Script for presentation (13)

Script for presentation (13)

Oprah Winfrey Wins Honorary Oscar

Oprah Winfrey  will receive the prestigious Jean Hersholt

 Humanitarian Award on Saturday at the Academy of Motion

 Picture Arts and Sciences’ third annual Governors Awards.

When the announcement was made over the summer, some

 criticized the academy for choosing Winfrey to receive its

 Hersholt award, which is presented periodically to “an

 individual in the motion picture industry whose humanitarian

 efforts have brought credit to the industry. Critics said

 Winfrey belongs more to the world of TV than that

 of film.

“I understood it because I was equally surprised,” Winfrey

 said in a recent interview. “I was surprised because I am not 

known as an actress. I’ve done film and I love the films that

 I’ve done,” but she acknowledges that the list isn’t long.

Actor James Earl Jones and makeup artist Dick Smith will 

also be honored at Saturday’s ceremony at the Kodak 

Theatre, both receiving Oscars for their long and notable film

 careers.

Winfrey’s Hersholt award won’t be her first academy honor. 

She was nominated for a supporting actress Oscar for her

 role in 1985′s “The Color Purple.” She also produced and 

starred in the 1998 big-screen adaptation of Toni Morrison’s

 “Beloved” and 2009′s “Precious,” which won Oscars for 

supporting actress Mo’Nique and screenwriter Geoffrey

 Fletcher.

Winfrey has contributed more than $500 million from her

 personal coffers to charitable causes, academy president

 Tom Sherak said. She established her first charitable

 foundation a year after launching “The Oprah Winfrey Show”

 and has been a philanthropist ever since.

In 1998, she created Oprah’s Angel Network, which 

supported charitable projects and provided grants to

 nonprofit organizations worldwide. She funds scholarships

 for about 100 students in American universities, and in 2007

 she opened the Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy for

 Girls in South Africa.

Winfrey remains deeply involved with the school and its 

students, who call her “Mom Oprah.” She travels to South

 Africa at least four times a year to talk personally with the

 girls and takes calls in the middle of the night to discuss

 their progress and curricula.