[color="Blue"](White women can be so incredibly stupid. )

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,196695,00.html

Oprah Fans Determined to Get Her a Nobel Peace Prize

Tuesday , May 23, 2006

By Melissa Drosjack

WASHINGTON — Editor's note: This is the second in a two-part series on celebrity
involvement in political and global issues.

Not every celebrity has a Nobel Peace Prize fan club. But admirers of Oprah Winfrey,
television talk show host extraordinaire, thought she needed one.

"She truly deserves the Nobel Peace Prize," reads the Oprah4PeacePrize Web site.
"We intend to be celebrating an Oprah victory next December 2006 in Oslo, Norway."

The annual prize, awarded since 1901, recognizes individuals and organizations
for their humanitarian work, peace movements, human rights efforts, mediation
of international conflicts, arms control and disarmament.

The Norwegian Nobel Committee, which has five secret members selected by the
Norwegian Parliament, reviews nominations to choose winners. The committee
announces its decision each October and posts the winners on the prize's Web site.
Laureates then receive their awards on Dec. 10, the anniversary of inventor Alfred
Nobel's death.

More and more, celebrities appear to be paying more attention, lending their support
and getting more publicity for big causes. Actor George Clooney has promoted
efforts to help Darfur, Sudan, Angelina Jolie’s global travels aid underprivileged
children worldwide and Eva Longoria has a long held interest in aiding Hispanic immigrants
to gain more labor rights and access to health care.

But Winfrey and others who are winning critical recognition for their commitment
go the extra mile. Jolie, a U.N. goodwill ambassador, and U2 singer Bono both have
traveled the world to raise AIDS awareness, and Bono is a nearly a one-man crusade
for Third World debt forgiveness. Bono was nominated for the prize last year but didn’t
make the final cut.

Bono is an example of someone who is a celebrity that can make legitimate contributions
to big causes, said Peter Schweizer, author of Do As I Say, (Not As I Do), Profiles
in Liberal Hypocrisy.

As for Winfrey, she comes across as a celebrity who craves more than fame in the
entertainment business, Schweizer said.

“I think it’s another example of celebrities trying to gain a legitimacy in other realms
of public life. They’re not content to just make money and have people watch
them on the big screen," Schweizer said.

Winfrey has used her wealth and fame to help with the homeless, poverty, hunger,
racial discrimination, crime, AIDS and children's welfare. She promotes her causes
by going on international philanthropic trips and distributing assistance through
her charity, the Oprah Winfrey Foundation. The untiring effort has developed Winfrey
quite a repertoire of causes for Nobel Peace Prize judges to consider, say supporters.

Rocky Twyman, founder of Oprah for Nobel Peace Prize movement, said he first
met Winfrey at a fundraiser and after admiring her goodwill, believes the concept
to recognize her came from God.

Twyman's Web site is seeking to garner 100,000 signatures to draw attention to the
committee judging the nominees. The site calls Winfrey a "human angel of light
who has revolutionized the entire world."

“She is just so beloved all over the world,” Twyman said. “What we’re trying to do
is hopefully influence the Nobel committee."

But Winfrey's fan club faces challenges. The Nobel committee reviews hundreds
of nominations and narrows the list down to a few finalists. Professors, governments,
previous prize winners and committee members are all allowed to nominate someone
for the award.

The group will need to get a Nobel laureate or other appropriate source to nominate
Winfrey for consideration of the prize.

Supporters have sought to enlist former President Jimmy Carter, who was awarded
the peace prize in 2002. Winfrey and Carter shared a bond with Mattie Stepanek,
a young poet and Muscular Dystrophy Association goodwill ambassador who died in
2004 and was eulogized by both.

“We’re going to present some of our petitions to him about the effort and why we
think it is significant,” said Lillian Huff, a former delegate to Democratic National
Convention for Washington, D.C., who was among the delegation lobbying Carter.

Another setback to Oprah’s possible nomination is that the committee generally
looks to award someone involved in the key issue of the year, said Marilyn McMorrow,
a professor at Georgetown University and an expert on the Nobel Peace Prize.

“They are trying to figure out who’s the right person for this moment,” McMorrow
said. “I think there would have to be something that Oprah was doing that is so significant
right now.”

Last year's award went to the International Atomic Energy Agency and Director
General Mohamed ElBaradei. The committee cited the agency and ElBaradei's efforts
to promote nuclear energy for peaceful purposes and not military uses.

But even those with measurable accomplishments don't always win. Indonesian
President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono was nominated for his election and the transition
from an authoritarian dictatorship to representative electoral democracy in the world's
largest Muslim nation.

McMorrow said Winfrey's philanthropy, or that of other moguls like Ted Turner and
Bill Gates, could be awarded a prize as a group in recognition of their collective
efforts to give back some of their good fortune.

Winfrey's supporters say they recognize the barriers, but hope to garner enough
popular support to increase Winfrey's chances of obtaining the prize.

“There could be challenges. If so, we’ll just have to try to deal with it,” Huff said.

But just because Winfrey has a fan club and a record supporting her accomplishments,
she may not be able to jump the hurdles posed by a difficult nomination process,
McMorrow cautioned. She added that people or supporters who have campaigned
for the Nobel prize in the past are frequently overlooked.

“I think it is an extremely long shot,” McMorrow said. “If you want to make sure
someone won’t get it, do a campaign."