The Master of the Universe

Is Oprah Winfrey.

The book world is all atwitter because Oprah is now featuring contemporary books on the show again. This is a huge deal, because each book she features instantly sells a million copies and the author is set for life. Recently she'd turned to a "dead author only" policy, which made for less interesting interviews and fewer financial benefits to people who can actually spend it.

It's crazy how huge Oprah is. Women love her, they Tivo the show, they buy the magazines, they do what she says. Oprah made Dr. Phil, she beat the beef industry, and she almost killed a fancy French retailer. When I was in Guyana, Oprah was every woman's role model. In the PR world (of which I am a part of), getting a product on Oprah is like winning the lottery. Yesterday somebody at my office actually got through to a producer at Oprah and was on Cloud 9 for the rest of the day.

It's a little scary that an army of middle-aged women is ready to leap to do Oprah's bidding. But I guess she's better than Howard Stern (not from an entertainment standpoint, of course, but in terms of controlling the minds of Americans).