Oprah Angers Neighbours With Construction Work

Top-rated talk show host Oprah Winfrey has lost popularity with a group of
very angry people - her neighbours.

Billionaire Oprah is currently in the midst of renovating her mansion in
Montecito, California, and the constant noise from work on the sprawling
property has left local residents furious.

JOHN PRITZLAFF, Oprah's next-door-neighbour, fumes, "It's been going on
too long, and I'm really annoyed. My wife is furious."

Pritzlaff's driveway runs along the rear service entrance of Oprah's
40-acre property and, as a result, he gets an earful of the non-stop convoy of
construction trucks that lumber back and forth throughout the day.

LAURIE CUMMINS, 86, another angered neighbour who lives on the back of
Oprah's property, adds of the work, "It isn't supposed to star until 8am. But
it starts about 6.30am and it wakes everybody up.

"Often, there are so many trucks waiting to unload building materials,
they block my driveway, as well as my neighbours'. It's unbelievable how
inconvenient all this is."

Oprah bough the property in 2001 and renamed it TARA II after SCARLETT
O'HARA's home in Gone With The Wind. County officials recently allowed her
construction plans - even though she failed to get the required approval prior
to work.