Watching The View

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

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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Former View co-host Star Jones has filed for divorce from her husband of three years, Al Reynolds. As you probably recall, prior to her wedding she alienated a lot of viewers with her repeated discussions of her elaborate wedding plans and the many sponsors of the event.

In a statement to Entertainment Tonight, she said: “Several years ago I made an error in judgment by inviting the media into the most intimate area of my life. A month ago I filed for divorce. The dissolution of a marriage is a difficult time in anyone’s life that requires privacy with one’s thoughts. . .

I have committed myself to handling this situation with dignity and grace and look forward to emerging from this period as a stronger and wiser woman.”

Source

The View, Star Jones

As part of my efforts to de-clutter my home, I am going through all of my old VHS tapes to see which ones I should hang onto and which ones should be discarded. I was not very diligent with my labeling, so I have to watch each of them to see what exactly is on each. It is like a journey back in time with each tape I put in the VCR.

Last night, I found an old episode of The View from 1999. I had recorded it (and saved it) because Kevin Spacey was one of the guests on the show. He was on there to promote American Beauty, which had just been released and was getting Oscar buzz. It was funny to know how that all turned out.

From a production standpoint, there were many differences between the 1999 View and the 2008 View:

Producer Bill Geddie sat in the front row of the audience and Barbara conversed with him during the hot topics.

They didn’t call the hot topics, “hot topics.”

It seemed like the five of them (Joy Behar, Star Jones, Meredith, Vieira, Lisa Ling, and Barbara Walters) were sitting incredibly close together at a table that seemed way too small for all of them.

Barbara interviewed Kevin Spacey on her own in the first segment and then the other ladies came out for the second part of the interview.

There were also some things that were exactly the same as they are now:

Barbara made a guest uncomfortable. She asked Kevin Spacey whether his masturbation scene in American Beauty was real.

Barbara complained about the ladies cross-talking.

Barbara said that she could not endorse a candidate because she is a journalist.

They also talked about how some stars have clauses in their contracts where they have to portray a certain image. They were specifically talking about Melissa Joan Hart posing for men’s magazines getting her in trouble with the creators of Sabrina the Teenage Witch. Barbara said that her contract forbids her from endorsing a candidate. Meredith said that Barbara could sit there bare-breasted and not get fired. Barbara agreed that she could sit there bare-breasted, so long as she doesn’t endorse a candidate while doing it.

They were talking about endorsing candidates because several celebrities had recently expressed a desire to run for public office, including Warren Beatty, Cybil Shepherd, Arnold Schwarzenegger and Donald Trump. Both Meredith and Star said if they were force to pick one it would be Donald Trump, which I thought was funny. Joy made a joke that if Arnold Schwarzenegger got elected then we would know what it would be like if Germany had one the war. Barbara scolded her for making an inappropriate joke. Some things never change I guess.

As an aside, the next thing on the tape was a 1999 episode of The Rosie O’Donnell Show which I had saved because Jesse L. Martin was on it. He had just gotten the role on Law and Order. Rosie convinced him to sing a little bit of a song from Rent, even though he was embarrassed. Her show still made me laugh all these years later.

I haven’t been checking the celebrity photo site lately to keep track of what public events The View hosts have been attending. A quick look today and I found several new photos of past and present hosts to share with all you. Sherri Shepherd is the only current host who didn’t have any events photos available, most likely because she has been too sick to be going out lately.

Rosie O’Donnell and wife Kelli attended Spamalot, which features Clay Aiken. On her blog, Rosie said that she loved the show and thought that Clay did a great job.

Elisabeth Hasselbeck and husband Tim attended the JCPennys American Living Launch Party last month.

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All the ladies on The View were wearing something red on today’s episode because it is the start of Heart Disease Awareness Month.

The first topic was whether Hillary Clinton can “control” her husband. Joy Behar said that he is uncontrollable. Elisabeth said that question presumes that he is already out of control. Whoopi said that Michelle Obama was a little provocative in the beginning of the campaign. Elisabeth said that people definitely pay attention to what the spouses say. She said that she does not agree with Hillary Clinton politically, but gives her a lot of credit for how she dealt with the situation with Monica Lewinsky. Joy said that Hillary also got flak for not leaving him, so she can’t win. Sherri said that it is harder to stay and push through after the spouse cheats. Whoopi wondered why people care one way or another. Sherri said that Hillary can’t run the country while worrying about if her man is sleeping around. Joy joked that it would be a good way to keep Bill out of the presidency.

Elisabeth said that Bill and Hillary work in tandem. Whoopi disagreed, saying that Hillary has always gone her own way and she won’t be leaning on Bill. Joy said that it is easier to control your man than it is to control Dick Cheney. Sherri said that if Hillary gets elected, it seems like it will always be a woman issue that people come back to. Whoopi said that if Barack Obama becomes president, will it always be a Black issue? Joy wondered if reporters will hold off criticizing Hillary because she is female or Barack because he is Black because they are afraid of being accused of being sexist or racist. Sherri said it was possible, because there was a period of time where reporters could not say anything against President Bush, following 9/11.
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Former View host Star Jones Reynolds is once again out of a job because The Star Jones Show has been canceled. The show, which airs on TruTV, formerly Court TV, will broadcast its final show today. The stated reason for the cancellation is “the rebranding and programming focus of the network.” The network revealed that Star will remain with the network as a “contributing legal expert.”

Source: MSNBC

The View, Star Jones, Star Jones Show

The first topic on The View today was how the Dalai Lama often speaks about ways to be happy. Barbara Walters interviewed him and he said that the purpose of life is to be happy and the way to do that is warmheartedness and compassion. She said that for three days after the interview she followed those principles, but her crew told her that she was boring.

Joy Behar says that sometimes if you are too happy, the other shoe will drop and something bad will happen. Whoopi Goldberg said that you can be happy, but you have to recognize that sometimes you will have not-happy moments. Sherri Shepherd said that sometimes she is so happy she thinks that she will wake up and it will have been a dream.

Barbara spoke with the governor of New Jersey, who thought he was going to die following a traffic accident. He said that it changed his outlook on life, realizing that tomorrow might not come. Elisabeth said that is too bad that it takes an incident like that for people to appreciate life.

Joy said that she had a near-death experience and following that got a divorce and went on to be a stand-up comedian. Barbara then told a joke, which I won’t bother to write out here, but it was actually funny, unlike her previous joke attempts.

There is a middle school in Maine that will be dispensing birth control pills and patches. The kids need parental permission to use the health center, but not specific permission to get the birth control. Elisabeth said that it is a prescription drug that can interfere with other drugs and has side effects, so the parents should need to know. She also said that it may provide a false sense of security for the child, who may not remember to take the pill at the same time everyday. She said that it also puts a bigger wall between parents and children.

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According to TMZ, Barbara Walters had lunch with former View co-host Star Jones Reynolds at the Carlyle Hotel yesterday. Star has previously said on her show that she hoped to meet up with Barbara at some point and maybe have her as a guest on her new show one day.

I wonder if their lunch date was as awkward as this good-bye?

The View, Star Jones, Barbara Walters

Joy Behar did an interview with Will Winkle of the LOGO network. It is a pretty interesting interview, covering topics including the changes to the cast over the years, Rosie O’Donnell, and Star Jones. At the end of the interview, Joy talks about an interview that Elisabeth Hasselbeck did with LOGO. If you missed that, it is here.

The View started with a discussion of how people are saying that Hillary Clinton is laughing a lot more to give the impression of a softer persona. Whoopi Goldberg said that people are saying that she is a shoe-in but you can’t say that yet. Joy Behar said that it seems like George Bush is trying to push her a little and he can’t be trusted. Sherri Shepherd said that Hillary is laughing at the questions they are asking her and she is unflappable. Whoopi agreed that they are asking her ridiculous questions and that is probably what she is laughing about.

Clarence Thomas has a new book, My Grandfather’s Son: A Memoir. He feels like the reason people went after him regarding the Anita Hill allegations because of his race. He also says that he was being attacked by the liberals who did not want him to get the nomination because he was against Roe v. Wade. Thomas said that the problem with affirmative action is that white people will think that Black people got into their position only because of affirmative action.

Whoopi said that people in this country do not start on equal footing, so, unfortunately, affirmative action is necessary to equalize the playing field. She added that women benefited a lot from affirmative action. Elisabeth said that she goes back and forth on affirmative action and thinks that in sometimes it is necessary. She worked on a Title IX committee while in college because she believed that women should get equal support and opportunity in college sports as men’s teams.
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Today’s recap won’t be up until later tonight, but feel free to leave comments here about what you thought about today’s episode.

Also, I posted last week about how Whoopi Goldberg told Star Jones that Sherri Shepherd is trying to learn more about politics and current events so that she can pariticpate more fully in the hot topics discussions. There was some conversation in the comments about where she would get her information from (i.e. Elisabeth Hasselbeck, Fox News).

On her MySpace page, Sherri said that she reads both the New York Times and The Washington Post each day, so that is at least part of where she is getting her information.

Whoopi Goldberg appeared on the Star Jones show today on Court TV. In her introduction, Star called Whoopi, “one of my favorite people in the whole world” and said that they have been friends for a long time.

Overall, I thought this was a really good interview. I had not seen a whole episode of Star Jones yet, and I actually, surprisingly, found her to be enjoyable. They touched on a lot of topics, including The View, Rosie O’Donnell’s book, and various “hot topics” going on in the country. Below is a fairly comprehensive recap of what they discussed.

About The View:
Whoopi said that people keep telling her that she needs to work on her face during the interview segments. She said that there are wonderful actors and actresses coming on and she “couldn’t care less” about what they are promoting. She would rather talk about cleaning products.

Star gave her a tip and said to turn her head a little to the left and the right and think “I am so happy to be here right now” and then you will look interested.

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Whoopi Goldberg will be a guest on Star Jones talk show today. The show airs on Court TV at 3:00 p.m. eastern time.

Whoopi Goldberg joins Star to discuss her new job and how she looks at the world. It’s the first time two “Viewers” discuss hot topics outside of “The View.”

the view, star jones, whoopi goldberg, the view

Want to know what really happened behind the scenes at The View over the past ten years? There may be some answers forthcoming in the new E! True Hollywood Story about The View. The episode will debut this Saturday, September 8th at 5:00 p.m. eastern time.

From the original five to the new Rosie-centric era, THS goes behind the scenes and gets down to the dirty business of chatter with the ladies from The View.

For more information and other times that the episode will air, visit E! Online.

The View, E! True Hollywood Story, THS, Star Jones, Barbara Walters, Joy Behar, Meredith Viera, Rosie O’Donnell, Elisabeth Hasselbeck, Lisa Ling