THE tension between "The View" creator Barbara Walters and co-host Rosie O'Donnell, sparked by O'Donnell's feud with Donald Trump, boiled over yesterday morning when the portly comic called Walters "a [bleeping] liar."
The fight started around 8:30 a.m. when Walters, back from a two-week vacation, walked into the hair and makeup room at ABC studios and tried to hug O'Donnell, whom she hired onto the popular show.
The article detailed the melee (Update: Trump has sent a letter to Rosie about this article, hat tip to Hot Air):
According to spies, O'Donnell recoiled from Walters' touch and yelled, "You kept me in the newspapers this whole time!"
Both "View" producer Bill Geddie and Walters tried to calm O'Donnell. Walters told her, "I did everything I could to squash the story" - prompting Rosie to scream, "You didn't call me for 10 goddamn days, and you didn't tell me what you were going to say on television!"
What set this off? The Post elaborated:
O'Donnell is fuming because Trump went on Larry King two weeks ago - after she had called Trump a "snake-oil salesman" - and said Walters told him she regretted hiring O'Donnell. Trump also blasted the comic as "a horrible human being and a loser."
During her vacation, Walters issued a carefully worded statement saying, "I'm sorry there is friction between Donald and Rosie. That said, I do not regret for one moment my choice to hire Rosie O'Donnell as the moderator of 'The View.' "
Where is this all going:
After O'Donnell's outburst at Walters yesterday, Geddie jumped in and told her, "You've crossed the line." O'Donnell retorted, "Cameras are now outside of my house where my wife and kids are." She turned to Walters and said, "You went all around this and never called [Trump] a liar. You never said, 'Donald is lying.' You never called him a liar."
When Walters tried to defend herself, O'Donnell erupted, "Are you looking me in the face and denying you didn't tell him you didn't say this? You're a [bleeping] liar."
To be sure, the ratings are up since Rosie joined the coffee klatch. And, in the end, it’s all about the ratings.
However, regardless of her political leanings, Barbara Walters has to be concerned with her reputation, and can’t possibly enjoy this kind of negative publicity dealing with an ongoing relationship with an employee. It already appears that she has little control over the discussions that ensue on her program, and that the presence of the extremely liberal O’Donnell has moved “The View” even further to the left thereby offending a greater percentage of middle America.
On the other hand, it is quite possible that this squabble was all a publicity stunt. Variety magazine recently reported that this spat between Trump and O’Donnell has sparked the program’s ratings with its highest viewer totals ever occurring in the fourth quarter of 2006. With Barbara back from vacation, could this fight in the makeup room all have been staged to milk this matter even further?
If that is the case, then Walters herself is either only about the ratings regardless of content, or she enjoys the new Rosie-dominated “View” irrespective of how offended moderate and conservative watchers might be.
As ever, we will know in the fullness of time.
