Tell-all biographer plans book on Oprah Winfrey

Kitty Kelley, a biographer known for dishing dirt on celebrities, has selected her nextsubject — OprahWinfrey.

"Oprah Winfrey has fascinated me for many years — as a woman, she has wielded an unprecedented amount of influence over the American culture and psyche," Kelley said in a statement Wednesday.

Kelley is the authorof tell-all, unauthorized biographies offamous peopleincluding Frank Sinatra, Nancy Reagan and the Bush family.

In Reagan's biography,called "encyclopedically vicious" by the New York Times, she hinted Sinatra andReaganmay have had an affair whileshe was first lady.

In her book on the Bush clan, The Family: The Real Story of the Bush Dynasty, shealleged George W. Bush brought cocaine to Camp David while his father was president, a charge later denied by the supposed source.

Crown Publishing Group, part of Random House, will publish the Winfrey biography, which does not yet have a title.

To write about Winfrey, Kelley "plans to interview hundreds of sources, many of whom have never before spoken on the record about her subject," Crown said in a statement.

Called the "colonoscopist to the stars" by satirical magazine Slate, Kelley is said to have sent her husband out on daily trawls through celebrities' garbage cans to dig up information.

She first gained notoriety with Jackie Oh!, a 1978 bio of Jacqueline Onassis thatuncovered U.S. President John F. Kennedy's infidelity.

She also wrote the 1997 book The Royals, which was never released in the U.K. because of fear of libel suits.

Kelley appears to admire the daytalk show host, who is followed by 30 million U.S. viewers a week.

"She has built an empire around her personality and has been one of America's most admired business women and philanthropists," Kelley said in her statement.

"Oprah's story is one of hope, promise and realization of the American dream."