OWN in Talks with Sarah Ferguson for Docu-series

Net disavows primetime talker with former Duchess; announces doc club entries fronted by Forest Whitaker, Julia Roberts and others

By Marisa Guthrie -- Broadcasting & Cable, 7/26/2010 2:16:35 PM

OWN is talking to Sarah Ferguson, the former Duchess of York, about a docu-series, not a primetime talk show, a network spokesperson confirmed.

Ferguson made headlines earlier this year when she was caught trying to sell access to her ex-husband, Prince Andrew, to a British tabloid for £500,000. Ferguson, who has been a frequent target of the dogged British press, appeared on Oprah Winfrey's daytime talk show last May to offer a tearful mea culpa for the ill-advised scheme, which resulted in Ferguson being videotaped accepting an initial payment.

"I was not in the right place," she told Winfrey. "I haven't faced the devil in the face because I was in the gutter at that moment."

The Daily Mail first reported that Fergurson was in talks to host a primetime talk show on OWN.

"We have had initial conversations with Sarah Ferguson about a docu-series, not a talk show, but there is nothing to announce at this time," said an OWN spokesperson.

OWN, a joint venture between Winfrey and Discovery, is set to launch Jan. 1, 2011. The network will have access to the entire library of The Oprah Winfrey Show and also will produce a behind-the-scenes series about the final season of Winfrey's ground-breaking talk show.

The network announced July 26, that is has lined up a bevy of Hollywood boldface names for its monthly documentary "club." Julia Roberts, Forest Whitaker, Goldie Hawn, Gabriel Byrne and Mariel Hemingway will produce documentaries that "explore human interaction, relationships and emotions," Lisa Erspamer, chief creative officer of OWN, said in statement.

The films join previously announced documentary club acquisitions Life 2.0, Sons of Perdition and Family Affair.

Whitaker will narrate and produce One Last Shot, about hospice care at Louisiana's maximum security Angola prison. Hawn will host and produce Searching for Happiness, which explores the field of "positive psychology." Byrne will produce Tent City, about homelessness in Nashville, Tenn. Julia Roberts' Red Om Films will produce a doc about mother's called Extraordinary Moms.
And Mariel Hemingway will explore her famous family's legacy of depression and suicide in Seven Suicides. Mariel Hemingway's grandfather, Ernest Hemingway and her sister, Margaux Hemingway committed suicide, while another sister, Muffet has been in an out of mental institutions since she was 16.