Rielle Hunter was once a ridiculous hippie videographer who shamefully lured John Edwards from his dying, cancer-stricken wife. Now she's got glossy respectability, made all the more lustrous by a command performance for Oprah Winfrey.

Oprah's people have confirmed the news that Hunter has granted — been granted, is more like it — an interview with TV talk-show queen Winfrey. She and Edwards believe the interview will help cast Hunter in a more favorable light, according to the National Enquirer. Well, of course: To be on Oprah is to be invited into millions of American homes and to be associated with one of the most revered names in media. It's a nice way to top a flattering spread in GQ and having your lover's wife dissed in a book by prestige political journalists. In fact it's sort of the rinse cycle of reputation laundering and, conveniently for all involved, it's slated to hit sometime during May sweeps.