Oprah Winfrey may be starting to crack from the pressure of launching her own cable network.
At a press conference last night in LA to talk up her new Oprah Winfrey Network, the talk-show queen shocked reporters with her aimless, long-winded answers and candid dismissal of criticism from jilted fans.
The always-in-control star teared up at times as she rambled on for more than 18 minutes about her deceased grandmother, Michael Jackson and even a trip to the gynecologist.
TV reporters were left scratching their heads wondering what had happened to the most powerful and polished woman in broadcasting as she turned against the very medium that made her a star.
“I am very much aware of the energy that television is transmitting all the time, which is why up until now I have never allowed it on in my house,” she said during the impromptu filibuster.
“Ten seconds ago, Oprah broke the record for the longest answer in . . . history — and she’s still going. Congrats!” tweeted the reporter from the Minneapolis Star-Tribune.
“Oprah Winfrey sure can talk,” the blogger from the Los Angeles Times wrote.
Winfrey has been notoriously press shy in recent years, giving interviews rarely and always in controlled situations.
She appeared somewhat out of sorts before a roomful of reporters for the first time in recent memory. “Being thrown to the wolves,” she called it when first taking the stage.
“Here is the thing about Oprah that the world is continuing to find out: it is not an act,” OWN CEO Christina Norman told The Post afterward.
“This experience [of starting the network] is emotional for all of us. She was genuinely moved. The most disarming thing we can share with you is the truth.”
And the truth, it seems, is that the woman who rooted her media empire in generosity is not moved by loyal fans unable or unwilling to pay for cable access to OWN.
“Some people are complaining that they have to spend more money,” she acknowledged. “And that is OK.
“You are not going to get everybody. But at this point in my life, I am not trying to get everybody. I am really not. I am really only trying to get the people who want to hear it and who want to see it. And if you don’t, I am not talking to you. And that is OK. Because there are a lot of people in the world.”
Winfrey, who launched her joint venture with Discovery Networks on Jan. 1 later told The Post:
“Cable is a different business, a different story. I was for free for 25 years on broadcast and I certainly have a great sense of reverence and gratitude to those people who made all of those years possible.
“But this is a different model and a different business. So just as I am moving on to a different model and business and I have to learn a different way of doing things.
“A great percentage of the country does have cable and I am hoping that in the future it will be available to everybody who wants it and they will be able to afford it.”