The Dinner of a Lifetime

It was an event months in the making—the dinner of a lifetime for one of Oprah's heroes, Sidney Poitier. Enthralled with Sidney from the time she was 10 years old and saw him win the Academy Award® on her black-and-white television, Oprah set out to create a magical evening with Sidney and seven lucky readers of her book club selection The Measure of a Man. "The entire event was a labor of love, really, from my heart to the man who made me believe that I could dream a bigger dream," Oprah says.

For a dinner of such magnitude, love truly was in every detail. Oprah called on master party planner Colin Cowie to pull out all the stops, starting with the lush, red velvet invitations hand-designed by premiere New York City designer Ellen Welden.