The Anti Oprah

She insults her fans, and they love her for it. How Chelsea Handler turned her frank, vulgar comedy act into a media empire

Jeff Minton for TIME

Chelsea Handler

CHELSEA

Handler says i must thicken my skin. She tells me I am not going to make it in this business if I let people push me around, if I get upset easily when someone I've written about is angry with me. She asks repeatedly if I am listening to her.

"You are one of the worst journalists I've ever met," she declares when I can't repeat back to her what she has just told me.

We are sitting in a back booth in a Japanese restaurant in Brentwood, Calif., facing each other over plates of sushi. Handler picks off the...

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