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.