Oprah, HBO have Haggard (The TV Zone)

Ted Haggard? You remember: deposed head of the National Association of Evangelicals, and head-founder of a church in Colorado called New Life Church. He was pushed out of the church (and even the state of Colorado, as part of an agreement with the church) after admissions of a sexual relationship with a male prostitute.

He will be on "Oprah" tomorrow, and HBO Thursday - at 8, in that Alexandra Pelosi doc that's received quite a bit o' buzz in recent days.

First the news on that one: HBO today said it'll add a "card," or elaboration, at the end of the the Thursday program to acknowledge the most recent scandal to envelop "Pastor Ted" - he reportedly had a "non-physical" (he says) relationship with a man who was a member of the church, and who was paid money over the last couple of years; implication is that it was "hush money" but the man claims that was not the case.

I've reviewed the doc for Thursday's paper - it's good, as in "fascinating" but incomplete as far as it goes. Still, the portrait that emerges is a tragic one ...

Now, O. Here's stuff from the press release, in the jump...

"During the hour, Oprah asks Ted the questions on everyone's mind: Is he gay? Is he straight? Does he still have sexual thoughts about men? How did he tell his wife? What did he say to his children? In a riveting discussion, Haggard discusses the struggle within himself. Asked by Oprah how long he had been fighting his urges, Haggard answers 'I think all of my adult life.' He adds, 'I was desperately praying and hoping that God would do a miracle in me and I would be okay before I embarrassed my family and my friends.'

"Upon Ted first admitting the truth to his wife, she says, 'The first words out of my mouth were 'Who are you?'' She continues, 'I think that was as big a shock as I could have received. I can't think of anything that would have been a greater shock to me…' But Gayle also reveals that Ted had first shared his struggles with same-sex attraction with her years before. 'I felt it was the thing that could destroy Ted if he gave in to it. So I prayed for him and I felt as though he was winning the battle,' she says."

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Oprah, HBO have Haggard

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