A million dollars!!!
Drew appeared on the Mighty Opes today – everyone thought it would be an engagement announcement – as part of Oprah’s Big Give series challenging her lambs to do what they can to help those less fortunate.
Drew has designated her donation to the World Food Programme providing nutrition for children in Africa.
"I have seen with my own eyes what a difference a simple cup of nutritious porridge can make in a child"s life. It helps them learn, stay healthy and sets them on track for a bright future."
Amazing.
Not so amazing… this scathing review (thanks Juinfleur!) of the Mighty Opes new endeavour by the Hollywood Reporter – obviously not some supermarket rag:
Reuters News
Posted: 2008-02-28 11:21:04
LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - The first oddity (but certainly not the last) about the eight-week Oprah Winfrey infomercial "Oprah"s Big Give" is that there is nary a single genuine giving moment to be found during the opening hour.
It is instead a profoundly hyperkinetic and unwieldy adventure in product placement, in Oprah-as-Messiah hype and, ultimately, in what"s so utterly fake and insidious about "reality" television itself.
Because the ABC series operates under the high-minded guise of bringing life, rescue and joy to people in need, it"s actually even more disturbing than those shows claiming no similarly socially redeeming purpose.
While the recipients of this largesse no doubt truly benefit in a format that"s one part "Queen for a Day" and one part "The Amazing Race," the question must be asked early on: Is it worth being exploited as a quasi-pathetic charity case on national television, replete with on-cue manipulative sappy music and photo ops choreographed by editors seemingly in the throes of epileptic seizure, to gain that helping hand?
The idea here is that, armed simply with a photo, directions and $2,500 in cash, 10 selfless soldiers -- including an Iraq War vet, a dot-com millionaire, a paraplegic author and a pre-med student -- must change the lives of their needy assigned human/family in five days through fundraising, corporate sponsorship or just plain love (which in this case is another synonym for cold hard cash).
The "Biggest Giver" will wind up with $1 million, though Oprah insists "that"s a secret!" Oh really? These people are taking weeks out of their busy lives just to help their fellow man?
What makes "Oprah"s Big Give" especially unwatchable is a vertigo-inducing pace. Few shots last more than three seconds, making it virtually impossible to get to know any of these people on anything more than a surface level. Which is probably as it should be.
Shallow as a birdbath, the program would appear to exist less as a true philanthropic exercise than yet another self-aggrandizing vehicle in Oprah"s divine quest to become synonymous with all that is virtuous and good on Earth. We might well refer to this as "Touched By a Talk Show Host."
Reuters/Hollywood Reporter
02/28/2008 08:56 EST
Damn. The Hollywood Reporter is now in deep sh*t. NO ONE bitchslaps the Mighty Opes. But no one. Bet your boob job they"ll be grovelling for forgiveness soon. Or else... one day in the not too distant future, The Hollywood Reporter will go belly up. To be replaced by the OprahWood Reporter. Mark it.
On a less critical note – here’s Drew on vacay with Justin Long last week shoving it down our throats that she’s in love. What’s up with her these days? Why the paparazzi love fest? My smutty sense is tingling… yours?
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