Emmy nominee Wendy Williams received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame Thursday in celebration of the 11th season of her syndicated television talk show.
Radio personality Elvis Duran and Jack Abernethy, the CEO of Fox Television Stations, were among those joining Williams at the ceremony in front of the Hudson Apartments on Hollywood Boulevard, near Cahuenga Boulevard.
Referring to her self as "Noprah'' to dismiss any comparisons between her and Oprah Winfrey, Williams heaped praise on her fans, although she doesn't like that term.
"And my fans — I slipped and called you fans only because I'm in Hollywood, and I think I've gone Hollywood — but you're not fans. That's a stupid word to me,'' she said. "I've always called you Wendy Watchers. When you listened on the radio I tell you I loved you for listening, now I tell you I loved you for watching. You are Wendy Watchers, and without you, none of this would be going on.''
Her star is the 2,677th since the completion of the Walk of Fame in 1961 with the first 1,558 stars.
Williams received outstanding entertainment talk show host Daytime Emmy nominations from 2015-17 and again this year. Her other honors include induction into the National Radio Hall of Fame in 2009 and having the street in Asbury Park, New Jersey, on which she grew up renamed Wendy Williams Way.
The purple Tadashi dress and the Christian Louboutin shoes Williams wore in 2009 on her first photographic shoot to promote "The Wendy Williams Show'' are part of the collection of the National Museum of American History, one of the Smithsonian Institution's museums in Washington, D.C., along with a wig she wore on the show, a pink microphone used to interview viewers, a hand-held "diva fan'' used to reward audience members and home viewers for their participation in the show and the script for its 500th episode, which aired on May 23, 2012.
News
Top news of the day
Williams hosted a nationally syndicated radio show from 2001-09. Her television talk show began with a six-week tryout in the summer of 2008 in four markets. It began airing nationally in July 2009 and has been renewed through 2022.
Born July 18, 1964, in Asbury Park, Williams received a bachelor's degree in communications in 1986 from Northeastern University, where she was a disc jockey for its radio station, WRBB-FM.
Williams began her professional career with WVIS-FM in the U.S. Virgin Islands. She later worked for stations in Washington, D.C. and Philadelphia before landing her own show, "The Wendy Williams Experience," on New York's WBLS where she gained notoriety for her candid interviews with celebrities. In 2006, Williams landed a VH1 reality series by the same name. "The Wendy Williams Experience" chronicled her on-air interviews as well as red carpet events.
Williams is also a fashion designer and author of seven books, including a New York Times best-selling autobiography. She appeared in the films "Think Like A Man'' and its sequel, "Think Like A Man Too,'' and the Broadway musical "Chicago.''