O Magazine Interview
Branson gives his thoughts on founding Virgin Airlines:
I was young and inexperienced. At first I wasn’t even allowed to register the business name because the word virgin was thought to be rude. I had to sit down and, in my best 15-year-old penmanship, write a letter to the registry office that began, Surely the word virgin is anything but rude; it’s the opposite of rude. They eventually relented.
O Magazine interview
Seinfeld speaks to Winfrey in an interview for O Magazine about producing Bee Movie.
I asked Steven Spielberg to direct a commercial I was going to make for American Express. I’d never met him, but I thought, What the hell why don’t I call? I’m Jerry Seinfeld, I’m not just nobody. [Laughs] Steven says, I can’t do it, but why don’t we have dinner tomorrow in East Hampton? I say, That sounds great. Then I hang up the phone and go, Oh my God! I’m a Jewish boy from Long Island, and I’m having dinner with Steven Spielberg! It was like my second Bar Mitzvah.
[At dinner] when we started talking about kids we were off to the races, but then the conversation ground to a halt. It happens to the best of us. As an entertainer, that’s when I kick into gear and say something witty to jump-start the conversation. The night before, I was sitting with a couple of friends, eating a Twizzler, and I said, What if somebody did a film called Bee Movie, and it was about bees? So during the dinner with Steven, I said this to relieve the lull we’d just crashed into. I figured, he’s a director, he’ll relate to the term B movie. But he didn’t laugh; he fixed his eyes on me and said, We’re going to make that movie. I was like, What do you mean we, Kemosabe? He said it was a great idea, and when he gets excited, it’s almost scary. He can get everyone else in the room excited! You don’t meet older people like that too often. It’s wonderful.
O Magazine Interview
Seinfeld gives his thoughts on ending his NBC sitcom Seinfeld:
My managers and I still wonder: Did we stop at the right time? Before we ended the show, Jack Welch [former CEO of General Electric, which owns NBC] told me, Your ratings are still rising. Yes, I said, but the only way to see the end of a hill is to go past it and realize you’re going down.
O Magazine interview
Fantasia speaks to Winfrey in an interview for O Magazine about being raped as a teenager.
I had a crush on this guy. He was the best ballplayer, and all the girls wanted him. I thought I had no chance with him. One day during a game after school, I was flaunting around in an itty-bitty dress. I was flirting, and he told me, You’re going to get something you don’t want. And that’s exactly what happened. Yes. I went home and threw away my clothes. I didn’t tell my mama because I thought she would say, I told you so. I just lay on my bed, and I didn’t go to school for a couple of days. My mom came to me and said, Something’s not right with you. I know that somebody put his hands on you. That’s when I knew I had her support. We turned the guy in, but going back to school was hell; his homeboys would say, I’m going to do to you exactly what he did. They thought it was funny. That’s when I quit school.
O Magazine Interview
Barrino talks about performing the song Summertime on American Idol:
That was the night that everything changed. People came up to me and said, I wasn’t voting for you at first, but I have no other choice now, baby. That night, I wanted to be pure. I wanted the world to hear me cry out [sings]: One of these mornings, y’all gonna rise up singing, then you’ll spread your wings, and fly to the sky. I wanted people to see me, to change their minds about me. And that night, they did.
O Magazine interview
McGreevey speaks to King in an interview for O Magazine about her husband cheating on her with another man.
I always thought of myself as a good judge of character people have always told me that but with Jim I was just totally off. He was charming, he was charismatic, he was always trying to help people. That’s the man I fell in love with. Actually, one person did say something to me once, but I was like, What are you talking about? Because there were also rumors that the two of us weren’t living in the same house. False things were always being said. That’s the nature of politics. So when one person mentioned the gay rumor, I dismissed it. That wasn’t the Jim I knew.
O Magazine interview
McFadden speaks to Winfrey in an interview for O Magazine and tells how she feels about living in the same house where her children were murdered.
This is where they were born. I can still see their smudgy handprints on the walls. The plants they planted are here. Stuart’s tree is out in the front yard. Stan painted the house. The few minutes it took somebody to come in and put bullets into them is not what my children are all about.
O Magazine Interview
Kennedy, Jr. speaks about why he didn’t run for New York Attorney General:
Because I really didn’t want to be attorney general. I have the kind of life where I can take my kids on trips with me. I can involve them in my work. I’ve always avoided politics because I didn’t want to make commitments that would take me away from raising these children. But now America has changed so dramatically that I’m asking myself: What’s going to be left of this country? I’m spending time with my kids, but maybe my time would be spent just as well if I tried to save the country.
O Magazine interview
Kennedy Jr. speaks to Winfrey in an interview for O Magazine about if he has a fear of terrorist attacks in the United States.
I think the worst thing this White House has done is to use fear as a governing tool. No, I don’t fear for our country in terms of an attack. They’ve used the excuse that 9/11 suddenly put us in the most dangerous part of our history. That’s nonsense. When you and I were raised, there were 25,000 nuclear warheads pointed at America, and we faced absolute annihilation. That was a dangerous time. When George Washington fought the British and his troops didn’t have shoes, that was a dangerous time. And during the Civil War, if we had lost Gettysburg, the United States of America would have disappeared.
O Magazine interview
Rhimes speaks to Winfrey in an interview for O Magazine about watching herself on TV during an episode of Grey’s Anatomy.
I catch 20 minutes here or there, but I find it hard to watch. I want the show to be everything we shoot. After an episode is edited, there are whole chunks you guys won’t get to see. I’m like, Oooh, that was such a good scene. But I like watching the other actors.
O Magazine Interview
Rhimes speaks about how she came up with the idea to create the ABC drama Grey’s Anatomy:
My sisters and I would call each other up and talk about operations we’d seen on the Discovery Channel. There’s something fascinating about the medical world—you see things you’d never imagine, like the fact that doctors talk about their boyfriends or their day while they’re cutting somebody open. So when ABC asked me to write another pilot, the OR seemed like the natural setting.
O Magazine interview
Combs talks to Winfrey for O Magazine about his career goals and dreams.
I want to have a cultural impact. I want to be an inspiration, to show people what can be done. I’ve always been a daydreamer. When the other kids were playing, I was listening to the roar at Yankee Stadium I was always attracted to the roar of the crowd. I wanted to know: What would make somebody roar like that? I was always looking at the hustle and bustle of people working. I wanted to work.
O Magazine Interview
Diddy gives his thoughts on his new album, Press Play:
This album contains much more musicality than my others. My motive was to put out the best music I could, not necessarily to sell millions of records. I’ve been number one a lot, and that’s great. The vibe of this album is about giving. I think if you believe in giving, then you know it will come back to you.
O Magazine interview
Streisand gives an interview to Winfrey for O Magazine about her childhood and teaching her mother how to smoke at age 10.
Very early. I was kind of a wild child, like an animal. I could never sit still at a table not that my family ever sat down and ate a meal together. I used to stand over the stove and eat out of a pot. There was no mealtime. I have no idea when my brother and sister ate, because I came in whenever I wanted. I also taught my mother how to smoke when I was 10.
O Magazine Interview
Streisand talks about her concert tour schedule:
I haven’t really performed much. In my entire career, I’ve played in a handful of cities in the United States and only three outside of America. Performers like Neil Diamond, U2, and Madonna tour every two years and sing in hundreds of cities all over the world. My friend Diana Krall told me she used to tour 300 out of 365 days a year. I’ve worked so little, which is why the idea of retirement is ridiculous.
O Magazine interview
Fitch gives an interview to Winfrey for O Magazine about why she became a writer.
Yes. My father was an engineer he wasn’t literary, not a writer or a journalist, but he was one of the world’s great readers. Every two weeks, he’d take me to our local branch library and pull books off the shelf for me, stacking them up in my arms. Have you read this? And this? And this? He taught me to always take out the maximum number of books I think it was 12 so in case there were books I didn’t like, I’d always have something else to read. If I became a reader and then a writer, I can say that it was because of his love of books and his sharing that love. When you’re a little kid, you are small, your life is small and you’re terrifically aware of that. But when you read, you can ride Arabian horses across the desert, you can be a dog-sledder.
O Magazine Interview
Fitch speaks about her new novel, Paint It Black:
It’s about the aftermath of a suicide. I’ve struggled with depression, and so have others around me. It’s also about the moment when someone sees something in you that opens up a vision you might never have imagined for yourself. Does the vision disappear once that person is gone? Is that possibility yours or theirs?
O Magazine Interview
Jackman talks about getting a role in the musical The Boy From Oz early in his acting career:
I’d been offered the part in Australia six years earlier. I decided not to take it because I’d done two other musicals, and I felt like I was getting typecast. That’s a tough road to get out of. Musical theater is looked down on by people in every other form of entertainment.
O Magazine interview
Jackman gives an interview to Winfrey for O Magazine about career lessons he learns from his dad.
I had a fairly enlightened dad, though if you looked at his résumé, it might not seem that way. He was a chartered accountant for Price Waterhouse. He was strict, and we had a very ordered life. To this day, I am the least materialistic person I know, because my father didn’t raise me to just go out and buy this or that car. The only reason I wanted to make money as an actor was because I’m passionate about food! But as disciplined as my father was with money, he would never try to save a dime on education. He loved being an accountant. He’d tell me, You’ve got to love what you do because it’s going to take a lot of your effort and time. He had only one reservation about my being an actor. He said, I think you’re too thin-skinned. And I am fairly thin-skinned.
O Magazine interview
Blige gives an interview to Winfrey for O Magazine about the meaning of her album The Breakthrough.
It means a lot. One day I realized that I wasn’t getting anywhere by blaming other people for my circumstances. I finally understood: Even if you feel someone has wronged you or owes you something, no one is going to give you anything for free. In the inner city, there’s a mentality that the government owes you something. My breakthrough came when I stopped feeling sorry for myself and took responsibility for every part of my life. No more pity parties. I’ve gotta love me more than anybody else loves me.