Source: WENN

Streep: “Wintour Didn’t Inspire Me”

Oscar winner Meryl Streep insists she didn’t base her The Devil Wears Prada character Miranda Priestly on US Vogue editor Anna Wintour, because she hadn’t heard of her until the movie was screened. The David Frankel-directed film is based on a novel by Wintour’s former assistant Wendy Finerman and is based on her experiences working for the fashion bible. But Sophie’s Choice actress Streep based her performance on a number of ‘uberbosses’ rather than directly portraying Wintour in the fashion industry parody. She tells the New York Daily News, “I know the book was based on an assistant’s view of Anna Wintour, but it didn’t interest me to do a documentary on Anna Wintour, and I don’t know anything about her. I only met her at the first benefit screening. She was a good sport, but I think she’d been told that I don’t resemble her. It was much more fun for me to make the uberboss out of a (combination of people), so that’s what I did.” Wintour brought her boyfriend Shelby Bryant and daughter Bee Shaffer to watch the movie at New York City’s Paris Theatre last month, but she declined to pose on the red carpet with Streep. Her spokesman tells website PageSix.com, “She thought the movie was very funny.”

Below is a sneak peak at Streep as the Anna Wintour-like character Miranda Priestly in The Devil Wears Prada, which opens this Friday.

Source: TMZ.com

Nobody Puts Barbara In a Corner
Posted Jun 28th 2006 12:35PM by TMZ Staff
Filed under: TV, Celebrity Feuds

Star Jones has left “The View” — permanently, according to her now-former co-host and boss, Barbara Walters. The show aired this morning with just Walters, Joy Behar, and Elisabeth Hasselbeck taking their customary seats at the now oddly empty round table, and Jones’ name and picture has been removed from the opening credits.

After the ladies took their seats, Walters began the show, dryly, “And then there were three.”

Summoning as much patrician chill as she could, Barbara gave as good as she got: She told the audience that Star wouldn’t be coming back, and that though she had purposely given her a few months to find a new gig and had given her the chance to “leave with dignity,” her co-host had “made another choice” by talking to People magazine and making “other announcements” in the media yesterday.Walters also said that she and the producers had decided not to renew Star’s contract several months ago (which, she says, Star knew) though she didn’t go into the reasons why.

Jones, perhaps to try to take the offensive, appeared earlier this morning before “The View” on Ryan Seacrest’s KIIS-FM radio show and said that she wanted to leave when they told her contract wasn’t going to be renewed two months ago and that, until yesterday, Joy and Elisabeth didn’t even know she had gotten the boot.

Jones told Seacrest that “if anyone should feel betrayed, it should be me,” referring to comments Walters made yesterday that she had felt “betrayed” by Star’s jumping the gun. And she complained that she found out about how Rosie O’Donnell — who Star said had been “nasty and insulting and vicious” about her weight loss — was brought onto the show at the Emmy Awards, when Barbara announced it.

Star also acknowledged that she had made some missteps in commercializing her wedding planning to the hilt, saying “I want to take full responsibility for the audience thinking, ‘Star abandoned us.’”

Also, Gawker.com reports:

Our recaps don’t do justice to the measured, authoritative tones of Barbara Walters who, no matter what bullshit Star Jones may pull, will always be the boss around The View’s henhouse. As she explains the circumstances of Jones’ departure, Walters reminds us (and presumably Jones herself) that “The View helped make Star a star.” And don’t you forget it, snatchpants.

Also: a few readers report that Jones called in to Steve Harvey’s radio show this morning and said that yesterday ABC producers called her agents, informing them that Star was never to come back to The View, effective immediately. Burning bridges sure does make for a spectacular glow.

Source: IMDb.com/WENN
June 28, 2006

Walters “Betrayed” by Jones Reynolds

TV veteran Barbara Walters feels “betrayed” by her The View co-host Star Jones Reynolds following her shock on-air announcement of her departure from the talk show. Walters, 74, was stunned when Jones Reynolds, 44, told viewers and her fellow presenters she would be leaving the ABC program after nine years yesterday morning, because the announcement was planned for Thursday. Speaking to camera, Jones Reynolds said, “Something’s been on my heart for a little bit, and after much prayer and counsel I feel like this is the right time to tell you that the show is moving in another direction for its tenth season and I will not be returning as co-host next year.”

And in this week’s issue of People magazine, Jones Reynolds says, “What you don’t know is that my contract was not renewed for the tenth season. I feel like I was fired.” Walters, who created and produces the show, says, “I love Star and I was trying to do everything I possibly could - up until this morning when I was betrayed - to protect her. I would have loved for Star to have left and not said ‘I was fired,’ and not make it look like the program was somehow being cruel to her.

“Walters admits ABC network bosses declined to renew Jones Reynolds’ contract after research showed audiences were turned off by the former lawyer’s dramatic weight loss and her 2004 marriage to Al Reynolds, where she plugged companies on air in exchange for freebies for her wedding. Walters adds, “We tried to talk them out of it and we tried to give Star time to redeem herself in the eyes of the audience, and the research just kept getting worse.”

Source:Page Six
June 8, 2006 –

DON’T expect to see Lindsay Lohan on the cover of Vogue any time soon. Lohan annoyed Vogue editrix Anna Wintour Monday night as a guest at Wintour’s table at the CFDA awards because, she “got up to use the bathroom to powder her nose six times in two hours,” said our spy. During the last trip, Wintour leaned over and whispered to a Vogue staffer: “Tell her, if she gets up one more time, she will never be invited to one of my events again.” Lohan’s date, Karl Lagerfeld, was then told, “Karl, this is your guest, control her!” A rep for Wintour said, “Anna was definitely surprised at how busy Lindsay was, but she offered no threat.”