TVSquad

The takeover of Oxygen by NBC Universal has now lead to 25% of Oxygen's employees being let go, per this Variety article. "We have consolidated functions and operations, resulting in job impact," said J.B. Perrette, president of distribution for NBCU. Can't you just see Jack Donaghy (Alec Baldwin) delivering that line. "Job Impact." I love wordspin. Not "We just told 65 people that come the New Year they'll be on the streets looking for work" but "We told 65 people that their jobs have been impacted."

This annual list from Forbes is half "wow, I didn't know they made that much" and half "oh my God, Oprah made more money in the last minute than I've made in the past five years." But it's a fun way to see who's making what. Some of the people you pretty much assume will be on the list, but there are a few surprises too.

Oprah is indeed on top again. From June 2006 to June 2007 she made $260 million. I could pay off my Visa with that money. Number two isn't even on TV anymore: Jerry Seinfeld. He made $60 million during that year. I won't spoil the rest of the list for you, but let's just say that the top twenty includes two people from American Idol, someone from a reality show featuring models, and a whole bunch of talk show hosts, both daytime and nighttime.

The list is also a TV show. The Forbes TV 20 will premiere on E! tomorrow night at 5pm.

Pop superstar Madonna, who is currently shopping for a baby at a large store called "the world," will tape an interview with Oprah Winfrey that will air this Wednesday.

Madonna's adoption of a Malawi boy is currently in dispute by the boy's father. Or maybe it's not. It's really hard to follow all of the twists and turns of this story. But I'm sure the Material Girl will set the record straight when she sits down on Oprah's couch.

The baby's name is David, and he is currently in London as all the adoption legal stuff is figured out.

To start your work week, here are two brief news stories about Queen of all Media Oprah Winfrey.

First, Fortune magazine has just announced its annual list of the 50 most powerful women in business. Guess who's number eight? If you said Britney Spears you would be wrong. Winfrey, and her Harpo Inc. company, actually dropped four spaces from last year's list. That spot was taken over by Pat Woertz, CEO and President of Archer Daniels Midland. More on Oprah, Pat, and the 48 other business women, can be found at the magazine's website (courtesy of CNN Money).

In a non-related story, Oprah says that her lawyers overreacted by going after a man who was trying to promote her candidacy for U.S. President. Patrick Crowe has been urging Winfrey to run for president for several years now, even going so far as creating a website that has its own campaign song. Last Month, lawyers for the media mogul sent Crowe a letter demanding that he remove Oprah's picture from his website. Oprah said that she's flattered by Crowe's stalking intentions, and that her attorneys should not have sent him a cease-and-desist order.

Patrick Crowe is not one of Oprah's favorite things.

The writer and entrepreneur has been pushing an "Oprah in 08" campaign via a web site (and soon a self-published book), and now Oprah's lawyers have heard about it and have sent a five page letter telling him "stop it!" The Smoking Gun, of course, has the letter here.

I can understand how they'd have a case against the guy for using copyrighted photos and having a web site with the name Oprah in it and a phone number with Oprah's name, but telling him he can't use the name Oprah on the book cover or have a license plate with the name Oprah on it? Hmmm....

Gosh, its been a long time since we had a good Oprah Winfrey story! In fact, we haven't mentioned Oprah since July 17th, when we posted an item on her beliefs that people thought she was gay. So, in order to whet your appetite before her show's season premiere on September 18th (where she will apparently give away a small country to everyone in the audience), here's your Oprah fix for this week. And, no, she's still not gay.