• April 29, 1991
• Vol. 35
• No. 16

He Sure Looks Like Oprah!

A Michigan Man Is the Upset Winner of the Oprah Winfrey Look-Alike Contest

TRANSVESTITE CELEBRITY LOOKALIKES! How's that for a hot topic [or Donahue...or Geraldo...or the [CELEBRITY_LINK "Oprah"] Winfrey Show? Hey, [CELEBRITY_LINK "Oprah"]! [CELEBRITY_LINK "Oprah"]! Wait, that's not [CELEBRITY_LINK "Oprah"]. That's Jecquin Stitt, 32, a clerk at the Flint (Mich.) Water Department, winner of the [CELEBRITY_LINK "Oprah"] segment of a Ladies' Home Journal celebrity look-alike contest, who just so happens to be...a guy. [P] The Journal neglected to insert a gender-specific clause in the contest rules, and the result was that Jecquin, who sent in his photo at the prodding of friends, was selected from among 4,000 contestants and won a trip to Chicago to appear on a forthcoming [CELEBRITY_LINK "Oprah"] segment. Soon Stitt was being interviewed (as a woman) at his office by reporter John Robbins from Flint TV station WJRT and expounding on his plans for his face-off with Winfrey: "I'm gonna look at her and say, 'Girlfriend, I'm so tired of people telling me I look like you.' " [P] But viewers who knew Stitt soon began calling the reporter. Abashed, Robbins confronted the clerk, who runs a female-impersonator production company on the side. Stitt explained that he's "going through some changes"—specifically, Robbins says, a sex-change procedure—and insisted, "I didn't tell you a lie." [P] Contest officials say that Stitt remains the winner because, as Journal editor-in-chief Myrna Blyth puts it. " 'We don't believe in sexual discrimination." And it seems, of all the entrants, Jecquin was the only really grand [CELEBRITY_LINK "Oprah"]. Winfrey—whose other oddly famous out-of-body experience occurred in 1989 when TV Guide ran a cover illustration of her using her head atop Ann-Margret's body—is, says Blyth, comfortable with her male-order double and thinks his appearance on the show, scheduled to be aired on May 3, will just make it livelier. [P] Stitt, meanwhile, is in seclusion. What a drag! [P]