Posted: 06:09 Thursday, May 08 2008
Charles Rex Arbogast / AP file
By Michael Ventre
MSNBC contributor
COMMENTARY
By Michael Ventre
MSNBC contributor
May. 4, 2008
When Tom Cruise bounced up and down on Oprah’s sofa on that infamous day three years ago, the reaction was swift: Media and fans concluded that when he jumped the couch, he jumped the shark. The settee itself was castigated, as if even an inanimate object should have more sense than to participate in such an insufferable display.
But Oprah went mostly unscathed. There are always Oprah haters out there, and in this case a small handful in the far-flung corners of cyberspace hammered her for not cutting to commercial sooner. Yet relatively speaking, she got off unharmed.
Indeed, Oprah is the Teflon talk-show host for more reasons than her affinity for cookware and what comes out of it. The only two people I can think of who were coated in more Teflon were John Gotti and Ronald Reagan.
One of them worked out, one of them didn’t.
Gotti was known as “The Teflon Don” until the feds got the goods on him. Then in 1992, he was sentenced to life without parole, and he died in prison 10 years later, proving that Teflon sometimes wears off.
Reagan became the 40th president of the United States, served two terms and was mostly well liked. Even political opponents couldn’t get too mad at him because he reminded them of their favorite uncle. He died in 2004, and there is an airport in Washington, D.C., named after him.
So which way for Oprah? Gotti or Reagan?
The first crack
Certainly, I don’t mean to suggest that she will either have a multitude of enemies whacked while enjoying a plate of scungilli over linguini, or pursue the other extreme and become the leader of the free world so she can get immunity from whacking enemies. But will her Teflon ever wear off?
The first crack in her nonstick coating may have come last fall when she endorsed Barack Obama for president. Naturally, whenever a celebrity comes out and embraces a political candidate, that celebrity risks losing a large segment of his or her audience that doesn’t agree. With Oprah, the result was more subtle. She didn’t alienate viewers in droves. Instead, she laid the foundation for future erosion.
It wasn’t the candidate she picked who’s the problem, even though she’s African-American, he’s African-American, and therefore such an endorsement — her first such public declaration — caused the racist goobers in our society to crawl out from various rocks and offer their ugly blather.
The issue is more about saturation. Oprah has her hands in just about everything these days, from publishing to reality shows to humanitarian efforts to spirituality. And she’s not a phony. She’s helped a lot of people and has had a colossal impact on the communications landscape.
Time to pull back
But how long can she go before people suffer Oprah overload? In many ways, she’s terrific. Yet she’s also a brand, and consumers tend to get sick of brands when they feel they’re being force-fed them.
Besides her show, she also has “Oprah’s Big Give”; “Oprah Winfrey Presents” movies and miniseries; “Oprah & Friends” on XM Satellite Radio; O, The Oprah Magazine; plus … whew! It’s a good thing this woman doesn’t have to send out resumes anymore because the postage would wipe her out.
Maybe, just maybe, it’s time for Oprah to pull back a little. Both the Roman and the British empires suffered from too much expansion. It’s unlikely that Chicago, where her Harpo Studios is located, will be sacked by Crusaders, or that Oprah’s rule will be defied by angry colonists. But if her base audience — which is roughly 75 percent female — grows weary of seeing her name at every turn, it could conceivably turn away.
She had a difficult early life and has become arguably the most powerful woman in the world. She is an inspiration to millions of people. She has helped many.
She is also in danger of ruining a good thing.
If she wanted to endorse a political candidate, she could have done so behind the scenes. In September, she hosted an Obama fundraiser that netted $3 million. She didn’t need to stand up and say, “Here’s another area of public life I’m barging into.”
She also would be wise to let the Tom Cruise infatuation end with the recent interview in Telluride, Colo., which was reminiscent of the old David Frost-Richard Nixon interviews, only with Scientology setting the mood instead of Watergate. With Frost and Nixon, there was an overwhelming need to know more. With Oprah and Tom, too much has been said already.
It was cute, all her female fans giggled, and nobody got too ill. If she goes to that well again, she might fall in.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/24457866/?GT1=43001
