First Lady of television fills the bill for Oprah

Oprah Winfrey

UNITED STATES - Daytime TV star Oprah Winfrey is taking legal action against a fan who is trying to persuade her to run for President.

The problem for former school teacher Patrick Crowe and his "Oprah for President" campaign is that Winfrey is less than enthusiastic about swapping the interviewer's couch for the Oval Office.

Lawyers for Winfrey have sent a "cease and desist" letter to Crowe demanding he stop using the name Oprah in his campaign and stop reprinting copyrighted photographs of her in his book, Oprah For President: Run, Oprah, Run.

Crowe, 69, from Kansas City, Missouri, started his campaign saying Winfrey has the qualities to make a perfect President.

"I believe that if she ran she would change the face and heart of American politics. It would never be the same again," he said.

"She has serious compassion, she can build teams, she can lead. She has accomplished things. She is a doer. Just look at what she has done for [the victims of] Hurricane Katrina. Just look what she has done for books: one recommendation from her and a couple of days later that book is top of the New York Times best-seller list. She is a person of influence."

Crowe, who has in the past largely supported Democratic Party candidates, is aware that Winfrey, 52, has so far declined to accept his push for her to run for office. But he believes that once there is a sufficient groundswell of support for her candidacy she could be persuaded to change her mind.

"In this country we call it drafting a candidate," he said.

Crowe says he has spent more than US$60,000 ($90,500) of his own money to promote his campaign.

A Fox News poll this year found that 24 per cent of the public believed Winfrey would "make a good President". She compared favourably to Arnold Schwarzenegger with 11 per cent, Senator Ted Kennedy with 23 per cent and real estate mogul and television celebrity Donald Trump with 11 per cent.

Winfrey's lawyers warned Crowe that "Ms Winfrey has not granted you the right to use her name for commercial purposes, including to sell [your] book via the website and via a [freephone] number".

It said that using the celebrity's name "falsely implies that [her company] Harpo or Ms Winfrey sponsor or endorse the website, the campaign website or the book, when in fact there is no such endorsement or affiliation".

Winfrey's Oprah Winfrey Show is the highest rated talk show in US history. Forbes magazine has ranked her as the world's richest African American.

- INDEPENDENT