A bedridden Oprah Winfrey took to Twitter to quell reports that she is planning to host a live show in Cairo’s Tahrir Square, the epicentre of a revolution that ousted Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak.
“In bed with flu since Oscar show. Hearing reports that I’m taking show to Cairo. NOT TRUE. Have no plans to do so,” the talk show queen tweeted.
Egypt’s new tourism minister, Munir Fakhri Abdelnur, was quoted by the state-owned Al-Ahram newspaper as saying Winfrey had accepted an invitation “without hesitation”.
“The plan is for her to broadcast a live show from Tahrir Square on a Friday in March, but the date has not been finalised,” the mass-circulation paper said.
It was part of a campaign to revive tourism in Egypt after the huge uprising that forced Mubarak to resign on February 11 after 30 years in power, the paper said.
A spokeswoman for Oprah’s Harpo Studios also denied the report.
“There are no plans for Ms Winfrey or the show to broadcast from an international location before the program’s finale in May,” Angela DePaul said in an emailed statement.
In December, Winfrey made her first tapings outside North America, recording a series of episodes in Australia culminating in a finale at the specially renamed Sydney Oprah House.
Winfrey launched the OWN cable network, aired in 145 countries around the world, in January as she winds down the 25th and final season of the popular Oprah Winfrey Show on ABC America.