

This could be a tough adjustment for you, Gayle, but don’t worry love — there is enough room in the great O’s heart for both of you.

[From PopEater]

“The new addition to the family could be a ‘bigger adjustment’ for Gayle than for Oprah.” Oh, FFS. I have this image of Steadman sitting Gayle down like a child and explaining, “Oprah will always love you, but she just needs to spend some time with her sister, who she never even knew existed. Oprah’s heart is big enough to love you both.” Cue Gayle “acting out” like a kid whose parents are getting a divorce.

Photos courtesy of WENN and Oprah‘s show.

What, oh what shall we do when Oprah Winfrey ends her talk show to start her TV network? Who will tell us what to read? Where will Julia Roberts promote her movies based on Oprah’s book club choices? Whose couch will Tom Cruise jump on?

Some of you younger readers have never known a world without Oprah. Her talk show has been on for 25 years.

Never fear. Oprah has chosen her successor, and it’s Ellen DeGeneres.

You know it’s serious when somebody besides Oprah appears on the cover of “O” magazine. Ellen was the second woman to achieve that feat. Michelle Obama was the first.

Oprah Winfrey and Ellen DeGeneres have become Hollywood’s newest BFFs!

Oprah will be wrapping up production of her long-running show after 25 years and launching her OWN network in Los Angeles in January. And she’s now ready to “pass the talk-show queen torch” to Ellen, said a source.

The Enquirer has learned the women recently shared an intimate dinner — Ellen bringing along wife Portia de Rossi and Oprah with her closest friend, Gayle King.

“They’ve always been fond of each other, but Oprah sees Ellen as her successor. She’s wanted to personally give Ellen advice on turning herself into a worldwide media brand,” explained the source.

After spending a great deal of time communicating via phone and e-mail, Ellen invited Oprah and Gayle to join her and Portia at their Los Angeles home for a gourmet vegan dinner.

“At the intimate gathering, Oprah gave Ellen advice on how to carry on with her upbeat, heartfelt approach to TV talk,” explained the source.

Meanwhile, Gayle and Portia chatted in another room, according to the source.

The four have become fast friends. Ellen, 52, became the second woman — after Michelle Obama — to ever appear on the cover of “O” magazine with Oprah in December 2009. And Portia, 37, recently appeared on Oprah’s show to discuss her autobiography, Unbearable Lightness, which chronicles her battle with anorexia and coming to terms with her sexuality.

But the get-together nearly never happened — after Oprah, 56, kept her hosts waiting for more than an hour, explaining that she’d been stuck in traffic.

According to the source, Ellen joked: “You’re an L.A. girl now — get used to it!”

[National Enquirer, print edition, December 20, 2010]

It’s interesting that Enquirer portrays this as a big happy girls’ club, even using the word “intimate” twice, so soon after Oprah’s recent teary admission that she’s not a lesbian.

I’m just relieved Oprah didn’t choose Dr. Phil to be the new talk-show queen, but I wager Rosie O’Donnell is not at all happy.

Did you know that Oprah sat down for an “exclusive” one-on-one with Barbara Walters? I kind of get a kick out of that. Babs is old as dirt, and she’s really not a good interviewer (at all), but when Oprah wants to do press, she goes to Babs. Anyway, details about their interview have been leaking out for the past few days (ABC News has done the leaking), and apparently, Oprah let Babs ask her ANYTHING. Including questions about those lesbian rumors.

The rumors have been around for years. She even made light about them recently. But Oprah Winfrey has once again stated flatly: “I’m not a lesbian.”

“I’m not even kind of a lesbian,” the talk-show queen, 56, tells Barbara Walters in an upcoming interview on ABC. “And the reason why [the rumor] irritates me is because it means that somebody must think I’m lying. That’s number one. Number two … why would you want to hide it? That is not the way I run my life.”

The rumors have focused on Winfrey’s friend Gayle King. But Winfrey says that relationship is extremely close in a whole different way.

“She is … the mother I never had. She is … the sister everybody would want. She is the friend that everybody deserves. I don’t know a better person. I don’t know a better person,” Winfrey says while choking up.

“It’s making me cry because I’m thinking about … how much … I probably have never told her that. Tissue, please. I now need tissue. I’ve never told her that.”

The occasion for the interview, airing Thursday at 9 p.m. ET on ABC, is the end of Winfrey’s syndicated show next May and the beginning of her new cable network – OWN, The Oprah Winfrey Network.

On that subject, Winfrey admits to having been afraid of how daunting the new project is. “I was very scared,” she says. “I would wake up in the middle of the night literally like clutching my chest, like, ‘What have I done? What have I done?’ ”

[From People]

Do I believe this? Eh. Part of me thinks that if Oprah was a late-in-life lesbian, she really would talk about it. Another part of me thinks that she would get it on with Gayle if it didn’t involve Oprah’s issues with germs.

Here’s the video of Oprah getting choked up talking about Gayle:

And here’s video of Oprah talking about endorsing Obama, and her thoughts on how he’s doing now, and her feelings on whether Sarah Palin is qualified to be president (hint: she doesn’t comment on the last one).

Screepcaps from the interview.

George Clooney is in Venice, promoting the premiere of Men Who Stare At Goats, also starring the gorgeous man-candy that is Ewan McGregor. The two did a photo call earlier today, and they both looked lovely. Ewan was wearing Chuck Taylors. Clooney was wearing Armani. Classic. After the photo call came the first press conference, and Clooney got some questions about his love life. He made a “joke” about how he’s preparing to get married… to Goats director Grant Heslov. You’re not helping, Clooney.

Sorry, ladies, George Clooney says he’s getting hitched, and it isn’t to you.

At a press conference for the Venice premiere of his latest movie, Men Who Stare at Goats, Hollywood’s perpetual bachelor, 48, says that special person is … Goats director Grant Heslov.

“Grant and I are actually announcing our wedding while we are here,” Clooney joked Tuesday. “I don’t quite know how to answer that question, but I can read your mind again and I know what you’re thinking.”

Goats, which also stars Ewan McGregor, is a comedy about the CIA’s program for researching psychic powers. Clooney has been publicly seen on the arm of Italian TV presenter Elisabetta Canalis, and arrived with her at the Venice Film Festival Monday.

But that knowledge didn’t stop a male reporter from stripping down to his boxer shorts and a necktie and blurting out to the star: “I’m gay, George. I want you, George! Come with me, George!”

Sometimes people take “a big chance,” Clooney responded, smiling. “Only it doesn’t really work.”

[From People]

I know a lot of people think George Clooney is totally gay. I get it, and I understand the case being made. Here’s the thing – I don’t agree. I’m pretty sure George is just a guy who likes his women dumb, young, lacking in ambition, beautiful, built and kinky. I don’t think George will ever look at a woman and see a partner, an equal, a friend. He will only see a broad who is or is not kinky, who is or is not worth his seduction time and effort. All that being said, George should ease up on the gay wedding jokes, because there are a lot of people who don’t think they’re jokes. Besides that, what is so inherently funny about gay people getting married? It doesn’t even work on the “joke” level.

Here’s Ewan McGregor and George Clooney leaving the Palazzo Del Casino In Venice today. Images thanks to Fame Pictures .

Oprah is still queen of everything she touches – despite a few dings to her crown. The first ding was losing the number one spot on Forbes’s Most Powerful Celebrity list - Oprah came in second to Angelina Jolie. Soon after, Newsweek called Oprah out for what they deemed “crazy talk”, otherwise known as the shoddy medical advice Oprah promotes on her show. Newsweek used a horrible photo of Oprah too – surely, a sign of the coming apocalypse. After those two incidents, it makes sense that Oprah would want to take a little time and regroup, re-evaluate, perhaps question if her queendom is suffering.

But no queen shall go it alone! Oprah decided to treat her staff and their families (some-odd 1700 people) to an epic vacation – 3 days in Barcelona, then a 10-day cruise to Italy, Turkey, Greece and Malta. Some estimates put the cost of the whole action-packed vacation with the boss at something around a million dollars. Oprah can afford it – she is a billionaire, after all. This isn’t even the first time Oprah has treated her staff and their families to an all-expenses-paid vacation. Four years ago she treated them all to a Hawaiian trip. That must make it worth it – I’d imagine Oprah is a tough (but probably fair) boss, a taskmaster, and a perfectionist. But if you get an all-expenses-paid trip every couple of years, it’s a sweet deal.

On a less-than-queenly note, the National Enquirer is reporting a funny story about Oprah that I don’t buy in the least. I guess I’m reporting on it because I find it funny, and because the Enquirer has broken several juicy stories the past few months, so there’s a possibility it could be true. It’s based on a true story – that Oprah has kept diaries for many years. Oprah has admitted her diary-keeping on her show and in interviews. The Enquirer is claiming that the diaries are missing, and that Oprah is terrified the contents will be leaked publicly. Oprah’s scared that people will find out that she and best bud Gayle King are “more than just friends”. Hm…

Oprah Winfrey’s private diaries are missing – and The ENQUIRER has learned the most intimate secrets in them!

The talk-show queen has confided the shocking contents of her secret journals to close pals, including the admission that she and her best pal Gayle King are more than just friends who often share the same bed!

Oprah is terrified those disclosures could be “misinterpreted” if the diaries become public, sources say, and she’s worried that longtime love Stedman Graham will leave if he discovers her true thoughts.

The powerful media mogul also says she’s recently written in her diaries that her eating binges are getting worse, insiders say, and called her former protege Dr. Phil McGraw a snake who can’t be trusted!

Oprah has been writing regular entries in her diaries since she worked at a Baltimore TV station with Gayle during the late 1970s, another insider divulged.

“Oprah is frantic to get these diaries back!” a close source told The ENQUIRER. “She’s admitted she’s written some things over the years that are very explosive!”

[From The National Enquirer]

I’ll buy that Oprah writes about food in her diaries. And I’ll buy that she thinks Dr. Phil is a “snake”. But the Gayle-lesbian thing has been out there so long, enough already. I really do think that if Gayle and Oprah were really lovers, Oprah would tell us. Maybe that’s naïve of me, but I do think Oprah would do full disclosure on that topic. And if she didn’t, Gayle would. Gayle already has the soul of a starf-cker, she wouldn’t be able to keep quiet if she and Oprah really were getting it on.

Oprah is shown on 6/25/08. Credit: PRPhotos.com

Oprah Winfrey is said to be making plans to name her talk show successor sooner rather than later. Best friend Gayle has been by Oprah’s side throughout her career, more recently joining her on her Friday discussion panel and on her satellite radio program. The Oprah show will end its contract in 2011, but Oprah knows that there’s a huge demand for someone to step in and fill her place on television and she’s hoping Gayle fits the bill.

Oprah has helped launched the careers of Dr. Phil and Rachael Ray but neither have proved especially loyal to Queen O, which is why Gayle will probably get the job, according to the National Enquirer.

Oprah has an impressive track record launching new shows – she was largely responsible for making stars out of Dr. Phil McGraw and Rachael Ray – but none of the present hosts have struck Oprah as the right choice to succeed her. So the mantle fell to the 54-year-old King.

Trust and loyalty are important to Oprah, and Gayle has enjoyed a 30-year friendship with the queen of the airwaves. The pair met when both worked at a Baltimore, MD TV station in the 1970s.

Gayle already has a myriad of duties within the Oprah empire….

Oprah has been very generous with Gayle through the years. Just last year, the 55-year-old superstar plunked down $7.5 million to buy a stunning penthouse apartment in Manhattan that Gayle uses as she wishes. But what her pal has really been pining for is to become Oprah’s successor on daytime TV.

Disclosed a friend: “It initially bruised Gayle’s pride that Oprah didn’t serioiusly consider her before…

“She would tell Oprah that she always has her back. She said McGraw and Ray used her clout to get where they wanted to go, but they never had any real loyalty to her.”…

Oprah still waffles on whether she’ll give up doing talk for good when her contract runs out in 2011 – but it’s clear to insiders she’ll give Gayle her own day in the sun at some point.

[From The National Enquirer, print edition, March 23, 2009]

The Enquirer notes that Gayle already tried to launch a talk show in 1997, which was canceled due to low ratings. Their insider says that Gayle reassures Oprah that it was “12 years ago, and she’s a whole different person today.”

You wonder why Gayle didn’t get more chances earlier on, but maybe Oprah didn’t see the potential in Gayle and was too busy looking for other talent. Gayle seems like a nice enough person but from what I can tell she isn’t as opinionated or commanding a presence as Oprah. Hardly anyone is, which is why Oprah is so successful at what she does. Maybe that’s why she favors other blowhards with larger than life personalities like Dr. Phil and Rachel Ray.

Gayle King is shown on 12/5/08. Credit: WENN.com

Gayle King was on Good Morning yesterday to talk about her best friend Oprah’s decision to go public with her weight struggle. Oprah recently admitted to weighing 200 pounds at just 5′ 6.5″ tall, a figure that some people say is too low and contend that she looks heavier than that. Whatever the exact number is, Oprah deserves credit for owing up to her problems with the public, something she could have kept quiet about. Oprah is featured on the cover of the upcoming January issue of O Magazine in a current full body shot in which she points to a fit 2005 version of herself with the caption “How did I let this happen again?” In the accompanying interview, she admits that she’s “mad” and “embarrassed” at her weight gain and says she can’t believe she let it happen again with everything she knows.

Gayle said on GMA that she was surprised Oprah made that decision. As her best friend and the editor of O, she told Oprah frankly that she wasn’t looking that good and it would be a risk to compare herself to her 2005 cover shot.

Gayle explains how she told Oprah she wasn’t “looking so great”
“You’re aware that there’s a difference between the two bodies and you’re not looking so great, and you’re ok with showing that?”

“She goes ‘Yes I am. I really am, because I have eyes, everybody else has eyes. Everybody can see what is happening to me and I feel that I’ve been talking the talk but I haven’t really walked the walk and I just want to put it out there.’”

Gayle also talked about how she felt bad that she didn’t notice that Oprah was upset over gaining weight until she came out with the news herself. Oprah tells a personal story in the magazine about not wanting to go on stage in Las Vegas with Tina Turner and Cher because she felt too fat, something that Gayle says she can see in retrospect but didn’t pick up on at the time.

The letters are coming in from readers who are grateful to Oprah, according to Gayle. She quoted one woman who wrote “I just wanted to thank you. For so long I’ve been embarrassed about how I look. I called myself voluptuous, but really I know I’m fat.”

Oprah contends that she’s not brave for coming out with this personal information and that the really brave people are the ones who come on her show every week.

Gayle said that Oprah is still the same confident person, but that Bob Green, her longterm trainer, told her he could tell that she’s been depressed since she gained weight.

As I said in our earlier coverage of this, Oprah usually bugs me but I can’t fault her in this case. She is going public with something that people struggle with daily and as a well known celebrity she can provide courage and strength to so many. Oprah’s “Best Week Life” starts on January 5th on her show.

Gayle King is shown in the header at the 17th Annual Women In Entertainment Power 100 Breakfast at the Beverly Hills Hotel on 12/5/08. Credit: Apega/WENN