Oprah Winfrey settled a defamation lawsuit filed by a headmistress she accused of performing poorly at her South African girls school, where some students claimed they were abused, lawyers said.

Grande dame of Oscars night curtain-raiser bows out after three decades

How do you solve a problem like selling seven million books? Elizabeth Gilbert's Eat, Pray, Love was the story of one thirtysomething's bitter divorce. Gilbert spent a year rebuilding herself after her marital fall-out and this construction project became a monster hit. Championed by Oprah Winfrey, bought by millions, being turned into a movie, Eat, Pray, Love was a highly personal account of a year of soul-searching that went public in a spectacular way. Gilbert's follow-up, Committed, starts with an aside about the difficulty of writing anything when you know that so many people are waiting to read your work. So tricky does she find it that she pulped the first draft.

The troubles of its central character are laid on with a trowel in a film that's part social tract, part dramatised talk-show therapy

Very hard times in Harlem

Morbidly obese, illiterate, abused physically and emotionally by her parents – and adored by white critics... Why controversial new movie 'Precious' has African-Americans in turmoil

The Week In Books

After seven decades of making dreams come true, Hollywood's finest animation studio finally decided to create its first African-American princess. And that's when the trouble started. Guy Adams reports

She may be leaving her show, but the queen of daytime TV has grand plans to expand her broadcasting empire. David Usborne reports

Oprah Winfrey, the reigning monarch of daytime chat and occasional champion of presidents and authors, is to announce on her television show today that after nearly a quarter of a century of syndication success she is preparing to quit her show for good the year after next.

A woman who was attacked by a 200-pound chimpanzee revealed her heavily disfigured face on television last night, saying she is blind and has to eat through a straw, but isn't angry.

Oprah Winfrey has had pretty good luck in litigation during her career. Back in 1998 she won a Texas defamation case brought by cattlemen who weren't thrilled when she said she'd sworn off burgers on a show about mad cow disease.

The host city is chosen today – with the Brazilians tipped to snatch victory. James Corrigan reports on a hot competition

Spike Lee was on typically rambunctious form at The Independent Interview on Monday at London's BFI. In a wide-ranging discussion, guided gently and not always successfully by David Lammy, MP, the director covered everything from the release of Do the Right Thing 20 years ago and the racism of critics, to how Barack Obama is coping with a post-election onslaught from "redneck crackers" ("The euphoria of him winning has gone. He's under attack"), and the changing face of cinema, where funding is scarce. "Unless you're Spielberg, Lucas or Tyler Perry, it's hard to get a film made." Nevertheless, the single-minded director (he demands final cut on all of his movies) revealed that he had turned down big-budget directing jobs in the aftermath of his most successful film, Inside Man. "Every available bank-heist movie that had been lying around was dusted off and sent to me".