Madonna at Oprah’s Birthday Celebration
Oprah Winfrey celebrated the big 5-0 on Thursday with a birthday bash not to be believed on a special live edition of her TV show and ET is here to tell you that the tireless TV titan looks more glamorous than ever.
But it takes more than one party to mark such a milestone event, so Oprah’s birthday celebration continues all weekend at her beachfront estate in Montecito, CA. On ET, we’ll bring you all the latest plans for the blowout festivities, which continue Friday with a star-studded luncheon at the Bel Air hotel.
And it doesn’t stop there! The soiree continues Saturday with a glam black-tie event in the backyard of one of Oprah’s Montecito neighbors. Around 200 guests are expected to attend, including star pals such as ARNOLD SCHWARZENEGGER and wife MARIA SHRIVER, HALLE BERRY, MADONNA, JOHN TRAVOLTA, and more.
Capping off the three-day party is a Sunday brunch at the San Ysidro Ranch!
For those who missed it, Thursday’s birthday show featured superstar surprises and secrets the staff had been keeping from their fearless leader for weeks! “We banned her from her own building. We said, ‘Stay home you can’t come in,'” Executive Producer ELLEN RAKIETEN told ET.
As the crew readied the last-minute preps for her grand-scale bash, which had stars like Tina Turner and John Travolta flying in from around the world to take part in the event, the big challenge was keeping Oprah out of the loop: “Oprah is hard to keep a secret from, she’s been snooping around.”
But the birthday girl was more than pleasantly surprised when she was given a birthday toast from good friend Travolta, who was the first secret guest of the hour. Tina Turner actually flew in from Switzerland to sing Simply the Best to an awed Oprah. STEVIE WONDER also joined in the celebration, as he serenaded Oprah, who swayed in beau STEDMAN GRAHAM’s arms during the performance.
Other Hollywood pals like JENNIFER ANISTON, TOM HANKS, NICOLE KIDMAN, JENNIFER LOPEZ, and TOM CRUISE had special taped messages for Oprah.
In the October issue of O magazine, the dynamic now 50-year-old reflected on reaching the milestone: “I’m ready to claim this next decade for all it’s worth and take it to the max. I intend to stretch myself out and rock so hard with the 50s that by the time I’m through, everybody I know is going to wish they were 50-something, or at least 49 and waiting to be.”
The media goddess also says that with age comes a sense of freedom. “Gone are the days of living to please other people and making judgments about what others should be doing to please me. I’m free to rock.”
Source: ET