OPRAH WINFREY - WINFREY AND WALTERS IN BIDDING WAR OVER MCCANN EXCLUSIVE

WINFREY AND WALTERS IN BIDDING WAR OVER MCCANN EXCLUSIVE

U.S. TV hosts OPRAH WINFREY and BARBARA WALTERS are embroiled in a multi-million-dollar bidding war for an exclusive interview with the parents of British missing child MADELEINE MCCANN. The talk show rivals have each offered Gerry and Kate MCCann $2 million (GBP1 million) to open up about their four-year-old daughter's disappearance while on a family holiday at a resort in Portugal last May (07). The MCCanns - who are still suspects in the case - insist the cash from the lucrative TV appearance would be put toward The Find Madeleine Appeal, which is said to have dwindled to $800,000 (GBP400,000) from the $2.4 million (GBP1.2 million) it had raised with donations from the public. Clarence Mitchell, the couple's spokesman, says, "We've been approached by representatives for both Oprah and Barbara. They want an exclusive interview with Kate and Gerry. We are discussing it but nothing has been agreed."