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Updated: 01:44 PM EST
Winfrey Turns Tables on Letterman
Talk Queen Extends Olive Branch to Comedian, Invites Him to Appear on Her Show
LOS ANGELES (Dec. 12) - It's not exactly the "Super Bowl of Love" envisioned by David Letterman, but it could mark an easing of recent tensions between the late-night comedian and daytime talk queen Oprah Winfrey.
AP file
Oprah Winfrey wasn't amused by David Letterman's jokes about the queen of daytime talk.
A spokeswoman for "The Oprah Winfrey Show" confirmed on Friday that she had turned the tables on CBS's "Late Show" host by inviting Letterman to make his first-ever appearance on her program.
Letterman has been playfully haranguing Winfrey to join him on the air for an "hour of healing" since Time magazine quoted her as vowing never to go on his show again after two previous guest stints left her feeling "like the butt of his jokes."
"I felt completely uncomfortable sitting in that chair," Winfrey said in Time. "But I have a great deal of respect for his talent."
This week, Letterman suggested he and Winfrey could patch up their differences in a "Super Bowl of Love" officiated by self-help guru Dr. Phil McGraw, who himself took a lot ribbing from Letterman until becoming one of most popular "Late Show" guests earlier this year.
His entreaties were ignored until Thursday, when Winfrey extended an olive branch of her own.
Announcing at the taping of Friday's "Late Show" that "Oprah no longer hates me," Letterman revealed she had invited him to appear on her top-rated syndicated talk program. But the sardonic comedian was noncommittal.
"It can't possibly happen because that would screw up the Super Bowl of Love," Letterman said. "Because here's what would happen: I would go on the Oprah show and I would break down and sob like a little girl."
Instead, Letterman said he wanted to go through with the rapprochement he had imagined.
"Dr. Phil will come out first and straighten me out, because the problem is me," he said. "I have an attitude problem. There is something wrong with me. And then, when he feels it's safe, Oprah will come out. ... And then the love will explode."
Reached by telephone on Friday afternoon, a spokesman for the "Late Show" left open the possibility that Letterman might accept Winfrey's offer, saying, "he has not decided."
In one sign that a thaw was already in the air, Letterman last month acknowledged on the air that Winfrey had sent him a generous baby gift just after the birth of his son, Harry -- a large tub filled with children's books.
12/12/03 20:45 ET
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