Hollywood’s top celebrities joined Oprah Winfrey on Tuesday to bid the TV queen a star-studded farewell in a double-taping of her talk show ‘Oprah Winfrey Show’.
Madonna, Beyonce, Halle Berry, Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes were among the A-list stars who were present along with 13,000 audience at the taping of the talk show of the TV queen’s third and second-to-last episodes at the United Center in Chicago.
Videos of viewers talking about how their lives had been positively impacted by the talk show that’s lasted 25 years was screened at the event.
“You are surrounded by nothing but love,” Tom Hanks, who acted as master of ceremonies, told Winfrey before introducing the video.
“Having fun?” So am I! So darn cool!” People mage quoted Winfrey as asking the spectators at the show.
“I feel the love, and I thank you for it,” she said. She added that the viewers present and around the world ‘honoured her in the deepest way possible’.
“They have literally risen up to change the world,” Berry said about Winfrey’s viewers. “The essence of The Oprah Winfrey Show is that we’re all more alike than we are different,” she said.
Tom Cruise who made a grand entrance on the stage by walking out to the theme music from Mission Impossible, quoted Glinda the Good Witch of the South from The Wizard of Oz and said: “You always had the power [to change lives], and that is the lesson you brought.”
While His wife Katie Holmes thanked the TV queen’s for her viewers donation of more than 12 million pounds to Women for Women, which helps female survivors of war.
“Oprah we love you, we thank you,” she said to Winfrey.
Madonna appeared to be the least sensitive one at the ceremony. “A lot of people are inspired by Oprah. I am one of those people, she has balls and a wealth of compassion, and I have learned so much from her,” the singer said.
However, the end of the show does not mean the end of her positive impact. John Legend said that 25 new libraries would be built across the U.S. in Winfrey’s honor, and Diane Sawyer took the stage to say that 25,000 oak trees will be planted across the country “to remind everyone to live their best lives.”
The night also saw a series of live performances by some of Winfrey’s favorite musicians. Beyonce while introducing her new single, ‘Run the World (Girls)’, told Winfrey, “Because of you, women everywhere have graduated to a new level of understanding of who we are, of what we are and most of all, who we can be.”
Josh Groban and Patti LaBelle also sang to Winfrey, continuing the Wizard of Oz theme with a heartfelt performance of ‘Over the Rainbow’.