Best-selling author Jennifer Weiner’s embarrassing Oprah rant

ONE simple recommendation from Oprah Winfrey can turn a book into a bestseller — and this hugely popular author is angry she’s apparently been snubbed.

BEST-SELLING writer Jennifer Weiner has posted a series of embarrassing rants online after what she claims is a snub by Oprah Winfrey.

Weiner is an author of more than a dozen books, the best known being 2002’s In Her Shoes, which was made into a film starring Cameron Diaz and Toni Collette.

Her most recent, Hungry Heart, is a collection of personal essays — and Weiner says she expected it to be chosen for Oprah’s famous Book Club.

One author can’t believe Oprah didn’t pick her for her book club. Picture: AP Photo/Harpo Productions, George Burns

Oprah had in fact chosen a similarly themed book for her latest Book Club instalment, the memoir Love Warrior by Glennon Doyle Melton.

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“I find out that Oprah’s chosen a memoir about marriage and motherhood as her new book pick. ‘It’s funny!’ (OhmyGod). ‘It’s frank!’ (OHMYGOD). ‘It’s brave, and it goes to the dark places every woman’s been!’ (OHMYGODOHMYGODOHMYGOD) ... And then — ha! — it’s someone else’s book,” Weiner wrote in a since-deleted public post to her 137,000 Facebook fans.

Weiner said she’s proud that her success came because she “connected with readers,” not because some “talk-show host anointed me” — then suggests that Winfrey hadn’t chosen her book because she wasn’t blonde or thin.

Author Jennifer Weiner says she wasn’t blonde or thin enough for Oprah’s tastes.

“I am not going to lie and tell you that I haven’t been really sad about this ... or that there isn’t a voice in my head (a small, sad voice) that sees a slim, blond, traditionally attractive woman getting something great and thinks, Oh, well, of course. Of course that’s why. Nobody wants someone who looks like you in their magazine or on their TV show. It’s crazy and untrue and I’d never let a friend talk to herself that way ... but there it is.”

The online rant was actually take two for Weiner, who opened by explaining that she’d deleted an earlier “petty and unkind” post about Oprah (seems she deleted it very quickly, as no screen shots have surfaced).

Oprah’s Book Club started life in 1996, with the talk-show queen choosing a new book each month for her legions of fans to read along with her. The new version of Oprah’s Book Club is a joint project between Winfrey’s OWN Network and O Magazine and still all-but-guarantees widespread exposure and a hefty sales spike for the authors she selects.

Weiner’s best-known book, In Her Shoes.

Originally published as Best-selling author Jennifer Weiner’s embarrassing Oprah rant