"I'm not a lesbian" says tearful Oprah Winfrey

LOS ANGELES | Wed Dec 8, 2010 2:06pm EST

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - A tearful Oprah Winfrey has denied she is a lesbian, saying that constant rumors about her close relationship with a female friend were irritating "because it means that somebody must think I am lying."

The influential TV talk host addressed the nature of her 20-year relationship with Gayle King in an emotional interview with journalist Barbara Walters that will be broadcast on ABC television on Thursday.

"She is the mother I never had. She is the sister everybody would want. She is the friend that everybody deserves. I don't know a better person," Winfrey said of King, fighting back tears.

"It's making me cry because I'm thinking about how much I probably have never told her that. Tissue please," she added.

King and Winfrey, 56, met while working at a local Baltimore TV station in the 1980s and have been inseparable professionally and personally, sparking much media speculation that they are gay.

"I'm not a lesbian. I'm not even kind of a lesbian," Winfrey told Walters, in an excerpt of the interview released on Wednesday. "And the reason why it irritates me is because it means that somebody must think I'm lying. That's number one. Number two...why would you want to hide it? That is not the way I run my life."

Winfrey, whose daily TV chat show is watched by millions in the United States and 145 other countries, also has a more than 20-year, low-profile relationship with businessman Graham Stedman.

Walters said on Wednesday that the couple share a house together and that Winfrey speaks of that relationship in the hour-long interview.

Winfrey is launching a new cable TV network, OWN, in January in a joint venture with Discovery Communications. She will end her ABC TV talk show in May 2011 after 25 years.

(Reporting by Jill Serjeant; Editing by Bob Tourtellotte)

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Iranian movie on U.S. in Iraq entered for Oscars

By Mitra Amiri

TEHRAN | Wed Dec 8, 2010 10:36am EST

TEHRAN (Reuters) - A movie depicting a nervous U.S. soldier accidentally shooting a little girl during a night raid on her home in Iraq might not be every American's idea of a possible Oscar winner.

The fact that it was written and directed by an Iranian makes "Farewell Baghdad," the gritty story of Americans in Iraq, even more controversial.

Despite, or perhaps because of that, it is Iran's official entry for the 2011 Academy Awards, something its 37-year-old director says is the subject of "misunderstanding."

"There are people who think I have been paid a lot of money to make this movie for the Iranian government. It's clear to me that those people have not watched the film," Mehdi Naderi said.

Far from being state propaganda, Naderi says his film, which explores the motivation and doubts of both U.S. soldiers and Iraqi insurgents, was made in the face of unhelpful pressure from the authorities and on a shoestring budget.

"The budget for Farewell Bagdad can be compared to what Sean Penn spends on his cigarettes or what Nicole Kidman spends for a small part of her make-up," he told Reuters in an interview in a Tehran coffee shop.

The movie follows Polish-American Daniel, a failed boxer who signs up to the army and finds himself on tense foot patrols in Iraq. After a comrade accidentally shoots a little girl in her home, both men leave their base and take off into the desert.

Daniel's life is eventually saved by Saleh, a would-be suicide bomber who hates Americans but reluctantly feels compelled to help another lost soul.

SOFT WAR

Given Iran's 30-year enmity with the United States, which is often referred to as the "Great Satan," a movie from here about Washington's long and painful engagement in neighboring Iraq might be assumed to portray Americans as the villains, oppressing a fellow Muslim nation.

But Farewell Bagdad does not paint a simplistic picture of Americans as the bad guys. Daniel is shown as a regular guy struggling to come to terms with the violent, alien environment in which he finds himself.

"I don't want my film to be seen as a tool of soft war against the West," Naderi said, urging viewers to look beyond the politics and see the human story where both sides, Iraqis and Americans, can learn to be friends, even in extreme circumstances.

Filmmaking is a tricky business in Iran where the government keeps a close eye on political content and checks to ensure Islamic norms, such as women's dress code, are respected.

The state has increased its pressure on filmmakers since last year's disputed presidential election which was followed by the biggest street protests since the 1979 revolution which ushered in the world's first Islamic Republic.

"It took six years to get the permission to make this film and we changed the script about 18 times to satisfy officials," Naderi said. "I want to show how an Iranian filmmaker can make a movie without any financial support in less than two months from a country with lots of rules and censorships."

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Magazine publishes Lennon's last print interview

LONDON | Wed Dec 8, 2010 6:33am EST

LONDON (Reuters) - Rolling Stone magazine is publishing an interview with John Lennon, conducted three days before the former Beatle was gunned down in New York, in full for the first time.

The magazine said the nine-hour discussion with Jonathan Cott was the singer/songwriter's final print interview. Lennon was murdered outside his apartment on December 8, 1980, aged 40.

Rolling Stone ran excerpts from the interview shortly after Lennon's death, but Cott never transcribed all of the tapes until recently.

"Earlier this year I was cleaning up to find some files in the recesses of my closet when I came across two cassette tapes marked 'John Lennon, December 5th, 1980,'" Cott said.

"It had been 30 years since I listened to them, and when I put them on this totally alive, uplifting voice started speaking on this magical strip of magnetic tape."

In the interview, Lennon lashed out at fans and critics who went after him during his five-year break from music.

"What they want is dead heroes, like Sid Vicious and James Dean," he said. "I'm not interested in being a dead f------ hero ... so forget 'em, forget 'em."

He also spoke about the possibility of returning to touring.

"We just might do it," Lennon said.

"But there will be no smoke bombs, no lipstick, no flashing lights. It just has to be comfy. But we could have a laugh. We're born-again rockers, and we're starting over ... There's plenty of time, right? Plenty of time."

Yoko Ono, Lennon's wife who was with him when he was killed, also contributed to the Rolling Stones edition marking the 30th anniversary of Lennon's death.

The magazine hits newsstands on Friday.

(Reporting by Mike Collett-White, editing by Paul Casciato)

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