Talk-show host and media mogul Oprah Winfrey was put in an incredibly awkward and humbling position when she was forced to apologize to parents and student at her Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy in South Africa this past week. Abuse allegations surfaced at the school, including sexual abuse when it was revealed a “dorm parent” on staff at the academy fondled a student, choked a student and cursed and screamed at students. Both the principal and the “matron” have been placed on leave pending further investigations. Here’s more from an article in the NYD News:

Oprah canceled appointments and flew to South Africa twice in the past few weeks after allegations that one of the matrons fondled a girl and that other pupils had been physically abused.

One pupil has said a matron grabbed her by the throat and threw her against a wall. Girls have also said the “dorm parent” swore and screamed at them, assaulted them and sexually fondled at least one girl. The alleged incidents came to light when one of the pupils ran away from the school because the reported abuse had become intolerable.

South African police and the Family Violence, Child Protection and Sexual Offenses Unit are now investigating.

Oprah, who has spoken openly about being abused as a child, gave the girls her personal telephone number, her e-mail address and her postal address so that they could contact her around the clock.

I am NOT an Oprah Winfrey fan. While she’s undoubtedly talented, powerful and wears many hats - she also comes across as very arrogant, self-serving and can be deceptively manipulative. To be perfectly honest, Oprah seems like a major control freak.

But, with all that being said, I have genuine sympathy for Oprah having to deal with these kinds of issues. There is no doubt she feels terrible that these young women were exposed to someone who clearly was ill-suited to be working with children. The academy isn’t even a year old (it opened in January 2007) and Oprah used her own vast wealth and resources to build the facility. Clearly Ms. Winfrey wanted to give these young women an opportunity to excel and succeed in a country with a very negative history of oppression toward blacks and certainly women in general.

Africa is a continent which can use all the charitable works the Western world has to offer, but this kind of negative attention may make some who wish to be philanthropic think twice. Oprah does NOT deserve to have her efforts to do good turn into some kind of embarrassing backlash, yet, that’s what has happened:

A tearful Oprah Winfrey begged for forgiveness Sunday as she met the parents of students at her all-girls academy, which is reeling from lurid allegations of sexual abuse.

“I’ve disappointed you. I’m so sorry. I’m so sorry,” the talk show queen told families in an emergency meeting at the South African school in Henley-on-Klip, south of Johannesburg.

By lending her name to the school, the onus is on Winfrey to make sure proper screening and employment practices are being used when hiring staff for the school. Obviously a bad apple slipped through. This type of oversight has happened to Oprah before. Like here and most recently here.

Rest assured though, there will be severe repercussions for those who humiliate the Oprah. Remember James Frey, the author of A Million Little Pieces? No?

Exactly.

Paris Hilton will have to look a little closer to home for her philanthropic actions, as her planned trip to Rwanda has been postponed indefinitely:

“Due to the restructuring of the Playing for Good Foundation, the philanthropic trip to Rwanda that the foundation had previously planned with Paris Hilton has been postponed,” the organization said Thursday in a statement.

“Paris has been a loyal and gracious supporter of Playing For Good but the foundation has to regrettably reschedule this trip. Playing for Good would like to thank Ms. Hilton for her generosity and her continued support of this initiative and is looking forward to rescheduling the trip with her at a later time.”

A visit to the group’s website still shows the information for the “Playing For Good Philanthropic Summit”, scheduled for August 30-September 1.  It doesn’t appear to have been updated in a while.  I wonder just what the “restructuring” is that is going on, and I wonder where the money has gone that has been donated thus far.  The trip was to be documented by the organization’s founder for a new reality show, “The Philanthropist”.

You know, I’m all for doing good around the world for those in need.  I understand that there are so many in the world who have it so much worse than we do, and I do believe we need to help where we can.  But I think if Paris were serious about her new-found philanthropic desires, I’m sure there are many, many charities in her area who could use her help, money, and famous connections.  I’m positive there are organizations for the elderly homeless people, abused children, unwed mothers, drug addicts, and the needy within a Jimmy Choo’s throw of her house.  Why not help one of those?

Or can’t she get media coverage for something like that?

Do you think that inside she’s secretly going… -whew-

Paris Hilton wants a transformation.  No, she doesn’t want some of those little plastic toys that you twist around and change from a robot to a dinosaur that shoots rockets from its eyes, she wants to transform herself from the airheaded bimbo we have grown to know and love into someone we should take seriously.  No, I’m serious.

She wants us to forget that she was ever a club-hopping, spit-swapping, firecrotch-laughing, pouty-posing, drunk-driving party animal of an heiress, and she wants to reinvent herself as someone worthy of our respect:

As you may remember from the incessant news coverage, Hilton spent 23 days this summer in jail for violating her probation on a DUI charge. Like so many ex-cons before her, she says that she emerged a changed woman. She’s cut her hair and moved into a paparazzi-proof gated community. She’s cut back on the clubbing and even—ohmygod—changed her phone number. “There are a lot of bad people in L.A.,” she says. “Before, my life was about having fun, going to parties—it was a fantasy. But when I had time to reflect, I felt empty inside. I want to leave a mark on the world.”

While I do give Paris props for doing some self-reflection (and I truly believe she has, as much as she is capable at this point in her life), I have to wonder if a leopard can change its pink, sequined spots so quickly.  After all, the only life Paris has known is one of privilege, with little to no want or restrictions, save that pesky little stint in the pokey.  It’s difficult to go from a life of doing whatever one wishes, to a life of self-control.

And just what does Paris want to do, anyway?  Well, for starters, she’s going on a charity mission to Rwanda.  Yes, that Rwanda.  If “Paris Hilton” and “Rwanda” sound like oxymorons to you (and no, I am not calling Paris an ox moron), they do to me as well.  I’m not saying that Paris’ newfound philanthropy is not genuine, because it very well may be.  But I’m not so sure that she knows exactly what she’s getting into:

She’ll be in Rwanda for five days, visiting schools and health-care clinics and bunking in decidedly un-Hilton-like accommodations. “I’m scared, yeah. I’ve heard it’s really dangerous,” she says. “I’ve never been on a trip like this before.” She says she’ll resort to eating candy bars if that’s what it takes to get her through any foreign-cuisine issues.

Well, I hope she is packing them in her suitcases, because I don’t think that Rwanda will have a 24-hour Walgreen’s on the corner.  And she does realize that chocolate melts in warm conditions, right?  I think the last thing I’d be worrying about there is what I’m going to eat or how I’m going to keep my candy bar from melting.  And if being in jail caused her to have panic attacks, Rwanda might be even more likely to unsettle her.

But wait, there’s more…