Watching The View

Today on The View, Barbara Walters returned. I missed the first minute of the show because of a local weather advisory. (Yes, there’s ice, I get it.) When it came on, Joy was showing her very high heeled shoe and Barbara was comparing it to when Chinese women had to bind their feet.

Barbara is angry about not being able to get anyone on the phone. Her friend’s daughter went on a trip to Jamaica and could not return to the United States because her Green Card had been expired. The friend had Barbara call the embassy in Jamaica. She was on the phone for three hours without talking to a person. The woman is back in the country, though. Sherri Shepherd said that she was glad that Barbara would be there to “go to bat” for her if she ever smuggles something.

Is giving a gift really better for the giver? Are you deprived of something when you don’t give gifts? Joy said that all the ladies would be receiving from her a donation to “God’s Love We Deliver” in their name. Barbara said that giving to charity is important but doesn’t want Joy to donate and say that it is in her name, because it is not a charity that she chose and then she has to write a thank you note.

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Week five of Project Blog has arrived and here is this week’s sponsor information. Don’t forget that voting continues on week four through noon today. Click here to vote. Thanks to all who have voted!

From Reality on Bravo:

Whether you’re a believer or not, astrology can be really, really interesting. Here at 451 Press, we have a whole blog dedicated to that art. Beth, from Astrology Watch, is one of the best bloggers we have, and although time restraints have kept her from participating in Project Blog, she has graciously donated a prize for you guys to win - a free mini-reading.

I’m pretty excited about this prize, because it is a bit different from what we have been doing. Instead of winning an item, you’re winning a deeper look at yourself. And that’s super-cool, in my opinion.

Want a chance to win this week’s prize? OF COURSE YOU DO. You can enter up to THREE times this week.

* For one chance, leave a comment on this post on Reality on Bravo with one thing that you’ve learned from Beth’s site.
* For a second chance, blog about this contest on your own site and email the link to me at allison.boyer-at-yahoo-dot-com.
* Want a third chance? Vote for your favorite in our Project Blog competition, and leave a comment showing support! The winner will be drawn at random from all qualifying entries. You can vote once per day for your favorite (and please do), and you can comment once on this post link (will go live on Thursday).

Please note that comments on other posts on Reality on Bravo are not considered as entries.

The winner will be drawn at random from all qualifying entries, so get your comments and posts in today! (Deadline for commenting and posting is Monday, December 17 at noon EST)

In her latest blog entry at Dreft, Elisabeth Hasselbeck writes about the troubles that she had getting Grace to sleep by herself in her big girl bed. She resorted to invoking the name of Santa and God, as well as bribery in the form of a Princess backpack, but it appears to have worked.

Elisabeth also discusses how Grace had to encourage her to take a shower and change out of her pajamas one day at two in the afternoon. For the entire entry, visit Dreft here.

Elisabeth Hasselbeck, The View, Grace Hasselbeck, Tim Hasselbeck

There is an article about View host Sherri Shepherd in People Magazine’s December 17th issue. It is a two page article which focuses on the difficulty that she has had being separated from her son Jeffrey since she moved to New York City. She also addresses in more detail the health problems that he has had since his premature birth.

Click on each page below to see each page of the article. Once it opens, you may need to click again to enlarge it so that it is big enough to read the print.

Page One

Page Two

Source: People magazine, December 17, 2007

Sherri Shepherd, Jeff Tarpley, The View

Dana Delany from Desperate Housewives sat in as guest host on The View today. On Desperate Housewives, they just had a tornado and everyone is wondering who died. She revealed that three people died on the show. The show has been on hiatus because of the writer’s strike. She almost did not come on the show because two writers asked her not to go on The View. Marc Cherry, head writer, told her to go on the show, even though The View has two writers on strike.

The first topic was Barbara Walters’ “10 Most Fascinating People” special. Whoopi Goldberg said that it did better in that time slot for ABC than any other show this season.

Joy Behar said that Al Gore still sounds angry about his loss in the election seven years ago, based on comment in his Nobel Prize speech.

The Republicans went to Florida to do a debate for Spanish language television. Whoopi said that they did not have a strong stance on immigration and no one mentioned building a wall. Sherri said that maybe the candidates thought that they were not not going to vote for them anyway. Whoopi said that maybe people would feel better if they built the wall around the whole country, including Canada. Joy said that having only a southern wall makes it seem like it is just against Mexicans and not trying to prevent terrorism.
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Whoopi Goldberg attended the opening of the new Apple Store in the Meat Packing District of New York City on Friday. Here are some photos of her at the event:

Whoopi with Mary J. Blige

Whoopi with actor Jason Lewis

Whoopi with Kendu Isaacs (husband of Mary J Blige)

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Scheduled guests for The View for the week of Dec. 10-14 are as follows (subject to change):

MONDAY, DEC. 10 - Guest co-host Dana Delany (ABC’s “Desperate Housewives”); Lorraine Bracco (ABC Family’s “Snow Globe”); musical guest Boys II Men.

TUESDAY, DEC. 11 - Lauren Ambrose (”Starting out in the Evening”); musical guest James Blunt.

WEDNESDAY, DEC. 12 - Guest co-host Sara Evans; Queen Latifah & Gabrielle Union (”The Perfect Holiday”).

THURSDAY, DEC. 13 - Megan Mullally (Broadway’s “Young Frankenstein”); Greta Van Susteren.

FRIDAY, DEC. 14 - Guest co-host Sara Evans; Sean “Diddy” Combs; musical guest Chris Botti.

My terribly hectic week continues today, so the recap will be late. I promise that next week things will be back to normal.

Last week I posted a 50-word haiku about what I think is wrong with The View right now. While many of you enjoyed it and agreed with its sentiment, it got me thinking: What can producers Barbara Walters and Bill Geddie (pictured left) do to fix it? It is certainly not as simple as telling them to have spicier and more serious hot topics. Barbara Walters has made it clear that they are afraid to, mainly because they think it will scare the audience away. I also don’t think that would entirely fix things, as there are a number of areas where the show could use improvement.

Hot Topics
The fear of true “hot topics” is a major problem. The producers are scared to lose viewers, so, as a result, they spend more time worrying about how to decorate the set for the holidays or having the hosts chat about what they are wearing than discussing a serious topic. Certainly I don’t expect to get all of my hard news coverage from The View, but the show is better when they at least get into a discussion of one or more serious issues. I would suggest that they start slow, because it will no doubt be scary for Bill and Barbara to get out of their comfort zone. Perhaps just one day a week could be dedicated to debate on serious issues, with that date being announced ahead of time. Then the producers could get an idea of how many people want those kind of topics discussed, based on the ratings. It would be very interesting to see how many former viewers would turn the television back on that day.

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Unfortunately this is a crazy week for me at my other job (the one that pays the rent), so today’s recap probably won’t be up until tomorrow, because I won’t be home until late tonight. Feel free to comment on today’s episode in the comments section.

Also, don’t forgot that Barbara Walters’ “10 Most Fascinating People of 2007″ is on tonight at 10:00 p.m. eastern time on ABC. Feel free to comment here about that show, too, if you have any thoughts on it.

The View, Barbara Walters

Melina Kanakaredes of CSI: NY appeared as guest host today on The View. Barbara Walters thought that President Bush’s press conference was frustrating. She doesn’t know why he wasn’t told that it was possible that Iran did not have nuclear weapons and that the United States may have sanctions against Iran anyway.

Barbara advertised for her special again. It airs tomorrow (Thursday) at 10:00 p.m. The 10th person is still a secret. Sherri Shepherd guessed Britney Spears. Barbara said that they try to do someone who does something positive and added that the remaining person is female and non-American. Sherri asked what Posh Spice has done to be on the list. Whoopi also could not figure out why Barbara thinks that Posh and Becks were the most fascinating. Barbara said it is because they have come to America and he is very popular and Posh is having the Spice Girls reunion tour. Sherri then asked if one of the other Spice Girls is the last person in the top 10, because she said female and non-American. Barbara said that Posh is a Spice Girl, I think missing Sherri’s point.

The next topic is that nowadays more little boys are getting toy kitchens. Melina thinks it is awesome and it lets children play and discover who they are. She thinks it is okay to give a little boy a doll. She has two girls and would let them be cowboys if they wanted. There was a little boy in her daughter’s preschool who loved to put on dress-up princess outfits. Barbara said that there is nothing bad about that, but maybe the teacher should talk to the parent. She brought up the special that she did earlier this year about transgendered children. Many of the transgendered boys dressed up like girls as children and knew at age two that they were transgendered.

Sherri said that she would be “mad as all get-up” if she learned that a teacher let her son wear a dress. She said that when he is 18 and out of the house he can wear a dress. Whoopi said at that age it is just imaginative behavior and kids liking to try out new things and the child should not be labeled. Melina said that the teacher should not call the child out and tell him to take it off in front of all the children. Barbara asked Sherri what her reaction would be if her child was gay. Sherri said that if her son were gay she would love and accept him, but would not tolerate certain behaviors in her house. She said that, similarly, if a friend came to stay with her, she cannot share a bed with her boyfriend if they are not married.
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Today’s recap of The View will not be up until later tonight. In the meantime, feel free to leave your thoughts on today’s episode in the comments section.

Also, don’t forget to enter the Watching the View holiday contest! To enter you just have to let me know what gift you would give any of the host of The View and why. For all the details check out this post.

Here is video of Congressman Ron Paul’s appearance on The View today.

The View, Ron Paul, Joy Behar, Sherri Shepherd, Whoopi Goldberg, Kate Walsh

Here are a few photos of Barbara Walters attending the 2008 AARP Magazine Inspire awards. Caroline Kennedy and Helen Thomas, both pictured with Barbara, were among the recipients.

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There have been some questions about Sherri Shepherd’s comments on The View today about Christianity and Jesus predating the time of Greek philopsher Epicurus. Here is a video segment, for those of you who missed the show today.

Sherri Shepherd, The View, Christianity, Jesus, Greeks, Epicurus