NEW YORK – Oprah Winfrey’s network has begun not with a bang but with redeclared purpose by the Queen of Daytime for her much-anticipated cable-channel venture.

The Oprah Winfrey Network, or OWN for short, launched Saturday at noon EST with a one-hour preview special hosted by Winfrey. She provided a hearty wrap-up of the live-your-best-life fare she will curate across the network’s schedule.

A joint venture between Harpo Inc. and Discovery Communication, OWN is replacing the Discovery Health network. OWN will initially be available in more than 80 million homes.

The startup cost for the network, which was originally announced three years ago, has ballooned to a reported $189 million.

In June, Winfrey ends her wildly successful weekday syndicated show after 25 years.

Maine horror author putting ‘Pop of King’ column to bed

HUNTSVILLE, Ala. – Author Stephen King signed off his seven-year gig as a pop culture columnist with Entertainment Weekly by praising a Huntsville blues band.

King wrote in his final “The Pop of King” column that Microwave Dave & the Nukes’ slide guitar “will change your way of life” and encouraged readers to check out the band on YouTube.

Band member Dave Gallaher said he was “stunned” when he heard King wrote about the band’s song “Highway 49,” which came out in 2003. The band was formed in 1989 and has released six studio albums and performed across the globe.

The issue of Entertainment Weekly with King’s last column is set to hit newsstands Jan. 7.

Restaurateur posts photo of critic, blowing her cover; foodies find that hard to swallow

LOS ANGELES – Restaurant critics don’t like to announce themselves to the people and places they review. So they become the secret agents of journalism: They make reservations under assumed names, pay with others’ credit cards and occasionally even wear disguises when dining in an establishment where the owners or staff might know them.

Los Angeles Times restaurant critic S. Irene Virbila had her cover blown in spectacular fashion last month when a photograph of her began circulating on the Internet — posted by a restaurateur who offered his own review of Virbila’s reviews, calling them “unnecessarily cruel and irrational.”

The incident has sparked a heated discussion about fair play and the often strained relationship between reviewer and reviewed. The issue has particular relevance in the restaurant trade, where the word of a powerful critic can make or break a business overnight.

The undisputed facts are these: Virbila and three guests showed up for their reservation at a new neo-Vietnamese restaurant called Red Medicine in Beverly Hills, Calif., last week. The restaurant’s managing partner, Noah Ellis, spotted Virbila in the waiting area, approached her and declared that he knew who she was (Virbila had unfavorably reviewed one of Ellis’ partners’ work at another restaurant). He ordered her and her friends to leave. As a parting shot, he produced a camera and took a snap of Virbila.

Ellis posted the photo on the restaurant’s Tumblr site later that evening. “Our purpose for posting this is so that all restaurants can have a picture of her and make a decision as to whether or not they would like to serve her,” Ellis wrote.

But Red Medicine seems to have burned itself. Foodies flooded Yelp, the all-comers review site, to denounce the restaurant for its actions. The L.A. Weekly’s Jonathan Gold, a Pulitzer Prize-winning critic, observed: “It was a panicked move, and I suspect they knew it was dumb even as they were doing it.”