歐普拉是美國的脫口秀主持人。從采訪記者到政客等諸多人士無不在爭相效仿她的風(fēng)格，但卻沒人能夠企及她的聲望與收入。她所主持的《歐普拉。溫弗瑞脫口秀》及其專題節(jié)目《Oprah Winfrey Prime Time》在全世界132個國家播出。才華與商業(yè)頭腦兼?zhèn)涫顾芸斐蔀槊绹谝晃缓谌藘|萬富翁。她的節(jié)目曾獲得過30多項(xiàng)艾美獎，以及無數(shù)的其它成就獎項(xiàng)。她還是一位出色的演員和制片人，她是美國最有影響力的人物之一。

歐普拉。溫弗瑞于1954年1月29日出生在美國最貧窮的地區(qū)之一----密西西比州的科西阿斯科。她的父母是一對未婚青少年，她小時候生活在外婆家的農(nóng)場里，少年時曾經(jīng)不幸受到一些親戚鄰居的性虐待。貧窮和不幸遭遇并沒有消滅她對知識的渴望和對生活的信心。后來她利用參加選美贏來的獎金進(jìn)入大學(xué)學(xué)習(xí)，并且憑借自己的天賦和不懈努力進(jìn)入了廣播媒體領(lǐng)域。1986年，她創(chuàng)辦了《歐普拉。溫弗瑞脫口秀》節(jié)目，很快受到觀眾的歡迎，成為美國脫口秀的領(lǐng)軍節(jié)目。她的節(jié)目內(nèi)容主要關(guān)注個人問題，尋找辦法激勵，幫助人們拯救自我,她的目標(biāo)是讓電視改變?nèi)藗兊纳睿o每一個人，每一個家庭帶去快樂和成就感。

Even in a culture in which sex toys are a booming business and Oprah Winfrey discusses living your best life in the bedroom, a coed live-in commune dedicated to the female orgasm hovers at the extremes.

The founder of the One Taste Urban Retreat Center, Nicole Daedone, sees herself as leading "the slow-sex movement," one that places a near-exclusive emphasis on women's pleasure — in which love, romance and even flirtation are not required.

"In our culture, admitting our bodies matter is almost an admission of failure," said Daedone, 41, who can quote the poet Mary Oliver and speak wryly on the intricacies of women's anatomy with equal aplomb. "I don't think women will really experience freedom until they own their sexuality."

A core of 38 men and women — their average age the late 20s — live full time in the retreat center, a shabby-chic loft building in the South of Market district. They prepare meals together, practice yoga and mindfulness meditation and lead workshops in communication for outside groups as large as 60.

But the heart of the group's activity, listed cryptically on its Web site's calendar as "morning practice," is closed to all but the residents.

At 7 a.m. each day, as the rest of America is eating Cheerios or trying to face gridlock without hyperventilating, about a dozen women, naked from the waist down, lie with eyes closed in a velvet-curtained room, while clothed men huddle over them, stroking them in a ritual known as orgasmic meditation — "OMing," for short. The couples, who may or may not be romantically involved, call one another "research partners."

A commune dedicated to men and women publicly creating "the orgasm that exists between them," in the words of one resident, may sound like the ultimate California satire. But the Bay Area has a lively and venerable history of seekers constructing lives around sexual adventure.

San Francisco is proud of its libertine heritage, as Sean Penn recently demonstrated in "Milk." The search for personal transformation, including through sex, led to the oceanside hot tubs at the Esalen Institute in Big Sur, cradle of the human potential movement, and in the 1960s, communes flourished in the city, many espousing free love.

One Taste is but the latest stop on this sexual underground, weaving together strands of radical individual freedom, Eastern spirituality and feminism.

"The notion of a San Francisco sex commune focused on female orgasm is part of a long and rich history of women being public and empowered about their sexuality," said Elizabeth Armstrong, an associate professor of sociology at Indiana University, who has studied San Francisco's sexual subcultures.