Salon.com > Barbara Walters

Must-see morning clip

Thu, 27 Dec 2012 14:14:00 +0000

ABC has released an exclusive interview with Michelle and Barack Obama's first joint interview since the election. The first lady takes Barbara Walters on a tour of the White House and the the couple discusses their marriage, below:

The Obamas talk iconic Election Day “hug” photo

Wed, 26 Dec 2012 21:37:00 +0000

In an interview with Barbara Walters set to air tonight, Barack and Michelle Obama discussed the iconic "hug" photo that went viral on Election Night, after the President won re-election.

The picture was taken while they were campaigning in Iowa, Barack Obama said. Michelle Obama added: "Also, I hadn’t seen him in a while. You know, when you're campaigning, they have, we're two ships passing in the night, and the first time I saw him was when I walked on stage to greet him. And that’s my honey giving me a hug."

Watch:

Walters to Christie: “You’re a little overweight”

Wed, 12 Dec 2012 20:36:00 +0000

Gov. Chris Christie thinks his weight is a non-issue when it comes to how well he can do his job.

"There are people who say you couldn't be president because you're so heavy," Barbara Walters said to Gov. Christie in a recent interview. "I mean, that's ridiculous," Christie told Walters. "I don't know what the basis for that is."

Barbara Walters' 2012 "Most Fascinating People" [ABC News]

Ann’s apology tour

Thu, 18 Oct 2012 20:09:00 +0000

Today was supposed to be the day that Mitt Romney made up for talking smack on “The View” by actually appearing on “The View.” (In the infamous 47 percent session, Romney was taped saying of Barbara Walter’s daytime kaffeeklatsch "'The View' is fine. Although 'The View' is high-risk because of the five women on it. Although one is conservative, four are sharp-tongued and not conservative …”) But earlier this week, he begged off, leaving Ann Romney to go it alone with Walters, Whoopi, Joy Behar, Sherri Shepherd and Elisabeth Hasselbeck. It’s a move that probably worked out exactly as the Romney campaign hoped: Ann got to be Mitt’s likable, non-controversial, content-less surrogate. She made an appeal to “The View’s” female audience with her discussion of chore wheels, but not the issues, which she deftly refused to answer any serious questions about.

Walters to interview Lindsay Lohan next month

Mon, 15 Oct 2012 17:01:00 +0000

NEW YORK (AP) — Barbara Walters says she will interview Lindsay Lohan next month for ABC's "20/20" newsmagazine.

Walters announced on Monday's edition of her talk show, "The View," that the interview will air on Nov. 16. It paves the way for Lohan's would-be comeback project, "Liz & Dick," which premieres later that month.

The Lifetime biopic stars the 26-year-old actress as screen diva Elizabeth Taylor. It spotlights Taylor's quarter-century love affair with celebrated leading man Richard Burton, whom she married and divorced twice.

Grant Bowler, whose credits include the TV series "True Blood" and "Lost," plays Burton in the film.

Barbara Walters sorry she tried to get an Assad advisor a sweet internship

Wed, 06 Jun 2012 18:34:00 +0000

Everyone who pays attention to such things knows that Barbara Walters is a monstrous creature of pure, amoral power. She was Roy Cohn's beard, for godsake. But sometimes her cravenness can still surprise. Apparently, after her ridiculous softball interview with her personal friend, Syrian strongman Bashar al-Assad, Walters attempted to repay the Assad press advisor responsible for netting her the exclusive by recommending the aide (to a brutal dictator currently in the process of putting down a rebellion with excessive force) for a plum American media internship.

Well, she's sorry. Sorry she opened up the old Rolodex on behalf of Sheheradad Jaafari, Assad's 22-year-old press advisor, and the daughter of the Syrian ambassador to the U.N. (Good lord, even dictators' aides need powerful parents to net media internships.)

Meet the Assads

Tue, 20 Mar 2012 15:20:00 +0000

Though the news out of Syria has been almost uniformly awful recently -- fighting spreading to Damascus and Aleppo, rumors of Russian "anti-terror" troops in the country supporting President Bashar al-Assad, accusations of human rights abuses by some anti-government forces -- we have been treated to a fascinating glimpse into the private world of an embattled dictator, thanks to the leak of thousands of Bashar al-Assad's personal emails. The trove has proved to be perversely comic, with female aides sending the strongman little love notes and at least one unsubstantiated underwear picture. The emails also offer insight into the life of Assad's wife, Asma, who has continued buying -- or attempting to buy -- expensive luxury goods while her husband struggles to maintain control of his country. They're both international pariahs now (except in Moscow), but not long ago, self-pitying Bashar and his fashionable wife, Asma, were two of the Western celebrity media's favorite autocrats.

Paris Hilton’s reality show may tank, but she won’t

Tue, 07 Jun 2011 20:08:00 +0000

People are taking a schadenfreudian delight in the apparent failure of Paris Hilton's new reality show, "The World According to Paris." Low ratings, bad press ... the whole spectacle really does need to be put out of its misery. Personally I think it was a branding problem: while Oxygen may be fine for "Tori & Dean," that's a program predicated on the idea that Tori Spelling is a mother and wife first, star second. Paris and her unapologetic vapidity belong more in the E! family, along with the Kardashians, Kendra, and "Sex and the City" reruns.

But since I'm not in control of television programming (fingers crossed for next season!), Paris' future isn't in my hands. But it's also not in the hands of her critics, who are gleefully calling Paris "passé," and the bombing of her latest show the end of her career.

Barbara Walters to have heart valve surgery

Mon, 10 May 2010 19:03:00 +0000

Barbara Walters said she will have surgery later this week to replace a faulty heart valve and take the summer off from "The View" to recuperate.

The television legend made the announcement on the air Monday. She said she's known about her condition for a while, and decided with her doctors that this is the best time to have the surgery.

"Since the summer is coming up," she said, "I can take a nice vacation."

Walters, 80, is one of the best-known personalities in television news. She began on the "Today" show, was the first woman to anchor a network evening news program, then was one of the toughest competitors in the fierce game of landing sought-after interviews.

At a time others would be slowing down, she created "The View" in 1997, and the daily talk show with a woman's round-table is a staple on daytime TV.

Lady Gaga likes ladies. So?

Thu, 10 Dec 2009 18:30:00 +0000

A straight-faced Barbara Walters uttering the words "bluffin' with my muffin"? Now that's what I call must-see TV. This delightfully awkward moment (video below) came during last night's ABC special, "10 Most Fascinating People of 2009," during which Walters interviewed Lady Gaga, the pop star behind those infamous lyrics.

Now, B-Dub isn't one to throw around sexually explicit phrases for no good reason: She brought the line up as a segue to talking about Gaga's sexuality."So, people thought you were saying that you were bisexual," she said. "Are you bisexual?" Gaga responded, "Um, well, I do like women." No surprise there -- she's long been open about her attraction to women (and these NSFW photos spoke for themselves.) But she pressed on: "Do you like men, too?" Yes, Gaga said, and she has only ever "been in love with men." Walters quickly followed up, giving me flashbacks of the cross-examination of Bill Clinton: "Have you had sex with women?" This, dear readers, prompted the most shocking moment of the interview. Lady Gaga, that outrageous, in-your-face performer, seemed suddenly modest and bashful: "Um, uh, well, I ... my goodness."

How the election ate daytime television

Thu, 09 Oct 2008 10:50:00 +0000

Eight minutes before the first and only vice-presidential debate, MSNBC's "Countdown" host, Keith Olbermann, and Newsweek's Howard Fineman were talking about "The View."

The opinionated, loud and very male Olbermann was making a point about how low Sarah Palin had sunk in America's estimation by playing a video clip of the daytime talk show's resident conservative Elisabeth Hasselbeck. Admitting that Palin's inability to name a single Supreme Court case besides Roe v. Wade was perhaps worrisome, Hasselbeck conceded, "That was a moment where she should have had some [examples] lined up."

Olbermann and Fineman chuckled at the possibility that, as goes Elisabeth Hasselbeck, so goes the country. "This is not my usual turf," said Fineman.

It sure isn't. But this isn't anybody's usual campaign, and what the (still mostly male) political pundits are coming to grips with is that the election cycle is not just playing out on their news shows and their 24-hour networks but also in the traditionally feminine -- and therefore traditionally marginalized -- world of daytime television.

McCain skewered on “The View”

Fri, 12 Sep 2008 23:19:00 +0000

Roll your eyes all you want, but I for one will never again underestimate the women of ABC's "The View," who today opened a can of whupass on John McCain, administering an interview that should turn the faces of legitimate press red with shame. (A video of the second segment is embedded below. All clips can be viewed here.)

The hard-hitting journalism came courtesy of none other than Whoopi Goldberg, Barbara Walters, Joy Behar, Sherri Shepherd and Elisabeth Hasselbeck (yes, even conservative sylph Hasselbeck threw down!), who welcomed McCain to their comfy couch on Friday morning as the spider welcomes the fly. As soon as he settled in and got nice and comfortable, the women proceeded to slice and dice the Arizona senator on everything from his dishonest attack ads to his stance on abortion and interpretation of the Constitution, his feelings on secularism and the qualifications of his running mate.

Barbara Walters interviews Barbara Walters

Tue, 06 May 2008 11:50:00 +0000

It's tough not to distrust an autobiography in which the author refuses to disclose her exact age. But Barbara Walters does just that on page 14 of Audition, her memoir, which hits stands on Tuesday. "I am now in my seventies, and that is as specific as I will get," she writes in an opening-sentence parenthetical in the chapter "My Childhood." Too bad for the optimistically ageless Walters that Wikipedia, the Internet Movie Database, Yahoo and several prominent astrology sites have all felt free to get more specific than she: The television journalist was born on Sept. 25, 1929; she will turn 79 this year.

But Walters' bizarre coyness at the start of what she clearly feels is a soul-baring work -- "In this book I basically bleed for 570 pages, " she told columnist Cindy Adams -- is merely symptomatic of the slightly prim distance she keeps from her own beguiling, twisty, readable story.

Ugh, what did she do to herself?

Fri, 18 Apr 2008 18:15:00 +0000

The last time I saw a Nicole Kidman movie -- "Margot at the Wedding" -- I had a vague and unsettling feeling that something wasn't quite right. It's not that Nicole looked any different from the way that she'd always looked (in fact, the opposite was true) but her face seemed to have, by some unfortunate series of events, lost the capacity to move. For most of the movie she looked like a hernia patient walking off the effects of heavy sedation, and there was one word -- "Botox" -- that immediately popped to mind.

It's a problem that seems to be popping up more and more frequently lately and it's starting to irk L.A. Times TV Critic Mary McNamara. (Maybe she should read a children's book to help explain things.) Recently she wrote a lengthy opinion piece about the effect plastic surgery is having on the faces of American television actresses -- and how it's impinging on her ability to do her job. As an example, she cites the "Desperate Housewives" ("I live in fear of the day Felicity Huffman succumbs to whatever package paralysis deal they've got going on over there"), Carrie Fisher and Barbara Walters.

The Fix

Wed, 10 Jan 2007 14:30:00 +0000

Morning Briefing:
The Trump letter; Rosie leaving? We kind of can't believe the Donald Trump/Rosie O'Donnell spat has gone on this long, but all the parties involved just keep adding fuel to the fire. After several newspapers reported yesterday that O'Donnell and Barbara Walters have been fighting backstage at "The View," Trump fired off a letter to O'Donnell (and numerous media outlets) taking advantage of the news. The letter outlines two different conversations Trump says he had with Walters in which she knocked her co-anchor. He writes: "To be exact, she said that 'working with her is like living in hell,' and, more pointedly, 'Donald, never get into the mud with pigs' and 'Don't worry, she won't be here for long.'" And indeed, on Wednesday morning, Fox 411 reports that insiders at the show say O'Donnell will likely leave the show when her contract ends in June, unless ABC execs intervene in a way Walters may not have foreseen. O'Donnell's presence has boosted the show's ratings and public profile immensely, and now some speculate that ABC might try to buy out Walters and hand over the show to O'Donnell entirely. (TMZ, Fox 411)

Rosie digs deeper

Tue, 19 Dec 2006 15:31:00 +0000

The folks over at Gawker put together this funny mash-up of Rosie O'Donnell's on-air explanation for that recent "Chinese accent" she threw out (or up, as the case may be) on "The View." O'Donnell, it seems from the look on Barbara Walters' face, winds up making things worse.

The Fix

Fri, 06 Jun 2003 13:51:00 +0000

It's not clear why Will Ferrell was speaking to the graduating seniors at Harvard this week, but what he said was enough to get him Dixie Chicked in some parts of this great land of ours. The comic pretended to read a letter to the students from President Bush that said: "One of the challenges you will face is finding a job in our depressed economy. In fact, the chances of finding a job are about as good as finding weapons of mass destruction in the Iraqi desert -- slim and none, and slim just left the building." (CNN)

Leave it to Hustler publisher Larry Flynt to go for the gold. He says he has a source for nude photos of Amber Frey. Remember the Laci and Scott Peterson case? Amber was the other woman, is a massage therapist and supposedly took her clothes off for a photographer and then signed away her rights to the shots. Frey's lawyer, Gloria Allred, says her client didn't give her permish for the shots to be published, but don't put it past ol' Larry to find a way. (Fox News)

The Fix

Fri, 16 May 2003 19:43:00 +0000

Well, big mama Barbara Walters got the biggest get. (Or, should we say the biggest get after Osama and Saddam.) There was much speculation over who would get to interview Hillary Clinton during her availability around the book deal ($8 million for "Living History" in case you've been distracted). Now we hear the one-on-one will air Sunday, June 8, presumably opposite "60 Minutes" where Bill Clinton usually spars with Bob Dole each week. The big question about the Hillary interview is whether we can believe it when both ABC and Clinton's people say that there are "no ground rules" for the encounter. Does this mean Barbara can ask Hillary what kind of tree she'd be? (N.Y. Post)

New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg needs some brain tuning, especially when it comes to people's names. At an NYU commencement speech yesterday he introduced N.Y. Yankees manager Joe Torre as "Joe Torr-ez." Torre laughed it off, but it's hard to ignore since a few days earlier at another graduation ceremony Bloomberg introduced folk singer Pete Seeger as Pete Rose. Maybe it's the baseball stuff that confuses Mr. Bloombrenner. (N.Y. Daily News)

The Fix

Fri, 09 May 2003 19:32:00 +0000

We didn't see "The View" yesterday, but we hear New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg showed up for a sweeps-week stunt the gals staged: a mock "fantasy wedding" with Barbara Walters, who used to date the mayor way back when he was not in politics and not so disliked by most New Yorkers. Well, Bloomie, as one of our friends in show biz used to say: "If you're on thin ice, you may as well dance." (NY Post)

Yeow! Demi Moore is being accused of acting like one of the characters she played in "Disclosure." In that 1994 movie she seduced Michael Douglas and then accused him of sexual harassment. In the real-life case, Lawrence Bass, a man she hired to manage her Idaho ranch, says, "I was on my knees on the floor, trying to get into a cabinet, when she came up beside me and began lightly stroking my neck in a very sensual way." When he said "No, thanks" he was fired and is now asking for damages. Demi's people say the lawsuit has no merit, but we think Bass knows a move when he sees it -- he used to be Hugh Hefner's butler! (NY Daily News)

The Fix

Thu, 20 Mar 2003 19:43:00 +0000

The intersection of politics and Hollywood has always been a compelling one. The war is now on, and questions in the air include "Is Saddam dead or alive?" and "Will Meryl Streep attend the Oscars?" We don't have the answer to either one, but the information is trickling in. So far, Will Smith is out, Catherine Zeta-Jones is in (unless she gives birth) (Billboard); Cate Blanchett is out, the Barbara Walters special has been postponed (LA Times) and Meryl Streep is "making noises" about canceling. (Page Six) And those stars who do show may stage a symbolic protest when the living honorees are all onstage at once to celebrate the diamond anniversary. (LA Weekly)

If you want to check out of reality and focus instead on what Britney Spears is up to, we hear she's dating MTV host Mike Kasem and that he's being a positive influence on her. Thank god. (WENN)