'Beloved' fan talks with Oprah

Not many people expect to hear the words, "Hello, this is Oprah" when they answer the phone. But that's exactly what happened when Graduate School of Education Lecturer William Franklin picked up his receiver two weeks ago. Winfrey was gathering fans for a round table discussion about her new movie, Beloved, based on the book by Toni Morrison, Franklin said. The discussion was taped and appeared on last Friday's episode of the top-rated daytime talk show. Franklin --Ewho is also the faculty Master of DuBois College House -- said that after seeing Beloved, he emailed Winfrey via her Web page telling her how much he liked the movie. But the call from the world-famous actress and talk show host came as a surprise. "My first reaction was, who's playing on the phone," he said. "I thought maybe it was a friend or a colleague or something." But it was not a joke. Franklin was flown to Chicago on October 22, along with six other people who had e-mailed Winfrey about the movie. The six were selected from thousands of fans who emailed the Web site, Winfrey said on the show. The six ate dinner with Winfrey and the director of Beloved, Jonathan Demme. While eating, they had a three-hour-long conversation about the movie and how it had impacted their lives, according to Franklin. Clips of their conversation were aired as "A Beloved Dinner" on Oprah's show last Friday. Beloved is the story of a slave who kills her daughter because she does not want her to grow up as a slave. Sethe, the character that Winfrey plays, is then haunted by the ghost of her dead daughter. The dinner conversation revolved around the movie's powerful imagery and storyline, which Demme said was emotionally draining to film. "Actors would cry in between scenes because they couldn't handle it." he said. Everyone who attended the dinner talked about how much the movie touched them and opened their eyes to the enormous human tragedy of slavery. Audrey, a participant in the discussion whose last name was not released by the show's producers, talked about how the movie reflected an experience that she had. "I was contacted by a gentlemen who was the great grandson of a slave that my fourth great grandfather had owned," she said. Franklin said he is still reeling from the experience of seeing the movie. "It shows once again that looking at these type of images on the screen is not easy," he said. "That's probably why the movie hasn't caught on as much as [Oprah] hoped, its just too powerful." The film has made only $18.6 million in the three weeks since its release. Franklin, 35, holds a Ph.D. in Educational Psychology from the School of Education at Stanford University.

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