Tommy Hilfiger to appear on 'Oprah'

[snopes]

Comment: FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
TUESDAY, MAY 1, 2007

TOP DESIGNER TOMMY HILFIGER APPEARS ON WEDNESDAY'S "OPRAH"
FOR THE VERY FIRST TIME TO SET THE RECORD STRAIGHT

CHICAGO, IL - For more than a decade, one of the biggest Internet rumors
in the history of "The Oprah Winfrey Show" is that Oprah Winfrey threw top
fashion designer Tommy Hilfiger off her program for making racist remarks.
After hearing that the rumor was circulating again, Oprah invited Tommy
Hilfiger for his first-ever appearance on her show.

During the interview, Tommy Hilfiger talks about how he enlisted the help
of the FBI and investigators to trace the rumor back to its source. As for
the impact of this rumor on his life over the years, Hilfiger said, "It
hurt my integrity because at the end of the day, that's all you have."

Watch Oprah and Tommy Hilfiger address the vicious rumor and have the
final word to those who continue to propagate it on the Wednesday, May 2,
2007 episode of "The Oprah Winfrey Show" (check local listings).

[JoeBentley]

From Oprah.com, which includes a full transcript and video clips.

Oprah: Let's break this down. Tommy, in the 21 years that we've been on the air, have you ever been on the show before today?

Tommy: Unfortunately, not.

Oprah: And when you first heard it, Tommy, what did you think?

Tommy: I didn't believe it. … Friends of mine said they heard the rumor. I said, 'That's crazy. That can't be. I was never on The Oprah Show. I would never say that.' And all my friends and family who know me and people who work with me and people who have grown up with me said that's crazy.

Oprah: Well, did you ever say anything close to that? Where do you think this originated?

Tommy: I have no idea. We hired FBI agents, I did an investigation, I paid investigators lots of money to go out and investigate, and they traced it back to a college campus but couldn't put their finger on it.

[JmD]

FBI? They wasted federal tax dollars to trace a rumour about a clothing designer?

Wow.

[putitinwriting]

Sounds more like he hired off-duty FBI employees, by the wording.

Funny this should come up. Some kids at our church were under the impression that Tommy Hilfinger was a young black man.....

[Lainie]

Originally Posted by JmD

FBI? They wasted federal tax dollars to trace a rumour about a clothing designer?

Wow.

He said, "we [the Hilfiger organization] hired them," not, "the FBI assigned them." He was probably talking about off-duty or retired FBI agents.

[White Canvas]

My therapy group was all abuzz with this this morning. Unfortunately they all (including the MSW leading the group) believe that he appeared and made the alleged comments yesterday!

"You should have seen Oprah's face, she was shocked" etc.

I tried to refute it, came home in a rage and printed out your updated article. Unfortunately, none of them know who snopes is, and prefer to believe in scandal. I've decided it's not worth bothering to take it with me next week, and am trying to reduce my rage to a minor snit.


White "t'aint workin'" Canvas

[Judecat]

I'd ask the people who swear it happened yesterday to provide me with a tape of the show to prove it. "Oh well their mother told them -- well then get mommy to show them a tape. If he had actually said it on the show this week then you can't tell me there's not a tape of it somewhere -- so show me the tape or shut your lieing mouth"

[queen of the caramels]

That's strange cos when I watched today, all the headings/ footnotes?said it was on tomorrow( Thursday 3rd) so I didn't bother watching after the first 10 mins.:o

[Starla]

Originally Posted by queen of the caramels

That's strange cos when I watched today, all the headings/ footnotes?said it was on tomorrow( Thursday 3rd) so I didn't bother watching after the first 10 mins.:o

That's surprising. The Hilfiger thing was the first 10 minutes of the Oprah my local channel aired today.

[Mateus]

Originally Posted by White Canvas

My therapy group was all abuzz with this this morning. Unfortunately they all (including the MSW leading the group) believe that he appeared and made the alleged comments yesterday!

"You should have seen Oprah's face, she was shocked" etc.

I tried to refute it, came home in a rage and printed out your updated article. Unfortunately, none of them know who snopes is, and prefer to believe in scandal. I've decided it's not worth bothering to take it with me next week, and am trying to reduce my rage to a minor snit.


White "t'aint workin'" Canvas

Tell them I said it didn't happen, and I would know, 'cause I'm from Elmira.

[Sara@home]

I wonder why it took Oprah this long to have Hilfiger on and try to end the rumor. That story has been around for over a decade. Oprah should have been debunking it all along.

Wouldn't it be possible for the FBI to become involve if there was reason to believe that a competitor started the rumor?

[Starla]

Sara- Oprah said something yesterday along the lines of, "I thought the rumor had been put to rest long ago, but it has resurfaced lately." Apparently Harpo offices had started getting a surge in inquiries about the rumor. She also said that Hilfiger was hard to get in touch with because he travels so much.

I wonder, though. It's my impression that around 10 years ago Oprah had a more "ignore the rumors and they'll go away" approach than she does now. Now she seems seems to bring up tabloid headlines and debunk them somewhat regularly. I could be wrong though. I went through a phase where I watched Oprah almost every day, but in the last two years I've probably only seen 10 shows.

[Sara@home]

I guess it's the old 20/20 hindsight thing. I suppose if they knew 10 years ago that it would still be circulating now they may have done something sooner. But heck, how hard would it have been to put a page debunking it on her website at some point in the past decade? Harpo knew Hilfiger had never been on the show, they knew the rumor existed, why not put up the information that it never happened? Did Proctor and Gamble teach them anything?