Watching The View

Although you may watch The View and think that you have nothing in common with newest co-host Sherri Shepherd because of her academic blunders or her religious upbringing, based on my interview with her, I have developed this list of things that you probably do have in common with her.

1. Your family is the most important thing in your life.
Sherri makes no secret that her number one priority is her son Jeffrey. She is trying to win custody of her two-year-old following her divorce. Complicating the issue is that her son has health issues that make living in the cold winter climate of New York difficult. Her love her son was evident throughout our conversation and it is clear that she makes all of her career decisions with Jeffrey in the forefront, frequently expressing the importance of making (and saving) money to care for her son. When she learned that she was diagnosed with diabetes, she knew she had to get healthy for her son.

2. You care about the upcoming election.
Although she admitted on The View that she has never voted before, Sherri is trying to learn as much as she can about the political process because she now recognizes the importance of this election. She is trying to decide which candidate to vote for that will be the best for the country and her family.


3. You take public transportation to work.
Despite being on a popular morning talk show, Sherri doesn’t have a car service pick her up or have a personal chauffeur. Like many New Yorkers, she takes the train to work. She said that she is able to do so pretty much unnoticed.

Sometimes when I am on the train, someone will say, “I love your show” or I will be on the bus and someone will say “Love your show, Sherri.” That is probably the weirdest thing when they address me by name.

I think because I am so new, people might think I am that girl, but they are not sure. I don’t get a lot of that stuff, which is why I don’t really see myself as a celebrity.

Nobody really recognizes me. Maybe one or two people will come up to me. I walk around like a regular normal person. What I love about people in New York is that New Yorkers have places to go. They don’t time to be ogling over a celebrity, unless it is like Brad Pitt.

4. You have common sense.
Sherri said that although people may think she does not have common sense, she does. The proof? She turned down an opportunity to audition for the a role in the Broadway version of The Color Purple because she felt that she could not perform the role at the level that the part requires, given the powerful (and serious) singing it requires.

They called me in to audition for The Color Purple. They weren’t sure if they were going to continue the run after Chaka Khan, but asked if I would come in and sing for the musical director. I said, “You want me to follow Chaka Khan?”

If I could do something where it was a cabaret and I could sing and be funny, that’s great. (If I did The Color Purple) I would be vilified. If I thought it was bad now on the blogs, let me (be) in The Color Purple, so I said no. People that don’t think I have common sense, I do.

5. You know that the world is round.
Despite what you may think, Sherri Shepherd does indeed know that world is round. Following the incident in which she said that did not know if the world was round or flat, she went on The Tonight Show and said that she was not used to defending her faith and got flustered.

During the incident, Whoopi challenged her on the question of evolution by asking if she believes that the world is round, which is something else, like evolution, that science has determined. Here is how she described the aftermath of the incident, which she described as a “brain fart,” to me during our interview:

When we finished . . . Barbara looked at me and said “By the way, dear, the world is round” and I said, “I know that, Barbara.” And she said, “Well you said you didn’t know.” I was thinking, “Oh my gosh, I can’t believe I even said that. I am walking back home, saying, “Well, it was a brain fart. It wasn’t a biggie.”

Then my friend called me and he said that you are the number two Googled person. Then I went on the internet and all these blogs were writing about me and my website crashed because of all the messages I was getting. And I was getting these nasty e-mails, saying “You’re stupid,” and “I wouldn’t let my third grader go to school with you” and I was horrified.

That’s when I realized that I was on a show where everyone looks at every word that comes out of your mouth. Some of the e-mails that I received personally really hurt, because I thought, “It was just a mistake.”

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This post is my entry for this week’s Project Blog competition. Go here to vote. For the rest of my interview with Sherri Shepherd, go here.

Here are the other contestants:
Sally, Style Fix: “Rerun of Runway Sends me into Total Recap Mode”
Mark, Get Incensed: “Under Pressure”

Again, here is the final prize pack for the winning blogger and this week’s assignment:

The overall Project Blog winner gets a prize pack of awesome schtuff, which includes:

• An autographed picture of Jackie Warner, courtesy of Sky Sport and Spa
• A pair of shoes from the newest line from Jonathan Kayne
• A Soffe college hoodie, courtesy of me, BCS Frenzy!
• Gold-plated earrings from Aurora at Between My Sheets
• A pet portrait, courtesy of Intricate Art
• A set of bud vases from Top Design’s Jonathan Adler

Like I said, every week there will also be a prize for readers. This week, don’t forget to leave a comment here for your chance to win one of the Stress Less prizes up for grabs!

Here’s this week’s competition challenge for the remaining four contestants:

This week, Project Runway was a rerun, but don’t worry - we’re still having a challenge here. It’s a simple yet elegant one - give us a list. Research shows that the more scan-able your content is, the more people will get out of it. It can be a bulleted list, a numbered list, a list with pictures…or anything else. Wow us - this is for the final two!

The View, Sherri Shepherd, Whoopi Goldberg, election