Barbara Walters, who has already come to light for admitting to an affair with a Senator, also has put in her book how much she loves Star Jones, and Rosie O’Donnell. Walters reveals about her fantastic relationships with both Jones and O’Donnell, claiming that both had diva like behavior. I’m sorry Mrs. Walters, I just can’t believe that the delightful Jones, and super sweet Rosie, could ever be divas!
From The Dirty Disher:
Walters is also candid about her dicey relationship with former “The View” co-host Jones. When Jones refused to admit publicly that she had gastric bypass surgery to lose weight, her co-workers were forced to lie for her…
“Joy [Behar], in particular, resented having to go along with a lie that implied all one needed to do was situps and ingest one cookie instead of two,” Walters says.
Jones’ downfall came when she publicized her lavish wedding to Al Reynolds on the show and accepted free gifts for the nuptials in return for promoting the stores on-air.
The wedding, Walters says, turned Jones from the most popular person on the show to the most loathed.
That’s when ABC decided not to renew her contract and Jones gave an interview to People magazine saying she had been fired to make room for O’Donnell.“Star seemed to have a difficult time finding another job. I still feel it might have been easier for her to find a new position if she had left the program in the graceful way we had suggested,” Walters writes.
Walters says the show probably never would have reached out to O’Donnell if Jones had remained on the program because there was such bad blood between the two women.The network was worried that O’Donnell would be too “volatile” a personality, but Walters vouched for her and lobbied to get her on the show.
The tides soon turned against O’Donnell, too, as O’Donnell quickly became a diva on and off the set, Walters says.“The premise of ‘The View’ is that of a team working together, but for Rosie it was more like Diana Ross and the Supremes, as little by little she took over,” Walters says.
Members of the crew were so fed up with the comedian that they threatened to boycott the show’s Christmas party, Walters writes.
O’Donnell quickly amped up ratings by creating a feud with Donald Trump.
“If the result of the Trump feud was higher ratings, it also meant that Rosie seemed to be enjoying feuds,” Walters writes.
O’Donnell was livid that Walters didn’t come to her defense against Trump.
“To my amazement she angrily berated me in the dressing room for not defending her enough,” Walters says.
O’Donnell left the show soon after, informing Walters by e-mail she wouldn’t be returning.
Read all about Babwa’s torrid love affair with Senator Edward Brooke here!
Follow me on Twitter @ Twitter.com/Jebbica
Click Here to read Gravy and Biscuits on your mobile phone.
Click Here to be our friend on MySpace!
Click Here to join our blog network on Facebook!
Barbara Walter’s life was influenced greatly by her older sister and she’s written a beautiful memoir about her life. I read another memoir of a life influence by a sibling that I recommend highly - I actually liked it even more. The memoir is “”My Stroke of Insight”" by Dr. Jill Bolte Taylor. Dr Taylor became a Harvard brain scientist to find the cause and cure for schizophrenia because her older brother was a sufferer. Then, crazy as life can be, Dr. Taylor had a stroke at age 37. What was amazing was that her left brain was shut down by the stroke - where language and thinking occur - but her right brain was fully functioning. She experienced bliss and nirvana and the way she writes about it (or talks about it in her now famous TED talk) is incredible.
What I took away from Dr. Taylor’s book above all, and why I recommend it so highly, is that you don’t have to have a stroke or take drugs to find the deep inner peace that she talks about. Her book explains how. “”I want what she’s having”", and thanks to this wonderful book, I can!
Reply