Oprah...

So. . .

My good friend got tickets to Oprah. AND!... she invited me and 2 other friends to go with her. Usually you don't know what the topic is going to be for a show, but last week, my friend got a call from Harpo studios telling her that Kate Winslet was going to be on the show and we were "invited" to watch her 2 movies on Monday night compliments of Oprah. Pretty exciting. :) Her two movies were Revolutionary Road and The Reader. So, Monday night we drove downtown and watched these 2 movies back to back with a dinner in between...

I have to say the movies were my least favorite part of the experience.

Revolutionary Road was at least interesting to ponder and discuss, though my first comment after seeing it was "why does someone make a movie like that?" It draws you in and you can relate in various ways to different characters, but then sort of end up wishing you didn't relate to them. It was very emotionally intense. . .

The Reader was pretty bad. Well, let me clarify, it was really well done, but the story was one I could have lived without. It starts out for the first 30 minutes of the movie building up this love affair of a 30 year old with this 15 year old boy she calls "kid". Off air the air, Oprah asked the audience if she was the only one who thought it was sexually explicit. It was too much and just wrong. Some stories are better left un-cinemized.

That's my 2 cents.

Since there was a BLIZZARD watch for that night, we decided at the last minute to stay downtown rather than drive home at 11pm then back at 5am. Ironically, there was hardly ANY snow, but the hotel stay was an awesome get away, and a fun girls night out. We stayed up late talking girl talk and enjoying each other's company. I haven't been away from the kids overnight for this type of thing, well, ever!! It was definetly fun. The hardest part of it all was waking up the next morning to get over to the studio, but we all managed to get up showered and looking our best for Oprah.

The show was being taped live, so it moved pretty quick. Kate Winslet was the first guest... so it was fun to hear her opinions about the movies. Leonardo DiCaprio was "live via Skype". Not nearly as exciting as in person. By far. All though it was somewhat entertaining to watch him waiting for the interview to start. Maybe it was just me. Anyway, there was another few guests via skype, then it was over. Oprah answered some questions after the taping was done, which was very interesting... They even gave us a copy of the book "The Reader" to take home. I'm sure I'll never read it, but the gesture was nice. ha!

So, that was my first experience with Oprah, and my first girls night out getaway. It was a blast. :)