Oprah audience arrives Down Under

Oprah Winfrey's giddy audience of 300 arrived in Australia Tuesday to begin enjoying the talk show queen's ultimate giveaway - an eight-day journey across the land Down Under, The Associated Press reports.

Winfrey kicked off her 25th and final season of "The Oprah Winfrey Show" in September by surprising her shrieking, jumping and sobbing fans with what she's billed as the trip of a lifetime. The hand-picked audience was made up of some of who the program called its most loyal viewers during the years.

The itinerary for "Oprah's Ultimate Australian Adventure" remains a closely guarded secret. Excited audience members - who Tuesday still had no idea exactly where in Australia they'd be heading - waved at reporters and photographers as they were ushered through a Sydney airport and onto a bus, which whisked them away to a hotel for a briefing. Winfrey was traveling separately by private jet and was expected to land sometime later in the day or week (that, too, was being kept secret.)

WINFREY IN HBO DRAMA

Winfrey will star for HBO Films in "Ruined," an adaptation of Lynn Nottage's Pulitzer Prize-winning play, Dateline.com reports. "Ruined" focuses on a brothel in war-torn Congo and the struggles of its madam to keep herself and the women working for her from getting caught between the government and rebel armies. Winfrey last played an on-screen starring role in the 1998 movie "Beloved."