LAS VEGAS — Tina Turner will be strutting her stuff on tour
again this fall.
During a taping of The Oprah Winfrey Show here on Saturday,
the 68-year-old singer said she was egged on by actress Sophia
Loren, who asked when she was "going back to work." Turner's
first concert tour in eight years kicks off Oct. 1 in Kansas
City; she didn't say how many shows she'll do or where else
they'll be. Tickets go on sale May 12.
Turner appeared with Cher for a joint interview with Winfrey
on stage at the Colosseum at Caesars Palace. The show is scheduled
to air May 8, two days after Cher's Las Vegas production premieres.
The two singers performed Turner's signature Proud Mary together
and chatted about the debts left them upon their divorces from
Sonny Bono and Ike Turner, both of whom are now deceased.
In addition, Cher previewed a number from her new Vegas show,
Take Me Home, wearing a shredded blue Bob Mackie dress with
a matching blue headpiece flanked by a dozen dancers in 1970s
outfits. Winfrey showed video of Cher and Mackie in Mackie's
studio looking over some of the 17 costumes Cher will wear.
Perhaps the oddest moments of the taping, though, came off-camera.
During a break, Winfrey offered a long aside to the audience
about the high-tech toilet in her Caesars Palace suite. The
john, she said, lifts its lid automatically and cleans and blow-dries
the user's nether regions.
"I swear, I gotta get one of these on the show and show everybody,"
Winfrey said. "I'm coming back here!"
Winfrey also spoke of having just come from the home of Tom
Cruise in Telluride, Colo., for his first Oprah appearance since
his infamous couch-jumping moment in 2005. Winfrey quipped that
she did not jump on Cruise's couch, and she spoke of holding
on to him during a snowmobile ride.
"There's something about being scooched up to his butt that
makes you want to sing Take Me Home, Tom," Winfrey said. "Now
I know what (his wife) Katie (Holmes) sees!"
Winfrey said the Cruise episode airs Friday.
