Decided: George W. Bush to Hawk Memoir on Oprah's Show

Ex-president's book out the same day

George W. Bush and Barbra Streisand will both appear next month on "The Oprah Winfrey Show," though producers were smart to book the political opposites on different days, thus avoiding a potential bi-partisan smackdown.

This is the final fall for Winfrey's show after a 25 year run. Next year the TV mogul is taking her act to her OWN network.

Landing the former president, especially, is a coup for Winfrey. Bush will hit her couch on Nov. 9, the same day his much-anticipated memoir, "Decision Points," is published. November is a big month for the networks, as ratings are more closely monitored than during other times of the year.

Winfrey has rounded out the rest of the month's lineup with various boldfaced names. Michael Jackson's parents, Katherine and Joe Jackson, will appear on an as-yet unspecified date, and on Nov. 2 Ricky Martin, recently out of the closet, will discuss why he decided to go public about his sexuality.

Bush, meanwhile, has been fairly quiet since leaving office nearly two years ago. But as the release date for his book approaches, W has begun to go "viral," as Fox News put it. A promotional video on YouTube has been watched nearly 40,000 times since it was posted on Oct. 5. A Facebook contest will reward the winner with a plane ticket to Dallas to meet Bush in person.

But no platform in the world can make or break an author's career like that of Winfrey's show. Just ask James Frey.

Selected Reading:MSNBC.com, Fox News, YouTube.com.

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