Oprah Winfrey has already begun filming her new season. So far, I’ve heard the guest line-up for the first few weeks includes interviews with ESPN’s Erin Andrews, Dr. Phil, Whitney Houston and Jay-Z, amongst others. Oprah stopped in to talk to her friend Diane Sawyer on Good Morning America this morning, and they discussed the upcoming season and specifically the Whitney Houston interview, as well as those incessant rumors that Oprah is quitting. Oprah told Diane, regarding the rumors that this will be the last year of her show, “I have to make that decision by the end of this year…I am literally in thoughtful prayer and consideration to continue to go ahead. You’ll be hearing about it before the end of the year.”

Most of the time was spent on Oprah plugging the Whitney interview, the first part of which will air this coming Monday. Oprah told Diane that Whitney “said she wanted to tell her story…She wanted to tell the truth. She gave it up. She talked about difficulty in her marriage [to Bobby Brown], how that started. She talked about the drugs, she talked about what drugs she was doing. …There wasn’t a question I asked that she didn’t answer.” There are some short clips of Oprah’s Whitney interview floating around, here’s one story:

WHITNEY HOUSTON spent seven months strung out on drugs with ex-husband BOBBY BROWN – wearing only her pyjamas.

The How Will I Know singer opens up to OPRAH WINFREY in a candid two-part TV interview, revealing her life spiralled out of control following the release of her 1992 movie The Bodyguard.

So much so, she didn’t even bother to change out of her nightwear at the depth of her drugs hell.

Comeback star Whitney has decided to come clean about her past and tell the true story of her struggle with narcotics and her turbulent, ill-fated marriage.

Previewing the candid chat, Oprah said: “It will leave you gasping. She does not blame Bobby Brown and she takes full responsibility for her engagement in drugs.”

“At one point she says, ‘I didn’t get out of my pyjamas for seven months.’”

The first part of the TV special is due to air in the US on Monday.

[From The Sun]

ABC News has another part of the interview transcript, and Whitney talks about how, when she was still with Bobby Brown, her mother came to her house to stage an intervention. Her mom came with the police in tow too! Whitney says, “Now looking at it, I see the love and passion that my mother had for me…She came and said, ‘It’s not worth it.’ She said, “If you move, Bobby, they’re gonna take you down. Don’t you make one move.’ And he stood there like, he was scared. And she said, ‘Let’s go.’ She said, ‘Let’s do this.’ She said, ‘I’m not losing you to the world. I’m not losing you to Satan. I’m not doing this. I want my daughter. I want you back. I want to see that glow in your eyes. That light in your eye.’”

It does sound like a good interview, and it sounds like Whitney was really giving it up. Here’s the thing – I like Oprah and everything (sort of) but even her most ardent fans have to acknowledge that she’s not a great interviewer. She sucks, really. She talks over people, she gets judgmental, she doesn’t phrase her questions the right way, and most importantly, she doesn’t want to talk to anyone who doesn’t kiss her ass. My guess is that this isn’t any kind of hard-hitting interview, and that Oprah sent Whitney a bunch of softballs. Whitney didn’t open up to Oprah because she’s Oprah, Goddess of the Interview. Whitney opened up because she’s in the place in her life when she’s ready to be honest.

In one last piece of Oprah news – does everyone know that Oprah and Vogue’s Anna Wintour are co-hosting the Met’s Costume Institute Gala this year? It. Will. Be. Epic. And, I have to say, “there will be blood.” Anna’s totally going to drink Oprah’s milkshake.

Here’s Whitney performing live on ‘Good Morning America’s Summer Concert Series’ at Rumsey Playfield in New York City on September 1st. Images thanks to WENN.com .