Before Oprah loved Stedman, there was John Tesh. An exclusive excerpt from Kitty Kelley's upcoming tell-all Oprah Winfrey biography claims the talk-show queen enjoyed a 1970s romance with an unlikely live-in lover: John Tesh. The towering 6-foot-6 Tesh and a barely out-of-her-teens Winfrey shared her Nashville apartment until he bolted in the middle of the night, according to the first-ever look inside the book, obtained by the Daily News. According to Kelley, the "social pressure" on an interracial couple in Tennessee at that time proved too much for Tesh to handle. "He said one night he looked down and saw his white body next to her black body and couldn't take it anymore," another Tesh ex-paramour told Kelley. "He walked out in the middle of the night. ... He told me he later felt very guilty about it." Winfrey spokeswoman Angela DePaul said Saturday that Oprah was not commenting on the highly anticipated book. A phone call and an e-mail to Tesh's spokespeople were not returned. The book, due out Tuesday, already ranks No. 19 on the Amazon.com best sellers list based on pre-orders. Tesh worked in Nashville at the same time as Winfrey during the mid-'70s. Future media mogul Winfrey was just 20 when she joined the staff at WTVF-TV in Nashville. Tesh was a news anchor and future "Wheel of Fortune" host Pat Sajak was a weatherman at rival WSM. Kelley - best known for her withering biographies of Frank Sinatra, Nancy Reagan and Elizabeth Taylor, among others - said the pair lived together "for a short time" before Tesh's midnight moveout. By 1976, both had moved on - Winfrey to Baltimore, and Tesh to WCBS-TV in New York. Both went on to bigger and better things: Tesh hosted "Entertainment Tonight" from 1986-1996 before leaving the show to become a full-time New Age musician. The six-time Emmy winner now hosts his own nationally syndicated radio show, has written a number of books and continues to tour. Kelley mentions that Tesh appeared with Winfrey on the 10th anniversary of her show in 1996, with Oprah claiming the pair shared one platonic dinner date. Tesh is married to actress Connie Sellecca, while Winfrey remains connected to longtime beau Stedman Graham. The excerpt also references Winfrey's mid-'70s fondness for junk food - especially chocolate Ding Dongs - and a local restaurant called The Chicken Shack. Winfrey and co-anchor Harry Chapman would dine on the spicy chicken, seasoned with cayenne pepper and Tabasco sauce, between weekend newscasts, according to Kelley. ----- <object width="640" height="385"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/m-WA4xEal2s&color1=0xb1b1b1&color2=0xcfcfcf&hl=en_US&feature=player_embedded&fs=1"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowScriptAccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/m-WA4xEal2s&color1=0xb1b1b1&color2=0xcfcfcf&hl=en_US&feature=player_embedded&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" allowScriptAccess="always" width="640" height="385"></embed></object>
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I've never read Kitty Kelley, but I've always had the feeling that she just made **** up. Celebrity journalism is about as close as you get to little children gossiping. Unfortunately, contemporary political journalism has come pretty damn close.
That's what gave John Tesh the inspiration to make the NBA theme song. <object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/PR7cd_N2LPU&hl=en_US&fs=1&"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/PR7cd_N2LPU&hl=en_US&fs=1&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object>
I mean, did you even read the OP? As for the guy that wanted a link: http://www.nydailynews.com/gossip/2010/04/11/2010-04-11_tesh_bolted_oprahs_bed.html
all this mention of NBA on NBC... and none of some of his other great contributions to the world of music... here's a sample, lest we forget... Spoiler <object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/Cg840aTb6Os&hl=en_US&fs=1&start=68&atuoplay=1"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/Cg840aTb6Os&hl=en_US&fs=1&start=68&autoplay=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object>
This is a basketball BBS after all. If anyone here know John Tesh, it would probably because of round ball rock.
I worked there for 9 years (well after she had left). She came back to do a look back where she got her start after she made it big and i met her. I had never heard the Tesh rumors.
Had to interview Tesh about 2yrs ago..he's a super-nice guy. Very considerate. I didn't know he wrote the NBA theme until then - he's also written some Olympic theme music as well & has scored a LOT of other stuff. Plus..he played a Klingon.
At the same time they also had Chuck Morgan..who was also on Hee Haw and now runs the in-park entertainment (jumbotron & music, etc..) for the Texas Rangers Ballpark.
yes...you are right. But oddly enough in the world of Running Pro Baseball parks, he is strangely a legend and considered one of the best at what he does.
I think the bottom three could be a bit closer. Tesh and Sajak are basically interchangeable except for the NBA theme song. Does Sajak even have emotions of any kind?
And Charles Rocket who once dropped an f-bomb doing the news on SNL. Dan Miller was a long time anchor at WSMV in Nashville and became Sajak's "Ed McMahon" sidekick on Sajak's talk show that didn't last very long. ESPN/ABC Robin Roberts also worked in Nashville while I was there.
Rocket did it at the end of the show, when he was thanking Charlene Tilton or something cuz they did a who shot JR sketch. "I'd like to know who the **** did it." Too young to have known him from SNL, but remembered a lot of low-grade stuff like playing the smarmy admissions guy in "How I Got Into College," or that Russian mold-removal guy on King of Queens. Much more depressed about Jeni, but both their suicides threw me for a loop.
