Think taking sides in celebrity tabloid sagas has no consequence? Think again. Oprah thought that Angelina Jolie, for all her charity work in Africa, would be happy to help promote Oprah's school for girls in South Africa. It was not to be. Oprah was publicly on Team Aniston when Brad Pitt broke up with Jen for Jolie. Oprah declared "it's the last time she'll ask Angelina to help with any of her causes," a source told Star. Joel Ryan / AP Photo In 2001, when Jonathan Franzen's wildly popular novel The Corrections was selected for Oprah's Book Club, Franzen, though not entirely bothered by the book's selection, was not necessarily happy about it, either. "She's picked some good books," Franzen said of Oprah in an interview posted on Powells.com, "but she's picked enough schmaltzy, one-dimensional ones that I cringe." Salon.com's Laura Miller described the novelist's slight this way: "Oprah's selection of The Corrections was a bold, generous choice for a book that is also bold and generous. If the author has on this occasion lacked the nerve and imagination of his creation, well, writers are human beings, too, and sometimes they screw up. The books are what matter, if we could just manage to remember that." Nearly a decade after the controversy, Winfrey announced Franzen's novel Freedom would be an Oprah Book Club selection and a few months later, the two sat down on The Oprah Winfrey Show to hash out their differences. "The big thing I learned from the experience, was to have more respect for television," Franzen admitted during the December 2010 episode. Stuart Ramson / AP Photo Oprah "had no idea that Michelle was so jealous about the influence she had on Barack," a "friend" told The National Enquirer. The first lady "hated the way her husband would huddle with Oprah over strategy and jump when she called… The jealousy and anger was eating up Michelle. During the campaign, she vowed Oprah would not be a part of the new administration." And thus the talk-show host was frozen out of the president's inner circle, the tabloid claims. But the Obamas and the big O herself have seemingly made up to make history: The couple became the first and the last sitting president and first lady to appear together on The Oprah Winfrey Show. Carolyn Kaster / AP Photo The fray over Frey began when Winfrey picked his memoir A Million Little Pieces as the September 2005 selection for her book club. The work topped The New York Times' bestsellers list shortly thereafter. But the more Frey and his work were subjected to scrutiny, the more it became clear the writer had fabricated parts of his memoir—like the key scene, in which he was arrested. Unluckily for him, Oprah's payback was a you-know-what. Frey returned to the show to apologize publicly, and a no-nonsense Oprah told it like it was: "I feel you betrayed millions of readers." She wasn't content, however, just to chastise Frey. She brought on the book's publisher, Nan Talese, and got her to admit that she had never fact-checked the memoir. As her show came to a close in May 2011, Winfrey again sat down with Frey and the two hugged it out. Ulf Andersen / Getty Images Kitty Kelley spent three years and 850 interviews on her unauthorized Oprah biography, released in spring 2010. Kelley said that despite her book's juicy revelations, she couldn't get Barbara Walters, Larry King, Rachael Ray, or Charlie Rose to give her an interview. "Even David Letterman, who's had a 16-year feud with her, said ‘I don't really want to disrupt the relationship I now have with her," Kelley said. Oprah responded to Kelley's book only indirectly, at an awards show where she honored her longtime friend Gayle King. Confessing she'd had a busy week thanks to the publication of "my so-called biography," Oprah said, "Gayle got herself worked out with all my new daddies coming out," a reference to Kelley's claim that Vernon Winfrey isn't her biological father. "This, too, shall pass." Jeff Christensen / AP Photo Oprah is one of the few people in the world to have successfully messed with Texas. In 1998, she hosted a show about the dangers of mad-cow disease, which Texas cattle ranchers alleged was designed to fan a " lynch mob mentality" among viewers and freak them out about beef. "The message of the show was never meant to be where opinions are shared. The show was meant to be scary," said a lawyer for the cattle producers during the ensuing trial. "The truth is not as interesting. It doesn't produce ratings." Oprah said her interview with a guest about mad-cow disease, which had yet to land stateside, "just stopped me cold from eating another burger." Oprah won the suit. Chris Brown was upset last year when Oprah dedicated an entire show to domestic violence and "all the Rihannas of the world." He expressed his displeasure (rather inartfully) when he told People, "I commend Oprah on being like, 'This is a problem,' but it was a slap in my face." Brown had performed at Oprah's girls' school in South Africa, and thought that would have earned him a reprieve from her scrutiny after he allegedly hit his then-girlfriend Rhianna. The talk-show host's spokeswoman responded, "Oprah is very appreciative that Chris Brown performed at her school, but she takes domestic abuse very seriously... She hopes he gets the counseling he needs." Brown went on to tell New York’s Hot 97 radio station that he hoped Winfrey would "reach out to me and talk to Rihanna... not even to be on the show; just make it about helping. Because at the end of the day I thought we had that type of relationship where it could be like that." Katy Winn / AP Photo A handful of rappers had criticized Oprah for not featuring hip-hop stars on her show (she says their lyrics are degrading to women) in 2006 when 50 Cent decided to kick it up a notch, calling her an "Oreo"—black on the outside but white on the inside. Oprah "started out with black women's views but has been catering to middle-aged white American women for so long that she's become one herself," the rapper complained. Amanda Schwab / AP Photo Joan Rivers reportedly told friends that she wished she'd been contacted by Oprah biographer Kitty Kelley—she could have offered some real dirt. "Oprah—if she don't need you, she don't know you!" an unnamed friend quoted Rivers as saying, in The National Enquirer. The friend said Rivers thinks the talk-show host is "completely opportunistic," and her "real gift is exploiting people's suffering and emotions and turning them into TV ratings." Charles Sykes / AP Photo Precious star Mo'Nique was furious when Oprah interviewed the Oscar-winning actress' brother Gerald Imes, who Mo'Nique says molested her. Mo'Nique thought the interview went too easy on Imes, and that he got away with mischaracterizing what happened. Imes was planning to write a book about his childhood, thereby profiting from the actress' pain. Eventually, Mo'Nique forgave Oprah, but her family, of course, is another story. Mark Terrill / AP Photo Oprah snubbed Whoopi Goldberg when Winfrey hosted her Legends Ball to honor successful black women and didn't invite the comedienne. Both parties said there was no dispute between them, but Whoopi's absence felt significant, given that the pair worked together on The Color Purple and that far lesser stars like Brandy and Audra McDonald showed up. As her show came to a close, Oprah invited the cast of The Color Purple on her show for a reunion, including Goldberg. On the episode, Winfrey recalled running into Goldberg at director Tyler Perry's home the summer prior when The View co-host came up to her and said, "Can I just ask you something? Did I do something to you? All these years, we've been disconnected, and I just want to know, did I do something?" Oprah recalled replying, "You think I'm mad at you? I thought you were mad at me." Evan Agostini / AP Photo A little drink has been the downfall of so many. Rachael Ray was having dinner with friends in a Los Angeles restaurant and, after reportedly downing four glasses of red wine, got a little loose-lipped about Oprah, who runs her show's syndication company. Ray started complaining about Oprah, talking about a portrait of the talk-show host that hangs in the lobby of Harpo Productions in Chicago. In the picture, Oprah faces away from the camera, her back exposed and covered with (fake) scars, while wearing a pre-Civil War-style skirt. "Why is she wearing slave drag?" Ray blabbed. "She obviously has problems being black." Ray's camp denied she made the comments. Shortly thereafter, Oprah's best friend Gayle King appeared on Ray's show and the two talked about tabloid rumors. "The one with Oprah just broke my heart," Ray said. "It really did. It killed me, I’m like,‘No! We like each other!'" Chris Pizzello / AP Photo Corrine Gehrls, a former flight attendant for Oprah, filed a lawsuit in 2009 alleging that she was wrongfully fired amid rumors that she had sex with a married pilot while Oprah was fast asleep on her private jet. Hired by Harpo in 2007, Gehrls said her coworkers, Myron Gooch and Kirby Bumpus, conspired to get her and the pilot fired because of work-related disputes. Gooch and Bumpus happened to be, respectively, Oprah's goddaughter and the daughter of Oprah's best friend, Gayle King. Three weeks after they told Oprah that Gerhls and the pilot had sex outside the plane's cockpit, the suit alleged, Oprah fired them. Gehrls said Oprah knew the allegations were "obviously false" and sought $300,000 in damages. Andrejs Pidjass Hoping to spend a Parisian summer night in 2005 shopping for extremely expensive accessories, Oprah stopped by Hermes 15 minutes after the boutique closed. The French shop girls did not let her in. Oprah contacted the president of Hermes in America and told him about the little incident, before explaining it to the whole world on her show. It wasn't about the shopping, she said, but the snubbing. "Everybody who's ever been snubbed because you were not chic enough or the right class or the right color or whatever—I don't know what it was—you know that that is very humiliating and that is exactly what happened to me," she said. Liu Jin, AFP / Getty Images Oprah took rapper Ludacris to task for his musical misogyny, asking him why he peppers his songs liberally with words like "bitches" and "hos." Ludacris had gone on her show to promote his work in the film Crash. Of the interview, Ludacris told GQ magazine "she gave me a hard time as a rapper when I came on there as an actor… It was like being at someone's house who doesn't really want you there." Oprah has been given grief by many in the hip-hop world for ignoring their music and for instead pandering to Middle American housewives. Oprah told MTV, "I'm not opposed to rap. I'm opposed to being marginalized as a woman." Donald Traill / AP Photo David Letterman is known for his feuds, but none has lasted as long as his nearly two-decade tangle with Oprah. By most accounts, it started when Letterman hosted the Oscars in 1995, and used her name for his failed "Uma, Oprah; Oprah, Uma" joke. In 2005, Letterman finally settled the skirmish when Oprah went on his show as a guest and told him, "I want you to know, it's really over, whatever you thought was happening." But is it? Last September, Letterman told Jon Stewart that the feud actually began when he was having lunch in the same restaurant as Oprah and Steadman while on vacation. As a gag, the late-night host told the waiter that Winfrey’s table was picking up his check; but apparently, Oprah didn't think the joke was funny. "I spent the last 12 to 15 years kissing up to Oprah,” Letterman admitted on Late Show this month after he wasn't invited to Winfrey's finale extravaganza in Chicago. “Honest to God. Every day, I get out of bed and I think, What can I do to suck up to Oprah?" In regard to his lack of invite, Letterman said he was "crushed. Disappointed and crushed. I want to bask in the glory that is Oprah, who doesn’t?" James Devaney, WireImage / Getty Images