FACTBOX: Oprah Winfrey, television talk-show star

(Reuters) - Following are some facts about the talk-show host and philanthropist Oprah Winfrey.

* For several years Winfrey, 53, has been selecting books for her global TV audience to read, with the publicity pulling some obscure works onto best-seller lists and fueling sales.

* In November, Winfrey said she was "cleaning house" at her exclusive all-girl academy in South Africa after a dormitory matron was charged with abusing students. Describing the charges -- including soliciting under-age girls to perform indecent acts -- as one of the more devastating experiences in her life, Winfrey said she had not renewed the head mistress's contract and was taking other tough measures.

* Financial magazine Forbes in September published a list of highest-paid TV celebrities with the daytime talk show host leading the way by earning $260 million between June 2006 and June 2007. Nobody else came close.

* At the age of 19, she became the youngest person and the first African-American woman to anchor the news at Nashville's WTVF-TV. She then relocated to Baltimore's WJZ-TV to co-anchor the "Six O'Clock News" and later went on to become co-host of its local talk show, "People Are Talking."

* In 1984, Winfrey moved to Chicago to host WLS-TV's morning talk show, "AM Chicago." In less than a year, the show was renamed "The Oprah Winfrey Show." It entered national syndication in 1986.

* In 1988, Winfrey established Harpo Studios, a production facility in Chicago, making her the third woman in the U.S. entertainment industry, after Mary Pickford and Lucille Ball, to own her own studio.

Sources: Reuters, www.oprah.com

(Writing by Paul Grant, Washington Editorial Reference Unit, editing by Eric Walsh)