Posted on 09/13/2004 10:47:00 AM PDT by Feiny
Chat show queen Oprah Winfrey celebrated the opening of her 19th season on US TV today by surprising each of her 276 audience members with a new car.
We’re calling this our wildest dream season, because this year on the Oprah show, no dream is too wild, no surprise too impossible to pull off,” Winfrey said.
Making sure the audience was kept in suspense, Winfrey opened the show by calling 11 audience members onto the stage. She gave each of them a car – a Pontiac G6.
She then had gift boxes distributed to the rest of the audience and said one of the boxes contained keys to a twelfth car. But when the audience members opened the boxes, each had a set of keys.
“Everybody gets a car! Everybody gets a car! Everybody gets a car!” Winfrey yelled as she jumped up and down on the stage.
The audience members screamed, cried and hugged each other – then followed Winfrey out to the car parking of her Harpo Studios in Chicago to see their Pontiacs, all decorated with giant red bows.
The cars, which retail for £15,500, were donated by Pontiac.
“A little idea grew into a big idea,” said Mary Henige of Pontiac
Winfrey said the audience members were chosen because their friends or family had written to the show about their need for a new car. One woman’s young son said she drove a car that “looks like she got into a gunfight” another couple had almost 400,000 miles on their two vehicles.
In other segments on the show, Winfrey surprised a 20-year-old girl who had spent years in foster care and homeless shelters with a four-year college scholarship, a makeover and £6,000 in clothes. And a family with eight foster children who were going to be kicked out of their house were given £72,000 to buy and repair the home.
The Oprah Winfrey Show is syndicated to 212 domestic markets and 109 countries.
How can I get tickets for her 20th aniversary show?
She gave away someone else's assets. Reminds me of the definition of a liberal vs. a conservative: A lib and a conservative are walking down the street together and see a homeless man begging on the corner. The conservative reaches into his pocket, gives the guy 5 bucks and directs him to the nearest employment office. The liberal reaches into the conservative's pocket, gives the guy 5 bucks and directs him to the nearest welfare office.
LOL
I agree, she is a very classy lady and I could care or less about if she got these cars donated or paid for them out of her pocket, it's the idea behind it all that really counts. These were given to people who had friends and/or family write in to the Oprah Show to let her know that they really needed a reliable car. I would have tried to to the same thing if I were in her shoes, but I'm not that classy.....
The cars, which retail for £15,500, were donated by Pontiac.
Yes, it is really generous of her to give away stuff she didn't have to pay for. < /sarcasm>
I find it creepy the way she showcases her generosity. Mrs TC and I argue about this a lot.
Flame away!
Bill Gates is pouring millions into a campaign here in California which will cost taxpayers billions. He thinks the state govt. should pay for stem cell research over the next decade. Gates and some other billionaire are funding the legislation that will bankrupt the state.
The real story is in the brilliant advertising idea this was for Pontiac. It was much better than a commercial, and everyone is now drooling over both their product and their spirit of generosity. Brilliant marketing! That's all.
If a Republican did this, the headline would be Republican Contributes to Global Warming.
The cars retail for $21,300. That's about 5.8M for the cars alone. GM probably spends more than that advertising on Oprah, so it was probably a good tradeoff for them to get free publicity and give away all those cars.
True charity is done without expectation of thanks or recognition.
And they have to pay taxes on them.
Queen for a Day Is BACK!
Ha! Your screen name says it all.
I JUST FOUND ANOTHER ARTICLE WHICH SAYS:
She added that Pontiac will pay for the taxes and the customizing of the cars.
"Big deal. She's a BILLIONARE for pete's sake!"
I see a Kerry in her future.
"I wonder how many of the recepients realize that they now owe the Feds $4000 to $5000 in additional taxes"
Hopefully none of them. The idea that recipients of gifts owe taxes on the gifts is a complete myth. From the IRS Web Site http://www.usembassy.org.uk/irs/irsfaq.htm:
What is the maximum gift I can give without incurring a liability for gift tax?
Generally, a U.S. citizen or resident may give any one person up to $11,000 in any year, with no limit on the number of persons. There is no requirement for the recipients to be related to the donor. If you give anyone more than $11,000 in cash or property in any one year, you must file a gift tax return, IRS Form 709. See IRS Publication 950 for more information.
A recipient of a gift does not incur a tax liability on the gift itself. However, if the recipient invests the gift, any subsequent earnings on that investment are subject to tax.
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