The View October 24th Recap: George Carlin and James Lipton
Kassie DePaiva sat in as guest host today, in this first day of Elisabeth Hasselbeck’s maternity leave. Joy Behar was back after missing yesterday due to a cold.
The first topic today was the fires in California. Whoopi Goldberg thinks that it is irritating that the reporters are “up in people’s faces” asking them how it feels to have their house burned down and asking them what they wished they would have taken that they did not.
Kassie said that her sister was evacuated and she has other family that almost needed to be evacuated. Sherri thinks that the reporters should ask them if there is anything they can do for them. Kassie said that our culture loves to feed on people in distress and exploit it. Joy Behar said that this is the largest evacuation in American history since the Civil War.
The Lieutenant Governor of California said that President Bush coming to the State is all about public relations and he does not even want the president to come because it takes away from the hard work of the firefighters. He suggested that the President bring the National Guard back from Iraq to help. Some media people thought that comment was inappropriate because it politicizes a situation that is not about politics. Kassie said that maybe it is in bad taste, but we need help here. She said that if we don’t have the resources here, then we need to bring them back.
Kassie said that he should go to see the devastation. Joy asked why he did not go to New Orleans right away after Katrina, but he is on top of this. Whoopi said that President Bush was shamed after Katrina around the world. She does not think that he should go to California now, because it would be a distraction and the governor has things under control.
Joy said that living in San Diego you make a deal with the devil in that you get perfect weather, but you have to deal with mudslides, fires, and earthquakes. She said that living in New York they are the target of terrorists, but they still stay.
Whoopi and Sherri were wearing shirts that were sent by Nick from the show Cavemen. It had the View hosts looking like cavemen in sort of a pop art motif. Sherri said that Elisabeth and Joy look good, but her and Whoopi look like cro-magnon man.
Whoopi said that a new poll revealed the Philadelphia is the ugliest city in the United States. Sherri said that her cousin lives in Philadelphia and he is so fine that she would get with him herself if he wasn’t her cousin. Kassie said that she got married in Kentucky and on the marriage application she had to write if she was related to her soon-to-be-spouse and, if so, how they were related.
Whoopi said that the standard of beauty is blond, blue eyes and weighing four ounces. Kassie said that affects young girls who think that they have to look a certain way. Whoopi said that it used to be that people were worried that there was so much mixing that we would all end up being the same color. She wonders if the movement for everyone to be blond is an anti-mixing movement. Joy admitted that she is not a natural redhead and then Kassie flipped her hair up to show the dark hair underneath and said that was her natural color. She said that she highlights her hair with Jolene facial bleach. Sherri said that she likes to change her appearance often, but doesn’t know if blond hair would work for her. Joy said that she should try it. Whoopi said that if Sherri comes in with blond hair, she is going to put her over her knee and spank her.
Sherri went out to a nightclub to see a man who was an R&B star in the 1980s. She has fantasized about the man for the last 20 years. She did not want to see say his name. He acted like a “queen” and like he had been using crack. She said that her sexual fantasy was gone.
Joy said that the last time she felt that way was with James Dean. When he died on her, she hasn’t put anyone on a pedestal since. Whoopi said that you cannot put celebrities on pedestals because they are human. Kassie said that her soap fans are great, but they feel like they do know her, so she tries to put her best foot forward in public.
Kassie’s son has cochlear implants to help him hear. He appeared on All My Children with a storyline about a hearing impaired boy. The implants are $100,000 surgery, but she thinks that it should not be a privilege; anyone should get it who needs it.
George Carlin appeared on the show. He just turned 70 years and to celebrate 50 years in show business, he has released a DVD collection of all of his HBO specials. He said that his ideas for material have gotten richer as he has gotten older. He matured into a writer who performed his own material.
If he were starting in comedy today as a 20 year old, he does not know if he would have been the same person. He thinks that it would have been harder to start now, because it is hard to do things your way anymore. His advice to young people is to do what you love and do it well and if people pat you on the back for it, you got it.
His 1992 HBO show was the first live comedy special on HBO. It was the first time that he did essays rather than bits. He thinks that was a pivotal point in career. There is a part of the show called “The planet is fine, the people are f-d up.” He said that people are selfish and just want to change the planet so that they have a nicer place to live. He said that “the fires and the floods and everything, they overbuild, they put nature to the test, and they get what’s coming to them.” He said that if you really understand that nature is a part of the inside of all of us, then you don’t overbuild.
James Lipton appeared on the show to talk about Inside the Actor’s Studio, which airs on Bravo. He wrote a book called Inside Inside about the show and his life. He said that he wanted to be as candid in his book as he wants the actors to be on his show.
Sherri said that he is so staid and stoic on the show, but he reveals in the book that he was a pimp in Paris. A very long time ago, when he was a very young man, he became a partnered with a prostitute. He was not a pimp in the traditional American sense of a pimp in that he did not exploit the woman.
He has interviewed over 200 celebrities for his show and he has never gotten nervous. Both Whoopi and Barbara Walters have been on the show. He does two weeks of research on his own for every guest that comes on the show.
If you watch his show, you know that at the end he asks the guests 10 questions. Sherri asked James some of those questions.
What is your favorite curse word? Jesus Christ
What turns you on? Words
What turns you off? Humiliation, especially toward a defenseless child.
If heaven exists, what would you like to here God say when you get to the pearly gates? “See, Jim, you were wrong, I do exist, but you may come in anyway.”
I have to agree with the previous commenters today (be sure to check out all the comments at that link) that this episode seemed to flow a lot better than it has lately. I suppose just changing out Elisabeth with another person (and having Barbara off) made things different, and thus more interesting. I also think that Kassie was an interesting host in her own right.
The View, Whoopi Goldberg, Sherri Shepherd, Kassie DePaiva, Joy Behar, George Carlin, James Lipton, wildfires, Philadelphia
