Earlier this week, Joy Behar announced she was leaving ABC’s daytime talk show “The View” after 16 1/2 years.
“You can’t stay forever on a show,” she told “Good Morning America”. “I am graciously exiting stage left. I’ve put in 16 1/2 years and felt the time was right. I want to explore other opportunities.”
Now Us Weekly is reporting that Elisabeth Hasselbeck will not be returning for the next season — but for reasons of an entirely different matter.
A source tells the mag that Hasselbeck is being ousted after market research revealed that she isn’t popular with TV audiences.
“The viewers they polled all said she was too extreme and right wing,” the insider tells Us. “People did not watch the show because of Elisabeth. So they told her yesterday her contract would not be renewed.”
Hasselbeck, 35, joined the cast of the daytime talk show in November 2003 after guest-hosting the show following Lisa Ling’s departure in 2002.
Barbara Walters is facing international criticism after she took to the air on yesterday’s “The View” to pour harsh criticism on Queen Elizabeth II.
Walter, who is barely herself known for her sense of humor, remarked that Britain’s monarch had such a “sour face” during the London Olympics Opening ceremony on Friday.
“Let me tell you my thing with the Queen,” Walters said. “I did agree that the whole thing with Daniel Craig was funny… but let me tell you my problem with her… this is a woman who does not know how to smile.”
“Now, would it have killed this woman, this Queen, to go…”, she said while pulling a fake smile. “It’s such a sour face.”
Walters wasn’t finished yet. “She is 86, but she dresses like something out of the 19th century,” she said of the Queen’s fashion sense.
“The pink dress with the pink plume, but then the black gloves and the black bag… what does the Queen keep in that bag anyway? And black shoes with the pink dress.”
Following Walter’s unkind outburst, Twitter users hit back
One wrote: “Barbara Walters – Leave the #Queen alone. She has more class in her little finger than you have in your whole life. Have some respect,”
“How insulting. I am embarrassed as an American by your insensitive comments about a Lady who has been Queen for 50 years,” another said.
While another one posted: “@theviewtv barbara walters is an outdated & insensitive woman. Her comments about the Queen is disrespectful. Barbara should retire.”
To paraphrase Walters herself, here are our thoughts: Let us tell you about our thing with Walters…. would it kill this woman to show some sensitivity from time to time? We’re inclined to side with the Twitter users on this one.
Last week he made the groundbreaking announcement that he supported same-sex marriage, and this morning, President Obama was talking about it again on “The View”.
Obama marked his fourth appearance on the ABC show since he has been President, and he spoke about a whole range of topics.
On the subject of same-sex marriage, he said: “Congress is clearly on notice that I think it’s a bad idea. This is going to be a big contrast in the campaign because you’ve got Governor [Mitt] Romney saying we should actually have a constitutional amendment installing the notion that you can’t have same-sex marriages.”
When asked by ABC’s Barbara Walters whether he would fight federal laws that limit the rights of gay and lesbian couples, the president noted, “we don’t think the Defense of Marriage Act is constitutional.”
“This is something that historically had been determined at the state level and part of my believing ultimately that civil unions weren’t sufficient, and I’ve been a longtime supporter of civil unions for same-sex couples, was partly because of the issue of Social Security benefits and other laws,” he said.
And he said social issues such as same-sex marriage will not determine the election come November.
Delving into more personal matters, Obama spoke about the fallout from his impromptu Apollo performance, saying his wife Michelle ”gets jealous when I sing too much.”
“She thinks this is kind of a private thing,” he added.
And, he also showcased an acute knowledge of pop culture when he correctly guessed that Kim was the Kardashian sister who made headlines this year for her 72-day marriage to pro basketball player Kris Humphries. He explained he knew this, not by watching the reality show, but because he is an avid basketball fan, “he was a ball player,” Obama explained. “I know from watching basketball.”
He did, however, seem a little perplexed when asked about his knowledge of the top-selling sex book ”Fifty Shades of Grey”.
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