Oprah makes the peace in quiet
One of this week’s most noteworthy Oprah Winfrey moments never made it to the air.
Nathaniel Abraham, a 21-year-old Michigan man freed from custody for a murder he committed at age 11 traveled to Chicago on Wednesday, planning to apologize to the victim’s family on Winfrey’s daytime talk show.
But the taping was canceled at his lawyer’s request. Instead, Abraham met in Winfrey’s private office with the family of Ronnie Greene Jr., whom Abraham shot with a rifle in 1997.
Abraham attorney Daniel Bagdade watched the exchange and said Winfrey “kind of mediated the apology.”
“It was very riveting,” Bagdade told The Detroit News. “Nate’s story was not on camera today. We ended up doing the apology in Oprah’s office.
“It was incredible. It was absolutely incredible.”
Abraham was 13 when a jury convicted him of second-degree murder. He finished serving his juvenile sentence Jan. 18.
Trafficking in tragedy
For the second time this week, California police are seeking charges against a Hollywood celebrity in a traffic death.
Beverly Hills investigators have asked country prosecutors to charge 26-year-old “Prison Break” actor Lane Garrison with manslaughter and drunken driving.
Garrison’s Land Rover jumped a curb Dec. 2 and struck a tree, killing a 17-year-old high school student and injuring two 15-year-old girls who were also in the vehicle.
On Monday, the California Highway Patrol recommended that actress-singer Brandy be charged with misdemeanor vehicular manslaughter in a December freeway crash.
I see misled people
Bruce Willis has settled an extortion lawsuit filed against a childhood friend.
The suit claimed Bruce DiMattia, hired to maintain the actor’s memorabilia, threatened to disclose personal information unless Willis bought him a car and paid him $100,000.
Willis’ publicist now calls that “a regrettable misunderstanding … based on misinformation.”
Taking the plunge
Former “Baywatch” star David Hasselhoff is donning drag to play flamboyant film director Roger DeBris in a Las Vegas version of “The Producers” opening next week.
“When I put on the dress,” he says, “it was very disconcerting. I said, ‘There goes my audience.’ But I think it will be so funny and so over the top that people will enjoy it.”
Horse of a different color
“Harry Potter” actor Daniel Radcliffe, starring as a stablehand who has an erotic fixation with horses in a London revival of “Equus,” has raised eyebrows by posing for racy promotional photos.
Radcliffe, 17, bares all alongside a white horse, and is pictured with a naked Joanna Christie, the actress who portrays his girlfriend.
Says Radcliffe: “I hope people will stop and think, ‘Maybe he can do something other than Harry.’ “
The birthday bunch
Comedian Tom Smothers is 70. Singer Graham Nash is 65. Actress Farrah Fawcett is 60. Actor Brent Spiner (“Star Trek: The Next Generation”) is 58. Model Christie Brinkley is 53. Singer Shakira is 30.