'The View's' Joy Behar Calls Nixon a Constipated Orangutan and a Paranoid Drunk

May 24th, 2007 10:14 PM

On a day when Rosie O’Donnell was absent from ABC’s “The View,” an intelligent person would expect the discussion would be a bit more civil, right?

WRONG!

Instead, as co-host Joy Behar discussed her evening at the theatre to see the critically acclaimed “Frost/Nixon” – which she actually referred to as “Nixon/Frost” – the comedienne stated that the former president was “an orangutan who’s constipated” as well as a “paranoid drunk.”

I kid you not.

The unpleasantries commenced shortly after Behar mentioned that she had gone to “see this Nixon/Frost play” last night. Barbara Walters interjected:

Not only did I see it, but the interview that this is based on is David Frost interviewing Richard Nixon. And, by the way, Frank Langella is simply fantastic in this. But the next interview, that was an interview that was paid for. The next interview was an interview that I did with Richard Nixon live. I shouldn’t pat myself on the back, because it was a different time historically, and Richard Nixon in that interview admitted that he was sorry that he didn’t burn the tapes. And Frank Langella called me, playing Nixon, and said, “How would you describe the way Richard Nixon walked,” because I had done so many interviews with him. And I said, “He walks as if he’s constipated.” And when you see how, I thought “That’s my contribution to American culture.”

That precipitated the following:

JOY BEHAR, CO-HOST: He looks like an orangu, an orangutan who’s constipated.

KATHY GRIFFIN, COMEDIENNE: But I didn’t know that they, so a president was paid to do an interview?

BARBARA WALTERS, CO-HOST: That interview David Frost paid him, yes.

GRIFFIN: That’s like K-Fed. He’s the K-Fed of his time.

BEHAR: They paid him $200,000.

GRIFFIN: But a president?

BEHAR: Richard Nixon used to (gestures as if taking a drink).

GRIFFIN: Was he hammered when you interviewed him?

WALTERS: Hammered, you mean drunk? He was not.

BEHAR: He was a drinker.

ELISABETH HASSLEBECK, CO-HOST: Presidents make a fortune…

BEHAR: He was a paranoid drunk.

Such respect for a former president. And these people actually get paid to do this?