The 56-year-old has once again risen to the top of The Giving Back Fund’s annual list of charitable celebrities; having donated a staggering $40 million in 2009. Following Oprah at number two is romance novelist Nora Roberts ($4.45m), and Meryl Streep ($4m) at number three.

Last year, it was Paul Newman in the top spot, knocking out Oprah for the first time with a $20M bequeathment at the time of his death to a variety of charities focused on education, the environment, health, human services, and more. Brad and Angelina came in second with gifts of over $13M — while Oprah was somewhere around $2.4M. Quite the jump from 2008 to 2009!

According to its web site, The Giving Back Fund is a national charitable organization that supports philanthropic causes and philanthropists, including those in the entertainment industries. It uses tax and media information along with conversations with celeb representatives for its list.

It said that more than $79 million dollars were donated by celebrities for various causes in the nation.

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She’s holding out on us. Has to be. What savvy businesswoman would up and quit a money-making operation?

Unless…

Unless the savvy businesswoman stumbled onto a potentially bigger money-making operation. With a potentially bigger star than her own Oprah self.

Would we dare suggest Oprah’s departure from Oprah has nothing to do with literary metaphors (closing a chapter, writing a new story, blah blah blah), and everything to do with none other than Sarah Palin? Oh, yes, we would.

Now, we’d like to note we cannot take full credit for our latest crackpot idea.

On Friday, we were minding our own business, digesting Oprah’s exit announcement and mourning the fact that, given likely high ticket demand for her final shows, we’d probably never sit in her audience when she gives out airplanes and stuff.

Then an associate drew our attention to an exchange on NPR in which commentators David Brooks and E.J. Dionne “joked” Oprah was getting out of the Oprah business—and into the Sarah Palin business.

Dionne noted how Palin’s appearance on Oprah had goosed the talk show’s ratings. Chimed in Brooks: “Oprah is giving her [Palin] a show—that was the secret conspiracy. She is retiring. Sarah will take over.”

Much laughter, according to the transcript, ensued.

Funny, we’re not chortling along.

We don’t know if the NPR guys accidentally nailed it, or if they were working with inside information, but we know what we think: They’re right.

Look, one day we see Palin sitting on Oprah’s stage. The next, we learn Palin helped Oprah to her best Nielsens since she hosted an Osmond family reunion in 2007. The next day or so after that, we watch Oprah say, thanks, gotta go.

Where we come from (a neighborhood west of the Bermuda Triangle and north of the Grassy Knoll), this sequence of events is as coincidental as Oprah booking Palin during November sweeps, Palin releasing a book in time for holiday shopping season, and John McCain holding his tongue with duct tape and whatever other adhesive materials he can get his hands on.

Think about it. People love to talk about Palin’s star power; Oprah sat right across from it. She knows the woman can deliver—bigger than the Osmonds! All of them! She knows the woman has a life and lifestyle that speak to the daytime viewer—motherhood! Teen pregnancy! Glasses! And she knows the woman can talk in completerish sentences than Katie Couric would lead you to believe.

If Oprah’s bones are telling her it’s time to leave her talk show, then we suggest her mouth’s telling her staff to get the former governor of Alaska on the phone—pronto!

Think about it. Oprah gets to move behind the camera, where 10 pounds are not added. She gets to attach her star to Palin’s rising one. And given the fact that Palin’s only 45 (a decade younger than Oprah), she gets to rule daytime TV for another 25 years.

As an added bonus, an Oprah-produced Palin show would keep Palin too busy to run against Oprah-endorsed Barack Obama in 2012.

Oh, we feel it in our bones! This time, we’re right!

Then again…

The Oprah’s-leaving-Oprah story was around weeks before the Palin episode ran—and rated high—last week.

Our bones just got that achy feeling again.

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Keifer Bonvillain, who had the charges dismissed, seeks damages of $180 million from Winfrey, her attorney and the FBI in the federal lawsuit filed Tuesday.

Bonvillain, of Houma, La., was arrested in December 2006 after he allegedly recorded telephone conversations with an employee of Winfrey’s production company and told a company associate he wanted to publish a book based on the recordings. The FBI said he claimed to have offers from publishers and tabloids ranging from $500,000 to $3 million.
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Trouble in the family for Oprah Winfrey!  Seems Daddy is coming out with a tell all book about his daughter!…

Apparently Miss.O didn’t know about it!…

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Parents are upset that their daughters, handpicked to receive a world-class private education financed by billionaire Oprah Winfrey, are being treated more like juvenile delinquents than promising young students.Students at Oprah’s South African school for girls are only allowed to call their parents on the weekends, and all calls are strictly prohibited during the week. What’s more, parents can only visit once a month for a mere two hours! The visits have to be approved at least two weeks in advance by school officials, and only four people can come at a time.

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What’s a bit of sofa-jumping between friends, eh? After being dumped for behaving a bit odd, Tom Cruise has now been welcomed back into the Paramount film fold. Viacom boss Sumner Redstone, who heads up the Paramount film studios, severed ties with the Mission Impossible star six months ago. Tom’s sacking came about after his rather bizarre television declaration of love for Katie Holmes, which involved some pretty energetic leaping about on Oprah Winfrey’s sofa. Concerns about Tom’s outspoken beliefs about childbirth and post-natal depression also led to the falling out with Paramount. However, Sumner says he is ready to forgive and forget. “We had to do the best thing for Viacom. The company was disturbed by Tom’s then behaviour which has now changed,” Sumner said of the spat. “I would probably work with Tom in the future but not immediately.”

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