DOCUMENT: Crime

Oprah Seeks To Avoid 2008 Draft

Talk show host threatens legal action over fan's campaign

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Oprah Seeks To Avoid 2008 Draft

SEPTEMBER 19--If nominated, Oprah Winfrey will serve...a cease and desist letter. Lawyers for the talk show host are threatening legal action against a retired Kansas City teacher who has mounted a one-man campaign urging the star to run for president in 2008. The entertainer does not want Patrick Crowe, 69, to use her name and image, according to a letter from Winfrey attorney Jerry Glover, a copy of which you'll find below. Through counsel, Winfrey contends that Crowe's use of the Oprah name 'falsely implies' that she and her firm, Harpo, Inc., sponsor or endorse the campaign. Along with a self-published book urging a Winfrey White House bid, Crowe has established a web site--Oprah08.net--to push her candidacy. Crowe, a fan who believes a future Winfrey campaign would change the face of American politics, also drives a 1959 Ford with the license plate OPRAH8 and maintains a toll-free hotline, 1-866-OPRAH-08. Though he sells his book ($29.47), an Oprah for President t-shirt ($22.47), and buttons and bumper stickers, Crowe says that his effort is not a for-profit one. To date, he estimates, the Winfrey undertaking has cost him about $65,000. (5 pages)