Faces of the week

Our regular look at some of the names which have made the news this week. Above are OPRAH WINFREY (main picture), with CHRISTOPHE BERTHONNEAU, DAVID LIVINGSTONE, DAWN FRENCH and LILY COLE.

OPRAH WINFREY

This week a new school opened in South Africa. In a country where a serious skills shortage is hampering economic growth any boost to the education system is welcome. However, two things are special about the Leadership Academy for Girls near Johannesburg.

Firstly, it has been set up to give an education to girls from poor families and, secondly, it has been founded and funded by the American TV star Oprah Winfrey whose own start in life mirrored that of the pupils she is now trying to help.

Cutting the ribbon at her new Leadership Academy for Girls

Winfrey is now a household name, host of a programme that has become the highest rated talk show in television history where public confession has become a form of therapy.

Her success as TV star and actress has brought her great wealth and influence. According to Forbes magazine she was the richest African American of the 20th Century and is one of the few black billionaires on the planet.

Her opinions can create market swings and influence public behaviour. An off-the-cuff remark about a burger during the BSE crisis led to her being sued by the Texas cattle industry for depressing the sales of beef. She won the resulting court case

Behind all the wealth and fame was a childhood of poverty and abuse. Born in rural Mississippi to two unmarried teenage parents, her early years were spent with her grandmother, a devout Baptist, who did not hesitate to use a switch on the young Oprah if she misbehaved. By the age of six she was back with her mother where, according to her own story, she was subjected to sexual abuse by members of her own family.

She rebelled in her teens and admitted to a number of promiscuous relationships, one of which resulted in a pregnancy at the age of 14. The child subsequently died.

Former beauty queen

The turning point in her life was the decision to return her to her father, Vernon, in Tennessee. He insisted she go back to school where she thrived, becoming an honours student and winning a scholarship to the State University where she studied communications and got her first media job at a local radio station. She appeared to have a clear idea of where she wanted her life to go.

Winfrey appearing as an actress in 1985's the Colour Purple

An early boyfriend is quoted as saying that Oprah "knew what she wanted very early in life. She said she wanted to be a movie star. She wanted to be an actress, worked hard at it, and when her ship started to sail, she got aboard."

It was not surprising that she quickly got snapped up by television. She was clever, witty and, as a former winner of the Miss Black Tennessee beauty pageant, she looked good on screen.

After hosting shows on local TV she moved to Chicago in 1983 to take over an ailing mid-morning chat show. Within months it was extended to a full hour and renamed the Oprah Winfrey Show.

In 1986 it was broadcast across the United States. Time magazine later attempted to discover the reason for this success. "In a field dominated by white males, she is a black female of ample bulk," it said. "What she lacks in journalistic toughness, she makes up for in plainspoken curiosity, robust humour and, above all empathy"

Hands on involvement

In 1998 Winfrey set up a charity to encourage help for the disadvantaged around the world. On a 2004 visit to South Africa she donated equipment, and clothing to poor and Aids-affected children in the townships. Nelson Mandela asked her if she would provide support for children whose parents were too poor to afford education and the result was the Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy for Girls.

Comparisons have been drawn with Madonna's involvement in Africa

Winfrey did not just fund the school, she became personally involved in the planning and design and even interviewed some of the applicants for places. "I really became frustrated with the fact that all I did was write check after check to this or that charity without really feeling like it was a part of me." she told Newsweek magazine.

Poverty in Africa brings out a variety of responses. For another megastar, Madonna, help meant plucking one child from a village in Malawi and giving it all the advantages of a wealthy upbringing in the West.

Some have argued this has done nothing for the thousands of children left behind. Winfrey takes a different point of view driven by her own childhood experiences and the belief that, given the opportunity, anyone can make a success of their life. In her own words, "It doesn't matter who you are, where you come from. The ability to triumph begins with you - always."

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CHRISTOPHE BERTHONNEAU "If you stop to use your lighter, most people will look up". So says Christophe Berthonneau, the man responsible for the fireworks which lit up London on New Years Eve. His fascination has moved from terrorising people as a teenager with burning paper planes to running up to 50 outdoor displays in a year. This year's £1.3m extravaganza by the Thames was praised as the best yet and a rival to Sydney's own spectacular effort.

DAVID LIVINGSTONE Feted as one of the greatest missionaries of the 19th Century, new research indicates that Dr Livingstone was not actually very good at it. A biography suggests that he only converted one person, a tribal chief, who quickly renounced his Christianity when he was asked to give up polygamy Livingstone only discovered the lapse when he noticed that one of the wives, rejected by the chief on his conversion, was showing unmistakable signs of pregnancy.

DAWN FRENCH The Church of England may be in decline in many areas but it has flourished in the fictional village of Dibley where French's character, Geraldine Granger has both amused and, occasionally abused, the members of the local Parochial Church Council. The show, first aired in 1994, has finally been laid to rest although writer Richard Curtis has promised a brief resurrection in the spring in aid of Comic Relief.

LILY COLE The catwalk is to lose one of its most high-profile names with the news that Lily Cole, the stick thin supermodel, is to take up a place at Cambridge University. The elfin-faced redhead will be reading Social and Political Science at King's College thereby disproving the idea that all models are somewhat vacuous upstairs. As one of Britain's highest paid clothes horses it's unlikely she will be eking out her undergraduate existence on baked beans.

Written by BBC News Profiles Unit's Nick Serpell