CHICAGO, Jan. 28 (UPI) -- Television talk show diva Oprah Winfrey celebrates her 50th birthday Thursday with a birthday show in Chicago and a big weekend party for 50 friends.
Oprah's special birthday show will air live from Harpo Studios, where she tapes 145 shows at year on Chicago's West Side. The party will not be at her $50 million estate near Santa Barbara, Calif., but in the garden of a private home, Access Hollywood reported Wednesday.
Fans posted more than 2,000 birthday messages on the Oprah.com Web site.
"I'm ready to claim this next decade for all its worth and to take it to the max," Oprah wrote in the October 2003 issue of her magazine, O.
"I intend to stretch myself out and rock so hard with the 50s that by the time I'm through, everybody I know is going to wish they were 50-something, or at least 49 and waiting to be."
Oprah won the People's Choice Award for favorite talk show host earlier this month.
