Queen Of All Media

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That is, of course, what Winfrey tries to do on her talk show. In real life, such efforts can sometimes seem silly or superficial or narcissistic. "Forgiveness is something you do for yourself so you can move on," one guest told Winfrey's audience on a recent show. As the theme of a short story, perhaps that line would work. On the show it came off as self-centered and graceless. On another show last month, guest John Gray taught the audience to meditate by saying the following words "O glorious future, my heart is open to you. Come into my life." Perhaps the exercise was useful. But it sure sounded goofy.

The subjects Winfrey has explored on film and in her book-club picks have generally been important and meaningful. But Winfrey is a woman reported to be worth more than $550 million. She is confident, powerful, charismatic, well read, glamorous, modern. It would make quite a statement if she made more movies and championed more books featuring heroes and heroines who shared some of her more inspiring character traits. Moreover, most of Winfrey's movies are set in the past. The future beckons.

This is not to say that there isn't plenty of inspiration to be found in Winfrey's work. There is a moment near the end of Beloved where Winfrey, playing the ex-slave Sethe, bemoans the loss of one of her children. Her child, she believes, is her "best thing." Danny Glover, playing her lover Paul D, tells her, "You your best thing." A look of revelation comes across her face. "Me?" Sethe says. "Me?"

It's an Oprah-show moment; she is constantly searching for ways to inspire her audience, to lift them up, to give them a sense of self-worth. In Beloved, however, this moment arrives not as part of an unstructured monologue by a rambling guest, but as the climax of a nuanced, thoughtful story line. Daytime talk shows are often content simply to show us life. In her movies and her book-club picks, Winfrey seeks to do something more--she wants to show us how to live.