Oprah on Madonna, Cheney on Torture

O-PROVAL Winfrey blesses Madonna • Stamp of approval: Oprah Winfrey has handed Madonna the ultimate mandate in her adoption of David Banda. "I have to say, Madonna, that's a brave thing that you did.... This audience, I know, applauds you for it," the James Frey lover/hater said. Winfrey also threw her support behind Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes's burgeoning romance, so she might not be the best judge of character.

• He believed he could fly: Reichen Lehmkuhl, memoirist and boyfriend of newly out 'NSyncer Lance Bass, says he gets threatened over his tell-all about life as a gay Air Force captain. "There are threats that come in from people who do not want me to be so public and expose what is going on in the military," Lehmkuhl tells Inside Edition. "I am not going to hide."

• Water, water everywhere: Ever the champion of human rights, Dick Cheney, lets it slip that the Administration allows the CIA to subject Gitmo detainees to water-boarding, which, despite the way it sounds, is not an extreme sport. On whether or not he considers it torture, the bald-headed eagle responds, "It's a no-brainer to me."

• D-list terror suspect cries for attention: Ramzi Binalshibh says he has been "wrongfully imprisoned and treated unfairly by the U.S. government." This is the guy who four times allegedly tried to join the 9/11 attackers and was denied each time—the Tara Reid of 9/11.

• Father forgive thyself? The Washington Post reports that a former altar boy says he, too, was sexually abused in the '70s by the retired Catholic priest who acknowledged fondling former congressman Mark Foley when Foley was a boy.

• Gay per view: Bravo greenlights production of Top Hair, which is like the upcoming series Top Designer— but for hairdressers. Or it's like Top Chef—for homosexuals. Coming inevitably to Bravo: Top Top.

• Veiled insult: The debate about Muslim women and veils continues with comments from Australian cleric Sheik Taj Aldin al Hilali, who describes the custom as follows: "If you take out uncovered meat and place it outside ... without cover, and the cats come to eat it ... whose fault is it, the cats' or the uncovered meat's? The uncovered meat is the problem. If she was in her room, in her home, in her hijab (the headdress worn by some Muslim women), no problem would have occurred." Australian Prime Minister John Howard calls the comments "appalling and reprehensible." PETA can't be happy with this, either.