In a stellar portrait of Jerry Sandusky’s wife, Dottie, Sara Ganim of The Patriot-News slips in a detail that seems somewhat innocuous, but might end up being a much bigger story as it develops. Ganim reports that the couple is considering speaking publicly about the accusations levied against Sandusky after the New Year to one of four major news personalities and programs: Oprah Winfrey, Barbara Walters, Rock Center, or 60 Minutes.

CBS affiliate KBOI in Idaho has discovered a video that alleged White House shooter Oscar Ortega-Hernandez taped in September, pleading for Oprah Winfrey to put him on her show. “My name is Oscar Ortega, from Idaho Falls, Idaho,” he begins, “and I feel I am the perfect candidate to get casted onto your show.”

The Washington Post offered an interesting little tidbit about Michaele Salahi, the woman best known for 1) crashing the White House’s 2009 State Dinner and 2) being filmed crashing the White House’s 2009 State Dinner on Bravo’s The Real Housewives of DC. According to the paper, Salahi was inspired to pursue a career in pop music by none other than Oprah Winfrey.

There’s an awesome bit of pop culture trivia! Only… it ain’t true.

Time magazine’s annual “Time 100″ list is live today, highlighting 2010′s most influential people. Unsurprisingly, the list includes several big media names, proving once again that those who bring you the news continue to be quite adept at making the news.

MSNBC’s Morning Joe spent the morning in Chicago, the city that’s home to both Oprah Winfrey and President Obama, and hosts Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski had Oprah as a guest. Asked about the president, Winfrey said “I’m feeling great about Obama’s leadership. I feel that everybody has a learning curve, and the reason why I was willing to step up for him was I believed in his integrity and I believe in his heart.”

It’s no question that many people dream of meeting Oprah Winfrey and appearing on her wildly popular talk show but, usually, you need a pretty compelling personal story to do so. Like surviving a severe illness, being a celebrity with a penchant for jumping on furniture, having a house drop on your sister, or growing long, thick, curling, yellowy fingernails.

For decades, Larry King‘s iconic set–perhaps best described as a “Lite Brite map of the world” was as recognizable as the host himself. As CNN prepares to launch a new host into King’s 9 p.m. timeslot, much has been mentioned about the set, which will incorporate the ability for host Piers Morgan to have a live studio audience.

You may not know much about CNN’s Piers Morgan yet, but know this: the guy knows how to craft a clever insult–like telling TV critics to get an “immediate lobotomy.”

Morgan–who’s been fearless in his blunt talk since being appointed the replacement for Larry King–is lashing out at critics who’ve slammed his choice of Oprah Winfrey as the “premiere guest” on Piers Morgan Tonight, which debuts January 17.

My twitter feed blew up over the news that the study linking the MMR vaccine to autism had been declared an “elaborate fraud.” The study had actually been retracted a while back, but this makes it official. There have always been parents wary of vaccines, but this study is the one that started the ball rolling. Jenny McCarthy helped it grow into a giant snowball of panic. You know, Jenny McCarthy; former Playboy model, D-list actress and ex-girlfriend of Jim Carrey. She wasn’t in it alone. Oprah helped her spread the word. So did Larry King Live and The View. She was even on The Doctors, discussing the “debate” with doctors. She was a regular on our trusted TV shows; that is, after all, where you go when you have a book to promote.

A lot of the buzz around who’d be the first guest on CNN’s new Piers Morgan Tonight revolved around plenty of hints it would be royalty. And sure enough, it is. Only it’s not royal-wedding bound Kate Middleton, it’s just Queen of Daytime TV Oprah Winfrey.

At the Television Critics’ Association meeting in Los Angeles, Piers Morgan made it official, Oprah will be first to undergo the Morgan Magic (he made Simon Cowell cry!) when his show debuts on January 17.

Anderson Cooper is, perhaps, the bravest man on television. He’s traveled to Iraq and Afghanistan in the midst of war, turned the world’s eyes to Haiti after it was rocked by a massive earthquake, and ventured to a New Orleans devastated by Hurricane Katrina. All that to prepare for this: interviewing not just his New Year’s Eve co-host Kathy Griffin, but also comedians Joy Behar, Phyllis Diller and Joan Rivers – who had a little gossip to share concerning none other than Oprah.

Was anything else on? The debut of Oprah Winfrey‘s new Oprah Winfrey Network–OWN–was the curiosity of the New Year’s weekend, attracting respectable ratings, but making monster increases versus the cable channel OWN replaced, Discovery Health.

When OWN launched at noon on New Year’s Day, a preview show posted a .7 household rating, according to Nielsen figures reported by The Hollywood Reporter.

Amid the football and hangovers of New Year’s Day comes a bit of television history: the launch of Oprah Winfrey’s brand new network, OWN, which began operations today.

Writing on The Root, Jennifer Mabry sums up her feelings about the Oprah Winfrey Network in one word: “disappointed.”

In the last ten days, 40 local television stations have opted to sign contracts to carry Anderson Cooper‘s new daytime talk show, Anderson, according to a report this morning in The Hollywood Reporter.

That rush of of signings pushes Anderson to 80 stations across the country, meaning about 70 percent of television viewers will be able to watch the show when it debuts in the fall.

The New York Times devoted a lengthy Sunday feature today to the upcoming January 1 launch of Oprah Winfrey‘s new cable TV network, the Oprah Winfrey Network (OWN). Winfrey is the first ever talk show host to go on to launch her own network, and thus is attracting plenty of skepticism from critics about whether the network can be as successful as her long-running ABC talk show.

Aussie actor Hugh Jackman intended to make a dramatic entrance on Oprah Winfrey‘s Oprah’s Ultimate Australian Adventure, taping an episode at the Sydney Opera House. He sure did, with the Wolverine left bleeding and with a black eye. According to the Hollywood Reporter, Jackman was rigged to a “flying fox,” which is a high-wire assembly that was to swoop Jackman through the air from the top of the Opera House and down onto Oprah’s Aussie set.

So what will Oprah Winfrey‘s OWN–set to launch January first–look like? The Oprah Winfrey Network released a sneak peak video today, and it contains a lot of familiar faces from Oprah’s long-running daytime TV show, including Dr. Phil and Dr. Oz.

The details are still mostly under wraps, with only tiny tidbits being hinted at in the 72-second teaser video. Oprah says “this is it,” and Sarah, Duchess of York says “it’s great… it’s exciting to be part of OWN.”

In her recent hour-long interview with Barbara Walters, Oprah Winfrey revealed that she’s still one of President Obama‘s number one fans. “I think it’s unfortunate when you have a nation of people who don’t want to support the president of the United States,” she said, adding that she doesn’t think Americans realize how much worse the recession could have been if not for Obama’s actions. Oprah was a lot less open, however, when it came to expressing her opinion of another polarizing political figure: Sarah Palin.

Daytime TV Queen–and soon to be cable channel honcho–Oprah Winfrey can talk to anyone about anything, but rarely opens up about her own life. So it was all the more surprising when she broke down during an interview with ABC’s Barbara Walters.

In an excerpt from her upcoming A Barbara Walters Special: Oprah, The Next Chapter, which airs Thursday night on ABC, Walters asked about the unusual bond between Oprah and best friend Gayle King.

“Our wildlife embarrassed us,” said an Australian reporter who told Aussie viewers that within minutes of arriving Down Under, Oprah Winfrey was interrupted by a pair of cuddly koalas getting up close and personal at a nature preserve. Or, as the reporter put it, the koalas were doing “what most of us reserve for private times.”

300 giddy members of Oprah‘s audience have landed in Australia ready for a whirlwind “Ultimate Australian Adventure”–and already, some Down Under are asking (begin Aussie accent now) “Crikey! Why are we picking up the tab for this?”

As the Americans were mobbed at the airport in Sydney by camera crews disappointed to learn Oprah herself wouldn’t arrive until Tuesday, a newspaper headline screamed “Why Are We Paying For Rich People?”

Oprah, as you may have heard, has given away her last audience-load of new cars. Her next venture–the Oprah Winfrey Network, or OWN–debuts early next year.

Despite suggestions of executive turmoil at OWN and a report since shot down forcefully by the network that Oprah was negotiating with a top CBS executive to come aboard just weeks ahead of the launch, one top cable CEO says fear not: Oprah knows how to make good TV–and big money.

In the past Oprah Winfrey has given cars to audience members, with the now iconic phrase “you get a car! you get a car!” that has been parodied over and over in the past five years. Today was the last day of the final Oprah‘s Favorite Things gift giveaway, and not surprisingly, she went out with a big bang. Not only did she give each audience member a brand new Volkswagen beetle, but its a newly designed model that even she would not show on air. You know what she did show? Audience members freaking out.

Watching Oprah‘s show tomorrow might make you flash back to your childhood—specifically, the days when you stayed home sick from school and spent the afternoon channel surfing. That’s because the Queen of All Media will be welcoming a very special slate of guest stars: former talk show hosts Phil Donahue, Geraldo Rivera, Sally Jessy Raphael, Ricki Lake and Montel Williams.

Former President George W. Bush isn’t just talking with Matt Lauer next week – he’s sitting with Oprah Winfrey as well.

Besides the fact that it should be huge for book sales, the former President also talks about the current political climate, his picks for 2012 and more.