Oprah at Large

By Stephen M. Silverman

Wednesday September 30, 1998 12:00 AM EDT

Oprah Winfrey is all over the place today. Besides her regularly scheduled talk show, Oprah will launch her new magazine, named O, at an all-star gathering in New York this morning. (It hits newsstands nationwide on Wednesday.) The media mogul, 46, calls O, which is targeted at women in the 25 to 49 age group, "a personal-growth guide." Among the articles is an interview that Oprah conducted with Camille Cosby, who discusses the murder of her and husband Bill's son, Ennis. Bill Cosby, by the way, shared hosting honors with Oprah at the Essence Awards Friday night at Radio City Music Hall. (The ceremony will air May 25 on Fox.) Cosby teased Winfrey after he announced that her longtime beau, Steadman Graham, was in the audience. "Is that his real name?," Cos asked skeptically. "That sounds like something he probably told you at a club when he met you. 'Hey, I'm a steady man.' " Oprah cracked up.

In still more news of Oprah, the Chicago Tribune reports that employees of Winfrey's Chicago-based production company, Harpo, Inc., are forced to sign confidentiality agreements that prohibit them from talking or writing about her personal or business affairs -- ever. A former producer, Elizabeth Coady, legally challenged the confidentiality agreement as a First Amendment issue, but her objection was shot down by Illinois courts, said the Tribune. Coady had hoped to pen a memoir about her years with Oprah.