I’ve received a number of emails asking why I wasn’t on the Oprah Show that featured other talk show hosts including Montel Williams and Ricki Lake. To put it simply, I was not invited. I guess she was not a fan. Oprah tapes her show in Chicago and in 1990, when I came to town with my show, I never felt welcome there. From the very beginning, the local press was brutal, calling me a prima donna, saying I demanded limos everywhere when in fact I rode my bike to work, or drove my Saturn. Chicago Magazine blindsided me with a scathing article titled “Talking Trash” about what a horrible person I was and to this day I don’t know why. I even contacted the editor and invited him to lunch, asking that he invite the reporter who wrote the lies in the hopes that once they met me, things would change.  The reporter had a previous engagement.  The press was so brutal, I even drove to the Sun-Times to ask their most vicious columnist, Bob Feder, face-to-face why he was doing this to me. His answer was, “You came to my city and I can write whatever I choose.”

It didn’t end when I left. I recently did a phone interview with a Chicago radio station looking for people who needed money from Jenny’s Heroes and this is what they posted on their website: “A lot of people will remember the Jenny Jones show for an episode that never aired — the one about same-sex crushes; The show that led to one guest killing another. A court found the Jenny Jones Show not liable for the safety of its guests. The show nosedived afterwards. That said, Jenny Jones is giving away $2 million, in relatively small increments, to people she calls “Jenny’s Heroes.” It seemed that even after I left, the local media still hated me.

I met Oprah once at a prime time special taping for Phil Donahue, in fact we shared the same elevator, and I spoke to her, trying to get her up to speed since she missed rehearsal, but she just ignored me and stared straight ahead. I still don’t know why. It can’t be that my show was bad because she has hired several of my former staff members, including my executive assistant. I was never going to write about this but once I started this post, I couldn’t stop.  I suppose I needed to vent and I’m sorry to be so negative.  The truth is it’s painful to be vilified the way I was (and still am) by a city I grew to love and called my second home. So the Oprah snub is just one more rejection. Life goes on.

Part Two: I was just told that Entertainment Weekly’s Popwatch posted this poll of who was missing from the Oprah photo.  But who’s missing from the list?  It sucks to not matter. Writer Kerrie Mitchell must be from Chicago.

Hair wasn’t the only thing that was big in the 80s – so were earrings!  The bigger and brighter the better. And I had some of the best and biggest, in fact some were so big & heavy they had to be clip-ons to provide ballast and stability. But they also had history: I wore one of them on my first date with Denis, one when I presented on the People’s Choice Awards, and another pair on Star Search, so I found a way I could enjoy them every day. I went to a craft store and bought a cardboard heart and some glue and I made this recycled art to hang on my wall. It’s full of sparkle and color but mostly beautiful memories.

I found another old Jenny Jones Show video from 1996 and it was one of my favorite shows to do. Check out “Totally Useless Talent” but be prepared to be grossed out! You’ll see a couple of things you actually could try at home, some things you’d be stupid to try at home, and some that are a complete waste of time 🙂 … but still pretty funny.  Here’s the link: http://www.jennyjones.com/bt_video_highlights.shtml

Oh, and I went to Target last night and bought three shirts, two pairs of pants and two sweaters.  My new fall wardrobe for $150 bucks!

Thanksgiving is less than two weeks away so I’m sharing my recipe for fresh cranberries. Comparing fresh cooked cranberries to the canned stuff is like comparing Spago to DerWienerschnitzel. No comparison.  None. They may seem very “fru-fru” but fresh cranberries are super easy to make (5 minutes), and you can cook them days before turkey day. Cranberries have more antioxidants than broccoli and they have a fantastic sweet/tart taste. Try it. It’s fun too – they pop while you cook ’em!

My father was a veteran and I remember when my sister and I were growing up, he used to tell us stories about the war and his time in a Russian prison camp, and I never really understood how much he gave up.  To be honest, I used to roll my eyes, thinking, “Here we go again.” But I was just a kid. Today, I’d give anything to hear those stories again – and to tell my dad how proud I am of his service to his country.  My stepmon’s husband was also a veteran, may he rest in peace. This is our day to honor and respect all of our veterans for the sacrifices they have made for their country.

“As we express our gratitude, we must never forget that the highest appreciation is not to utter words, but to live by them.” – John Fitzgerald Kennedy

While in Vegas, Denis and I stayed at one of the nice hotels there and everything seemed normal. Normal usually means I can’t wait to leave. I want my own bed, my own sheets, my kitchen, my good bathroom lights, a better TV, and air that doesn’t smell like a hotel room. Sometimes, it’s the smallest thing that can ruin a hotel stay. Like a hair. One teensy-weensy hair (that’s not mine) in the bathtub and I want to call the health department. I think we know the smaller the hair, the more likely it came from somewhere you’d rather not think about, on someone you’d rather not know. So I showered instead and got a full body exfoliation afterwards… oh wait… that was the bath towel. It turns out that the people who make industrial grade sandpaper also make hotel sheets and towels!

Oh, I almost forgot: Damon posted a good video of American Idol’s David Archuleta performing on the JJ show when he was just eleven years old and I interviewed him briefly afterwards. We also just added a video from my show that featured some of the biggest hits of the 80s including… “That’s the way, uh-huh, uh-huh….” Remember?

My favorite makeovers over the years were not necessarily women – it was biker guys. The results were always so dramatic after all the hair was gone.

We just posted a new video of one of those great makeovers and it also includes some biker chics! It’s under Talk Show Video Highlights. Enjoy.

http://www.jennyjones.com/bt_video_highlights.shtml

How amazing to see these 33 miners brought back to life.

 I cried every time one more came back. 

One survivor said there were actually 34 down there —

— God was with them, too.  

This is a day to remember.

Gary Coleman died earlier this year at the age of 42. I remembered that he had appeared on my show and and I’ve been looking for months for the video.  I finally found it and we posted it today on the site.  You’ll see that the interview was kind of strange – he seemed guarded and frankly, not very happy.  He was 30 years old at the time and seemed to want to separate from the role that made him a superstar in the 70s and 80s. He played Arnold on “Diff’rent Strokes” from the time he was 10 until the age of 18.   His life was plagued with health problems, primarily his kidneys.  How sad that he died so young but his work will bring laughter to generations to come.

http://www.jennyjones.com/bt_video_highlights.shtml