Oprah says lawyers went too far in dealing with fan

Oprah Winfrey says her lawyers shouldn't have gone after the man who is trying to promote her as a candidate for president.

Not because she's running, mind you.

"I feel flattered by it," the 52-year-old talk-show host told The Associated Press on Monday. "My lawyers overreacted, I think, by sending him a cease-and-desist order because it really is a flattering thing."

It should have been handled in a phone call, said Winfrey, who said she's thinking of calling Patrick Crowe of Kansas City, Mo., herself.

Crowe has been campaigning to urge Winfrey to run for president for years, setting up a Web site that has its own campaign song. A month ago, Winfrey's lawyers sent Crowe a letter demanding that he remove her picture from his Web site.

Winfrey's smiling face remained on www.oprah08.net Monday.

Winfrey was in New York to promote Oprah and Friends, which launched Monday on XM Satellite Radio.

In February, Winfrey signed a three-year, $55 million deal with XM Satellite Radio Holdings Inc. to launch her new radio channel, which joins her nationally syndicated television show and her O, The Oprah Magazine.

XM Satellite Radio boasts more than 7 million subscribers.