OPRAH TAPS CELEBRITY PALS FOR DOCUMENTARY SERIES
JULIA ROBERTS, FOREST WHITAKER and GOLDIE HAWN have signed TV deals with media queen OPRAH WINFREY to develop documentaries for the mogul’s new U.
S. network.
The trio, along with American actress Mariel Hemingway and Irish actor Gabriel Byrne, will produce documentaries for Winfrey’s new OWN TV networ k, set to launch next year (11).
The shows will be part of a monthly Documentary Film Club.
Roberts will present and executive-produce Extraordinary Moms, a film l ooking at the power of mothers who have fought to make their kids - and t he world - better, while Whitaker will produce and narrate One Last Shot, a film that goes inside Louisiana’s Angola prison.
Hawn will produce, host and narrate Searching for Happiness, a document ary that will focus on positive psychology; Byrne will look at homelessne ss in Nashville, Tennessee with the film Tent City, and Hemingway will ex plore the legacy of suicide in her own family in the film Seven Suicides, reports Variety.
A spokesperson for OWN says, "All of these documentaries fundamentally explore human interaction, relationships and emotions. We’re excited to p rovide viewers with new perspectives and new ways of looking at core them es that shape and affect their lives." The group joins a growing number of A-list celebrities to work with the Oprah Winfrey Network.
Country music singer Shania Twain will star in Why Not? With Shania Twa in, which will follow her life on the rebound after a messy public divorc e, while Jenny McCarthy has reportedly landed a deal for her own talk sho w.
Over the weekend (ends25Jul10), executives also acknowledged that forme r British royal Sarah Ferguson, Duchess of York, was in talks for an OWN "docu-series".
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