Veteran TV producer Larry A. Thompson has optioned the rights to Kitty Kelley's unauthorized tome, Oprah: A Biography, a book whose sordid claims sparked Oprah's fury this spring. Thompson (who's dramatized the lives of Sonny and Cher, among other famous names) says he's planning to audition both known and unknown actresses to headline a TV movie or miniseries scheduled for September 2011, just as Oprah ends her 25-year talk show run. What actress could best tackle the role of Oprah's lifetime — and survive the prospect of being blacklisted by one of the media world's most powerful personalities?
The role presents problems for name actresses: Among known actresses, likely frontrunners include Viola Davis, Jennifer Hudson, and possibly Debra Wilson (who earned acclaim for satirizing Oprah on Mad TV), says Jaret Wiesselman in The New York Post. But though the "material would be well served" by any of the three ladies, Davis is particularly vulnerable to Oprah backlash, Hudson would have to regain hard-lost weight, and Wilson is probably too frivolous. I recommend producers "go unknown."
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