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http://s2smagazine.com/stories/2012/10/oprah-developing-drama-hbo

With ratings on the rise at OWN, and new movie and TV projects on the horizon, Oprah Winfrey has no regrets about ending her daily talk show.

While her network’s ratings struggled last year, Oprah said things are looking up now; but she admits it wasn’t easy.

“I needed to get my butt over there to Wilshire Blvd. to the network. It was surprising to me how challenging it was,” said Oprah, who now has free time to work on other projects.

The Color Purple actress recently worked with Terrence Howard and Jane Fonda on The Butler, a film about an African-American man who served in the White House under several presidents.

“He is crazy fun,” Oprah said of her co-star Terrence, with whom she shared a love scene. Terrence apparently made channeling her inner bad girl easy. “There’s enough bad there to work with. That’s a bad boy,” she told “Entertainment Tonight.”

Oprah is also working behind the camera, but not just for her network. Her Harpo Films Studio is developing a drama for HBO about the Black president of a liberal arts college.

“He and his family are thrust into national headlines, forcing them to present an idyllic public façade, all while engaging in agonizing personal battles and struggling with dark obsessions,” according to The Hollywood Reporter.

That might explain why the media mogul feels so confident that leaving her highly successful talk show was the right thing to do.

“I have not one regret about leaving that show because I did exactly what I wanted to do. If I had done the 26th year, there is no question that we would have had to go to outer space and take the audience,” Oprah joked. “I never regret.”