A small British Columbia community is still basking in the glow of a weekend celebrity encounter with talk show queen Oprah Winfrey.
Winfrey was travelling on a yacht belonging to B.C.-based billionaire Jim Pattison on Friday when it docked in Alert Bay, a picturesque community on Cormorant Island off the northeastern side of Vancouver Island.
Oprah Winfrey, seen here in New York in May, set Alert Bay abuzz with her short visit.
(Evan Agostini/Getty)
Word quickly spread amid the approximately 1,500 residents that the Chicago-based talk show host had dropped into town, and many rushed to find her.
Winfrey, dressed casually in brown sweats and with her hair tied back, signed autographs and posed for photos, some of which were promptly e-mailed to U.S. celebrity gossip site Perezhilton.com.
When Chief Bill Cranmer of the Namgis First Nation heard that Winfrey was in town, he extended an invitation to a potlatch. She accepted and shared a few brief words with the approximately 1,000 in attendance.
"As soon as she walked in the door, there was cheers and whistles," Cranmer said.
"She was just a very nice lady, easy to talk to, the way she went in and blended in with the crowd," he added.
"People were hugging her. They got pictures of her holding a couple of babies. It was great."
Winfrey, a former journalist who now hosts an internationally syndicated talk show that draws about 30 million viewers a week in the U.S. alone, is considered one of North America's most influential celebrities.
Frequently at the top of annual lists noting the most powerful, influential or wealthy celebrities, Winfrey is estimated to earn more than $200 million US annually from her global empire, which includes books, magazines and movies.
With files from the Canadian PressRelated
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