Quick Takes: Stars turn out for Oprah

Oprah Winfrey walked onstage at Chicago’s United Center on Tuesday night to receive a standing ovation from thousands of her fans and greetings from Tom Hanks, Tom Cruise, Beyoncé, Josh Groban, Patti LaBelle and Madonna.

“You always had the power, and that is the message you brought into our lives,” Cruise told Winfrey.

The guest lineup for “Surprise Oprah! A Farewell Spectacular” was a secret, but the show quickly delivered on promises from Winfrey’s producers that the biggest names in Hollywood would be there.

Tuesday’s taping will air Monday and Tuesday, before Winfrey’s final show May 25.

—Associated Press

Pete Townshend memoir is due

A long-awaited memoir by British rock guitarist and the Who songwriter Pete Townshend will be finished and published by next year, book publisher HarperCollins said Tuesday.

The 65-year-old musician, idolized since rising to prominence with the Who in the 1960s, said in a statement released by the publisher the autobiography is “not a vanity for me. It is an essential rite of passage.”

“Rock ‘n’ roll is a tough career, however cynically or comically it is portrayed by its detractors,” Townshend said in the statement. “I am lucky to be alive and to have such a crazy story to tell, full of wild adventures and creative machinations.”

—Reuters

CW revamps its lineup for fall

The CW has renewed “One Tree Hill” and “Nikita” for another season. “Hellcats,” a struggling freshman comedy about cheerleaders, has been canceled.

Among the new series it will be offering next fall is “Ringer,” which reunites Sarah Michelle Gellar with the network formerly known as the WB and UPN, both of which once aired “Buffy the Vampire Slayer.”

Originally slated for development at CBS, the show finds Gellar playing a young woman on the run from the mob who hides out by pretending to be her twin sister — until she discovers that her twin’s in danger as well.

“Hart of Dixie” stars Rachel Bilson as a New York City doctor who inherits a medical practice in a small Southern town filled with eccentrics.

—Melissa Maerz

Edelstein leaving Fox’s ‘House’

Lisa Edelstein, who plays Dr. Lisa Cuddy on Fox’s “House,” said Tuesday she will not be returning for the medical drama’s eighth season.

The actress said in a statement that “after much consideration, I am moving on with a combination of

disappointment at leaving behind a character I have loved playing for seven years and excitement of the new opportunities in acting and producing that lie ahead.”

Edelstein’s Cuddy and Dr. Gregory House (Hugh Laurie) have had an on-off relationship.

It was not immediately clear whether the announcement came as a surprise to the show’s producers or whether the character is written out in the season finale.

—Greg Braxton

‘American Idol’ tops the ratings

“American Idol” is reestablishing its dominance heading toward the conclusion of another season.

The two airings of Fox’s contest were the most-watched programs in prime-time television last week, the Nielsen Co. said Tuesday, followed by ABC’s “Dancing With the Stars” and CBS’ “NCIS.”

CBS was the top-rated network, scoring 12 of the 18 most-watched shows of the week. ABC was runner-up.

The Nielsen list, normally published Wednesdays, will appear in The Times later this week.

—Wire reports

Finally

Broadway bound: Three one-act plays by Woody Allen, Ethan Coen and Elaine May are being bundled together and heading to Broadway this fall. John Turturro will direct them.