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The Honolulu Advertiser
Posted on: Thursday, September 24, 2009

Oprah joins Chicago Olympics effort


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Hawaii news photo - The Honolulu Advertiser

Oprah Winfrey

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Hawaii news photo - The Honolulu Advertiser

John Travolta

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CHICAGO — Oprah Winfrey's trying to land another big get.

The talk-show queen will travel to Denmark next week to lobby International Olympic Committee members to award the 2016 Games to her beloved city.

The IOC will choose a host city Oct. 2, and Chicago is in a tight contest with Madrid, Rio de Janeiro and Tokyo.

Winfrey's addition adds some serious star power to what was already an impressive delegation. First lady Michelle Obama will lead the group and be joined by 14 Olympic and two Paralympic gold medalists, including Michael Johnson, Nadia Comaneci, Jackie Joyner-Kersee and Nastia Liukin. Ten other Olympians and Paralympians also are going.

TRAVOLTA DETAILS ATTEMPTS TO SAVE SON

NASSAU, Bahamas — John Travolta said yesterday he tried desperately to save the life of his seizure-prone son and made perhaps his first public description of the boy as autistic as he testified in the trial of two people accused of trying to blackmail him.

With his wife, Kelly Preston, looking on inside the Nassau courtroom, Travolta said that he performed CPR on his son after a nanny alerted him the teen had fallen ill at a family vacation home on Grand Bahama island. Jett Travolta later died from a seizure.

Travolta is the star witness at the trial of two people — paramedic Tarino Lightbourne and former Bahamian Sen. Pleasant Bridgewater — who are accused of trying to extort $25 million from the movie star. Both defendants have pleaded innocent to the charges.

PHILLIPS' BOOK REVEALS AFFAIR WITH FATHER

CHICAGO — Former child star Mackenzie Phillips said yesterday that she had a decadelong sexual relationship with her father, pop superstar John Phillips, who also taught her how to roll joints and injected her with cocaine.

Mackenzie Phillips, 49, writes in her new book, "High on Arrival," that she had sex with her father on the night before she was to get married in 1979 at age 19.

Phillips wrote in her book: "I woke up that night from a blackout to find myself having sex with my own father." John Phillips, who died in 2001, was the leader of the 1960s group the Mamas and the Papas.

Phillips, 49, who starred on TV's "One Day at a Time," said the sexual relationship ended when she became pregnant and didn't know who had fathered the child. She had an abortion, which her father paid for, "and I never let him touch me again."

WAYNE NEWTON HEADS BACK TO VEGAS

LAS VEGAS — Singer Wayne Newton plans to come back to the Las Vegas Strip to celebrate a 50-year career.

Officials for the Tropicana Las Vegas hotel-casino said yesterday that the 67-year-old "Danke Schoen" crooner plans to start a limited run next month.

The show, titled "Once Before I Go," is billed as a look back at Newton's career and life story.