Watching The View

Barbara Walters will continue her cross-country book tour for her memoir Audition with a stop at The Ellen DeGeneres Show on Wednesday. The show has already been taped and you can see a preview clip at Ellen’s website.

The View, Barbara Walters, Ellen DeGeneres, Audition

If you have not yet had enough of Barbara Walters talking about her memoir Audition, check out these clips of Barbara Walters from last night on Larry King Live in which she talks about Star Jones and Rosie O’Donnell.

The View, Barbara Walters, Star Jones, Rosie O’Donnell, Audition

Whoopi Goldberg started The View today talking about the Tony nominations which came out this morning. She will be hosting the awards show, but she prefers “guide” to “host.” She then read many of the nominees.

Then Whoopi said “Let’s talk about the damn Bachelor.” Elisabeth said that the finale was “truly special.” She was upset that the man called the woman “monkey” when he proposed. Sherri wanted him to pick the other woman because he said that he was falling in love with her and there was more passion. Joy said that he will marry the one woman, but have sex with the other. Elisabeth disagreed, saying that he called “monkey” a great lover. Whoopi said that “monkey”’s father Lorenzo Lamas would probably not approve of the bachelor calling his daughter a “great lover” on television. (although she used another word that got bleeped out, maybe “great lay”? Not sure). They talked about whether her had sex with all the contestants and Elisabeth hopes that they got the HPV vaccine.

They showed a picture of a 6-foot cow and Whoopi said that she wants to leave the planet. Sherri said that she would be scared to eat meat from that cow because it looks like it was on steroids. Elisabeth said it would make a great burger. Joy said that she worries about the gas from that cow and Whoopi said that they could use it for wind energy.
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The first topic on The View today was (another) poll, this one about “what people want.” For example, 44% of people want a limit on how many times a person can re-marry. Sherri Shepherd said that if someone gets married seven times, maybe it is not working out. Whoopi said that just because they were married that many times, doesn’t mean than the marriages were not good throughout. Also 41% of people want a renewable contract for marriage after five years. Whoopi said that can help people work on things and move on if they want to. She also added that if a couple doesn’t have kids, a divorce is not a big deal. Elisabeth said that marriage should be more of an investment than five years. The poll said that 29% of people want to be President. Barbara was surprised that it is not more.

People would also look to hear more “Yes, ma’am” or “No, ma’am” from children. Sherri has her nieces and nephews to say “Miss Barbara” or “Miss Goldberg.” Barbara said that she doesn’t like hearing ma’am from a 40 year old, then she feels old. Whoopi said that is based on where you grew up. Barbara said that reporters asked her daughter if she remembered Senator Brooke from her childhood. Jackie said that she did and that she had a lot of “uncles” growing up, but they never stayed over. Whoopi said, “You were busy.” Moments later Barbara took the whole thing back, saying Jackie didn’t have a lot of “uncles.”
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Barbara Walters signed copies of her new memoir Audition on Tuesday at Barnes and Noble in New York City. Here are a few photos of the event.

If you are interested to find out if she is coming to your area, check out this list: Barbara Walters’ book signing schedule.

The View, Barbara Walters, The Oprah Winfrey Show

Barbara Walters appeared in a taped broadcast on The Oprah Winfrey Show today. She talked a lot about The View, as well as her affair with Senator Brooke, and her family. I will also post video of the interview if it becomes available.

* Barbara named her book Audition because she feels that she has been auditioning her whole life. She feel that she didn’t belong as a child and has been auditioning throughout her professional life.

* The View is a “very happy place” and she looks forward to doing it. The first 9 years were also happy. Then Meredith Viera announced that she was leaving and then Star Jones started to change.

* Star Jones decided not to tell people about her gastric bypass surgery and they had to sit on the show as she lied and said it was portion control and pilates. Barbara went along with the lies because Star was her colleague and she honored her wish.

* Star wanted the most extravagant wedding and so she promoted the items on the show to get them free. Barbara said “we made a big mistake” by allowing her to do the promotion. She and Bill Geddie put a stop to it, so Star went on other shows.
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Barbara Walters attended the “Superheroes: Fashion and Fantasy” Costume Institute Gala at The Metropolitan Museum of Art last night in New York City. Below are some photos of her from the event, including one with Charlie Rose.

The View, Barbara Walters, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Charlie Rose

Elisabeth Hasselbeck talked about running the Revlon Run/Walk, which I wrote about this morning.

Whoopi Goldberg is getting the Spirit of Achievement award. Elisabeth said she saw a photo of Whoopi and her granddaughter in the paper. Whoopi said that she has become more public than she has in the last few years. Barbara’s dog Cha Cha was in the New York Times as part of a review of her book Audition, which is on sale tomorrow.

Barbara’s appearance on Oprah Winfrey will air tomorrow. Barbara said that the story leaked about her affair with Senator Edward Brooke. Sherri said that is the story she loved in the book. Whoopi said that Barbara is the last person she thought would have a deep dark hot affair. She didn’t think of her as attached, but rather as a forerunner for women on television. Sherri said it was “steamy” and Elisabeth said it was “intense” and “a page-turner.” Barbara did not want to talk about it because it will be in the Oprah interview. Joy said to tell The View audience before she tells Oprah! Barbara told him in advance that she was going to reveal the affair in the book. Barbara said that to do the book right, she needed it to be personal, so she included the affair.
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Today on a prerecorded, but new, episode of The View, all five ladies were at the table. Joy Behar talked about how she hung out with Bill Clinton the other night at the Rachael Ray charity event. She said that he is more mellow now, but still has the charisma. She added that he has aged rapidly, which Whoopi Goldberg blamed on his heart problems. Sherri Shepherd asked Joy if he made her feel feminine and she said yes. Joy said that Barack Obama has that charisma, more than the other two candidates do. Elisabeth said that she is not looking for a commander of charisma, but a commander in chief.

Elisabeth’s grandmother had to go to the hospital and Elisabeth’s mom learned that the hospital had been giving her someone else’s medication for a day and had not given her any of her required medication, including insulin which she has taken for 40 years. Her grandmother is okay and out of the hospital. (I think the way that Whoopi led into this anecdote that this was the “thing that happened” that Elisabeth didn’t want to talk about on Monday).
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In an interview on The Oprah Winfrey Show to discuss her memoir Audition, set to air on Tuesday, Barbara Walters admitted to having an affair in the 1970s with then-married Senator Edward Brooke. Brooke, the first African-American to be elected to the Senate, served from 1967-1979.

The affair lasted several years and never became public at the time. Both she and Brooke knew that had the affair come to light, it would have ruined both their careers, so the affair came to an end.

Barbara has talked on The View about how she is afraid now that she has possibly revealed to much in the book and, in all likelihood she was talking, at least in part about the affair.

The interview with Oprah also covered Barbara’s embarrassment about her older sister who was mentally retarded. According to a reader of Rosie’s blog, Barbara also talks about what she deems as Rosie’s “rage” problem, although I have not seen any confirmation of that fact yet.

The photo above is Barbara in 1976. Her book is out next Tuesday.

Source: AP

The View, Barbara Walters, Audition, Edward Brooke

Today on The View, Elisabeth Hasselbeck was absent. Whoopi Goldberg, who was sporting sunglasses today, said that Elisabeth was home with sick children. Barbara Walters signed 1600 copies of her book yesterday in Tennessee and got in late last night. Then she received the call from Bill Geddie that she needed to come in today.

The first topic was Paula Abdul’s on-air gaffe on American Idol where she criticized a song which she had not heard on the show. She had heard part of his song in rehearsal. Barbara said that they should be judging them live. Suddenly Whoopi realized that she had dark sunglasses on and could not see anything, so she took them off. Barbara said that Paula’s mistakes are part of what people tune in for. Joy said that it is like pulling the curtain back and showing that reality shows are not real. Sherri said it was not fair because she said his second song was not as charismatic and that could have stuck in the voters’ minds.
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The first 22 minutes of The View was preempted today by a President Bush news conference. When the show was joined already in progress, they were at the tail end of a conversation about binkies. That ended almost immediately and went to commercial. Anyone in Canada or in a different time zone not affected by the preemption, please post in the comments about what they talked about! Hopefully ABC will post the clips later today.

Newt Gingrich joined the ladies at the table when they came back from commercial. He has a book called Days of Infamy. Joy jokingly asked if the book was about the eight years of President Bush.

Gingrich thinks that Rev. Wright is deliberately trying to harm Barack Obama based on the things he said especially yesterday. He thinks that maybe Obama is no longer acceptable to Rev. Wright’s way of thinking how Black people should be and that being middle class is selling out. Whoopi said that is a stretch and doesn’t think he is trying to hurt Obama. She thinks that it is because Wright is not running for president that he is speaking out. Joy pointed out that John McCain said that he doesn’t believe that Obama shares beliefs with Wright. She asked why we can’t just put the issue to bed.
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As part of May sweeps, The View will be having weekly segments about Barbara Walters’ memoir Audition, which is out May 6th. I guess if you have a platform like that to publicize your book, you should do it, right? Hopefully it won’t be like her specials in that she reveals too much about the book, so there is not much left to read. I think the first segment in this series of segments will be next week, as there is no mention of it on this week’s schedule (which is below).

I am looking forward to her book, mostly to see what, if anything, she actually reveals about the backstage goings-on at the show. I also am also curious to know more about her relationship with her daughter.

I am hoping that I can get a review copy of it so that I don’t actually have to pay for it. I managed to get a review copy for Rosie O’Donnell’s book Crafty U, so it could happen. (My review of Rosie’s book coming once I have actually completed one of the crafts. Visually the book is absolutely stunning, but I have to try at least one of the crafts before giving a proper review).

Are you all looking forward to Barbara’s book?

Here is The View schedule for the rest of this week:

TUESDAY, APRIL 29 – Day of Hot Topics.

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 30 – Nominations for the “35th Annual Daytime Emmy Awards,” Tyra Banks (“Tyra”).

THURSDAY, MAY 1 – Uma Thurman (“Accidental Husband”); Gloria & Emilio Estefan (“Noventa Millas”).

FRIDAY, MAY 2 – Gwyneth Paltrow & Robert Downey, Jr. (“Iron Man”).

Today on The View was an “hour of hot topics.” I really don’t understand why they call it that when it includes celebrity guests. Maybe someone can explain it to me. Although Mia Farrow was initially on the guest list for today’s episode, she was not on the show.

It is Sherri Shepherd’s birthday, so Whoopi stood up and danced and sang for her. She turns 41 today. It is also her son’s birthday today. (Video of Whoopi Goldberg’s dance for Sherri at the end of this post)

Today is the Pennsylvania primary and Whoopi said that a study shows that people vote for the candidate close to their age. Elisabeth joked that she likes to double her age and add 10 to get her candidate. Joy said that Barack Obama is getting the young vote, Hillary Clinton the older vote, and McCain is getting the dead vote. Barbara said that she wouldn’t have made that joke when Cindy McCain was on yesterday and Joy said that she had to be polite when she was on.
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