Sherri Shepherd publicly apologized on air for saying in an interview with a Christian Women’s magazine that she hoped her boss, Barbara Walters, could “get saved” by a televangelist. She said in the same interview that she went through a very rough time when she was young and that she’d “had more abortions than I would like to count.” After the details of the interview were widely publicized, Shepherd clarified her remarks, saying that she was not glamorizing abortion and that she hoped to inspire women who also felt extreme guilt and shame over having an abortion. She also claimed that her quotes were taken out of context and that she was joking about wanting to have Walters saved.

Shepherd said she called Barbara Walters ahead of time to warn her that the quote was going to be published, and that Walters laughed and acted like it wasn’t a big deal. A show source tells the National Enquirer that Barbara is fed up with with Sherri and the idiotic things she says on air and that the “saved” comment was just Sherri’s latest gaffe to piss her off:

“Barbara has had it with her,” said the source. “Barbara was shocked that Sherri would say she needs to be ’saved’. She’s dumbfounded by the stupid things that keep coming out of Sherri’s mouth…

Barbara has been saying that Sherri’s a “loose cannon,” added the source. “And after hearing what she said to a Christian magazine, word came back from Barbara that she wants to boot her off the show.

“Barbara thinks Sherri has become far worse of a problem than Star Jones and Rosie’s O’Donnel when they were on the show - and that’s saying a lot!”

While Barbara is ready to see Sherri move on from “The View,” insiders say it’s unlikely there will be a dramatic firing.

“Barbara may first give her a chance to shape up before shipping her out…

“And if Barbara does let Sherri go, expect a fun farewell with the whole gang saying only nice things about Sherri in public.”

[From The National Enquirer, print edition, August 11, 2008]

Everyone else on The View may be smarter than Sherri - and that’s not saying much considering that Sherri thinks Jesus came before the Romans - but Barbara Walters’ personality is shrewish and she sticks out on that panel. Barbara is constantly making the celebrity guests on the show uncomfortable with blunt questions. The View is a roundtable talkshow with an audience, it’s not a one on one interview like Walters is used to and she has to tone down the personal questions.

The show is so much more watchable when Whoopi is there running everything without Barbara. Yes Sherri says stupid things, but she’s earnest about it and she’s not really hurting anyone. Sherri’s dumb observations are a kind of comic relief and the other women make excuses for her and help her out. Barbara would do better to retire than to try and get rid of Sherri. Sherri isn’t the one who’s dragging the show down.

The cast of The View is shown at a panel discussion on 4/9/08. Credit: MLM/Fame Pictures

View co-host Sherri Shepherd drew a lot of ire yesterday when quotes were published from an interview she gave to a black Christian women’s magazine in which she claimed she had more abortions than she would like to count and that she sometimes prayed for televangelists to “save” Barbara Walters.

On “saving” Barbara Walters: It was a joke
Shepherd said she was joking about saving Walters and that she called Walters personally ahead of the interview being published to apologize. She said Walters was in France at the time and she laughed and said “I’m already in Heaven, I’m in Paris.” Shepherd also apologized again on air to Walters, who was not on the panel that day. Walters grew up with Jewish parents, but her father was an atheist and she was not raised going to temple or church. Walters did a piece on religion in 2005 in which she explored her own background and belief system. She said she was most affected by a visit with the Dalai Lama, after which she felt at peace for a couple of weeks. She has not been “saved” in the Christian sense.

On having more abortions than she could count: it was taken out of context
Many of you pointed out in the comments that Jaybird’s title that Shepherd had more abortions than she could count was technically inaccurate, because she had said it was more than she would like to count, which is much different. She was saying it was painful for her to remember them and not that there were so many she lost track.

Shepherd said that the author didn’t print her entire quote about her abortions, which she is open about because she wants to “inspire women who go through a lot of shame and guilt about having abortions.” She said the full quote was that she had suffered a lot of shame and guilt and that “a wonderful woman at one of the women’s conferences I speak at came to me and said, ‘Sherri, you know when you get to heaven all your babies are going to be there saying, ‘Hi momma.” and it just kind of freed me and I knew that Jesus had forgiven me.

“I wasn’t being flippant about abortions. I wasn’t glamorizing.”

Joy Behar said that society puts a lot of shame on abortions and Shepherd said that’s why she came out to talk about it.

Shepherd isn’t the sharpest tool in the shed, but I kind of admire her for talking about this so openly when there’s such a huge stigma attached to abortion. She does deserve credit for being open about something that can so easily be mocked. It also has to be hard for her to see her words twisted around to being some dismissive comment about having multiple abortions instead of the way she meant it, that she carried around a lot of guilt and shame and wants other women to hear that she suffered with it silently too.

Shepherd got confused in December when they were talking about history on The View and she kept insisting that “I don’t think anything predated Christians.. Jesus came first” in history and didn’t seem to get the whole B.C./A.D. idea. She also doesn’t believe in Evolution at all and says she’s never thought about whether the world is flat or not.

As JayBird mentioned yesterday, it’s pretty inspirational that Shepherd went through such a tough life and is now a co-host on such a big show, especially considering that she doesn’t seem to have basic knowledge of history and science. God can’t substitute for an education.

Sherri Shepherd is shown at the Daytime Emmy Awards on 6/20/2008. Credit: Glenn Harris / PR Photos

Sherri Shepherd, one of the hosts of The View, has gotten into trouble a few times for the things that have slipped out of her mouth. Like the time she said that “nothing predates Jesus.” Which makes you wonder what she thinks is going on in the Old Testament… otherwise known as the first half of the Bible. Jesus on a dinosaur? Who knows. In this month’s issue of Precious Times, Shepherd talks about her life when she was a Jehovah’s witness (she’s since converted to Christianity), and says that she’s had more abortions than she’d like to count.

In the new issue of black Christian women’s magazine Precious Times, The View’s Sherri Shepherd reveals that her life was once so rough she didn’t care if she died.

“My sister was heavy into drugs, and we would have to go and get her from crack houses,” Shepherd, 41, says.

At the time, the stand-up comic — then a Jehovah’s Witness – was “in a very physically abusive relationship,” she said. “I was sleeping with a lot of guys and had more abortions than I would like to count.”

She said her self-esteem became so low, “I felt if someone killed me, it wouldn’t even make a difference.”

[From Us Magazine]

That’s really heartbreaking to hear, although also inspirational in a way. Coming from a place where you wish you were dead to being a co-host on a national morning show is quite the journey. However Shepherd has said some pretty unenlightened things here and there, and has brought her religion into play more than I personally care for.

Still, Shepherd admitted it is tough talking religion on the popular ABC chat-fest. (She received criticism after she once remarked that ancient Greeks persecuted Christians, even though Christ hadn’t been born yet.)

“Oh, sometimes I say, ‘Lord, Juanita Bynum or Joyce Meyer would be so good at this table. They could lay hands on Barbara Walters and get her saved,’” she said.

“I ask the Lord, ‘Why am I here?’” Shepherd added. “I have to trust God when He says, ‘Because I said so.’”

[From Us Magazine]

Juanita Bynum is a Pentecostal televangelist and Joyce Meyer is a Charismatic Christian author and speaker. I guess it’s better for her career that Shepherd wants one of them to save Barbara Walters instead of trying to do it herself. Though I’m not sure it’s ever a good idea to imply that your boss needs saving.

Here’s Sherri Shepherd at the Chippendales Show in Las Vegas on June 23, 2008. Images thanks to PR Photos.