Oprah Winfrey paid a fortune to Apple TV + chiefs to buy back the rights to a documentary about her life, Page Six can reveal.
Apple announced with great fanfare Oscar-winning filmmaker Kevin Macdonald would be directing the documentary about the talk show host turned media mogul back in 2021.
However, sources tell Page Six that Macdonald, who teamed up with Winfrey’s longtime producer Lisa Erspamer on the project, had clashed with the 70-year-old billionaire after he finished the film, and it’s been on hold ever since.
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“Kevin made the film, but Oprah didn’t like it and he refused to change it, and Oprah has paid back her fee to Apple,” a well-placed Hollywood source told us.
A spokesperson for Winfrey — who ended her content deal with Apple in September 2022 —confirmed to Page Six, “As the Apple TV+ deal was coming to an end, Ms. Winfrey bought back the rights to her docu-series and has since decided to put the doc on hold.
“Ms. Winfrey believes Lisa Erspamer and Kevin MacDonald are incredibly talented filmmakers and is grateful for the time and energy they put into the project.”
A source in Winfrey’s camp insisted Macdonald did not refuse to make edits and Winfrey simply decided “it wasn’t the right time to do a documentary,” before making the unusual move of buying it back.
Reps for MacDonald didn’t respond to a request for comment.
While industry sources speculated Winfrey would have to pay millions to get the rights to the documentary back, a source in the know denied it was in the seven figures.
Macdonald had met Erspamer when they previously worked on Whitney Houston biographical doc “Whitney”.
Erspamer produced “The Oprah Winfrey Show” between 1999 and 2009 and is a longtime pal of the presenter.
An Apple TV + rep was unavailable for comment.
