Argument starts around 1:00. At 4:30 Hasselbeck snipes at him about something else.

Political commentator Bill Maher was a guest on The View yesterday, during which he got in an ongoing, uncomfortable exchange with cohost and resident conservative Elisabeth Hasselbeck. Hasselbeck took offense at a tasteless remark that Maher made at her expense on his HBO show in February, where he said that we should send Hasselbeck to Egypt in exchange for CNN correspondent Lara Logan. That would have been despicable, considering that Logan was sexually assaulted by a mob. However, Maher said that over a week before any of that was known at all. On The View, Hasselbeck confronted Maher about it but she didn’t mention at all that he said it prior to when it was known that Logan had been raped.

On the Feb. 4 episode of ‘Real Time,’ as the Egyptian protests in Tahrir Square were unfolding, Maher made the following joke about Logan and Hasselbeck. “New rule: now that Hosni Mubarak has released Lara Logan, he must put her intrepid hotness on a plane immediately. In exchange, we will send Elisabeth Hasselbeck.” Over a week later, on Feb. 15, the public would learn that Logan had suffered a brutal sexual assault on Feb. 11 in Tahrir Square. When Maher told the joke, he couldn’t have known that Logan had been raped.

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Hasselbeck was none too pleased with a joke Maher made at her expense last February, in which he suggested sending her to Egypt in exchange for CBS News correspondent Lara Logan, who’d been assaulted while covering that country’s democratic uprising.

“The View” co-host told Maher she didn’t find his joke to be funny, and he explained that it wasn’t meant as a personal attack on her.

But things got even more contentious from there.

“Would you say that again?” asked Hasselbeck.

Maher replied, “If I had a crystal ball and knew I was coming here and had to spend my whole segment talking about it, no.”

When Hasselbeck continued to question Maher about his joke, Barbara Walters interceded, saying, “We’re done, can we move on?”

After the group began to talk politics, Hasselbeck sarcastically said to Maher, “Wow, I actually feel smarter sitting next to you.”

To which he replied, “Really? I feel like I’m in high school sitting next to you.”

[From Gossip Cop, ONTD]

Maher should have apologized and said that he was very sorry to have said that, especially in light of what happened to Logan. (Which again he did not know about at all when he made those comments.) Hasselbeck should have clarified that the remarks were made before it was known that Logan was assaulted. She was too aggressive toward him about it, and he got defensive instead. He handled himself well, although he should have emphasized that he said those things well before Logan’s story was known. Also, Hasselbeck was way too snotty and rude toward him later in the show, when he was commenting on Herman Cain and Rick Perry’s most recent gaffes. She shouldn’t have been sitting right next to him because all she did was snipe back at whatever he said. It was juvenile, Maher called it.

James Franco was a guest on The View Friday to promote Rise of The Planet of the Apes, which has done incredibly well at the box office and with critics despite Franco’s dire predictions and sub-par performance. I found Franco to be pretty charming in the interview, as I often have been charmed by the guy. (Excepting Oscars season. Yes, I know I should know better.) He’s full of himself and he’s an ass, but there’s something sweet about the way he smiles and shrugs. If only he could have that same kind of enthusiasm for the roles he’s not into playing instead of acting like he’s above them.

Franco was on the show with Frieda Pinto and with famed motion capture actor Andy Serkis when Joy Behar asked him about Twitter. He admitted that he was getting him into trouble with it and claimed he was amping up the tweets trying to get people to respond:

I was addicted to [Twitter]. I never tweeted words I always did like images and video.

Sherri – like Anthony Weiner? Images.

[laughs] I did that [Tweeted the Oscars]. For me it was a way of showing another story of the Oscars.

Some people didn’t like that. For me it was interesting it had never been done before. I wanted to give a perspective of the other side.

But, I always think ‘I want ‘em to respond more’ and you think like, ‘how could I amp this up with the tweets?’ So I was getting into trouble, I was getting into dangerous areas.

Some of the trouble Franco got into on Twitter involved mocking Oscar writer Bruce Vilanch for criticizing his Oscar hosting performance. (Franco later apologized.) He also wrote “F#&k the Yale Daily News” in response to an editorial saying his Twitter messages sucked.

Then Franco quit Twitter and claimed social media was over anyway, since he was such a trend-setter. (I’m making up that last part, but I assume it was implied.) Now he’s admitting he was addicted to the affirmation that came from Twitter and he blames his nasty scrawled messages on trying to get a response out of people. He did get plenty of responses, he just couldn’t take it when they weren’t glowingly positive.

On the View, Franco also talked about his studies and interests. When Elisabeth started asking him a question, he gave her the serious side eye (that’s at 13:20 into this video and I put the screenshot below) then when he realized she was being nice he warmed up and smiled. When she asked him if there was anything left that he really wanted to study, he joked “I kind of know everything,” then quickly added “No I don’t, I’m middle of the class in all my classes.” Then he explained “I have made time for all my interests… Literature, art and film are basically the things that I love and I studied them.” Oh Franco, you’re so well rounded and self-congratulatory. Just please crawl out of your own ass a little bit and join us in the real world. I had such high hopes for you.

Franco is shown outside Letterman on 8/1/11. Credit: WENN.com

Crystal Harris and her Botoxy face were on The View yesterday, where Joy grilled her on why she left Hugh Hefner five days before their scheduled wedding. Crystal has already revealed her vague reasons for leaving Hef and has addressed the rumors that she was using him for the fame. Hef has been very gracious in his response to getting dumped right before the wedding, and has refrained from trash-talking Crystal or blaming her. On The View, Crystal wasn’t any more convincing in explaining her reasoning for leaving Hef than she was in the past, and she faltered and kind of hesitated when she was trying to defend herself. After a little while she warmed up though and tried to weakly make her case.

On why she bolted five days before the wedding
Crystal: I got cold feet.

Joy: What was it
Crystal: Just everything, uh it all happened so fast, and I just decided that it’s not…

Joy: At your age, 25 and 85 what were you attracted to besides his money? What else?
Uh, well. I was intrigued with the whole Playboy lifestyle. Growing up I would look at Playboy Magazine. I was insecure, so I thought ‘could I ever be that girl? Could I ever be a Playmate?’ I started coming up to the mansion… met Hef, he asked me to move in 2 weeks later. I was flattered. I had fun there.

Elisabeth: When you told him it was off, how did he react?
I told him ‘I don’t think the wedding’s a good idea.’ He actually said he was only doing it for me, so he didn’t really want to get married either.

Whoopi: It sounded more like you had left him at the altar. That is not the case… I’m terribly sorry that I said [anything about it]

What about those people who said you were going to leave him at the altar as a publicity stunt?
No.

Sherri: What kind of dialogue did you have, were you guys able to talk?
Yes we were, Hef’s a great guy, an icon. He’s funny, he’s hilarious. He’s so set in his ways… we had a lot of fun.

Sherri: There was a rumor that you were seeing Dr. Phil’s son Jordan.
That’s not true. Jordan’s one of my friends, he will continue to be one of my friends.

Elisabeth: Are you dating anyone now?
I’m open to it.

On the $90,000 ring and the Bentley she went away with.
I came to the mansion to return the ring. Hef told me I could keep it. The car I paid 1/2 for and he paid the other half [as] a birthday present.

Crystal also claimed that she took her engagement ring, which Hef let her keep, to a friend’s jewelry store to get it appraised for insurance. She said the friend sold her out to TMZ to make it look like she was trying to hock the ring. As for potential plans for a reality show, Crystal claimed “I have no plans of any reality show.” So it sounds like she’s not ruling it out.

When Joy asked Crystal what about Hef attracted her she could have said that he was funny, that she was attracted to his experience and knowledge or that she loved him. Even if she was lying through her teeth, it would have been the expected response. Instead she said she “was intrigued with the whole Playboy lifestyle” and wanted to be a Playmate. This is from the same woman who explained that “this isn’t the lifestyle for me” when she was leaving Hef. So maybe she wasn’t fibbing either way: she wanted the lifestyle then she realized she couldn’t do it. Of course she never wanted an 85 year-old dude as her husband, he was just the vehicle to achieve that lifestyle. Then, when she realized she could do better on her own she ditched the dude and snuck out while he was watching a movie. I shouldn’t be too hard on her, Hef knew what he was getting and he doesn’t have any hard feelings about it. He’s replaced her several times already and there are always plenty more where she came from.

If you’re in the US you can watch the full interview with Crystal on Hulu starting at around 30 minutes in. Here’s a quick news report with clips from CelebTV.

Here’s Crystal hosting an event at Ceasar’s Palace on 7/8/11. Those shoes are so tacky! Holly is going to cut her for muscling in on her territory. Credit: WENN.com

This story is in the National Enquirer, so it could be made up but it does have a ring of truth to it. According to the Enquirer, Barbara Walters is upset at Whoopi Goldberg for admitting she was baked when she accepted her Academy Award in 1991 for Ghost. Babs told Whoopi not to talk about drug use on air, since she could potentially make it sound like illegal drugs were cool, etc. The way The National Enquirer words it makes it sound like Whoopi admitted on The View that she was stoned at Oscars. However I can’t confirm that at all and only found this video from 1992 that TMZ recently posted where Whoopi owned up to it. I vaguely remember Whoopi talking about pot use on The View, and the last time I could verify that she discussed it was in October of last year, when she never admitted it outright but advocated legalization. (Link leads to the same video that we have below.) At that point Barbara sounded cautious but supportive of legalizing pot, but I could also see her telling Whoopi to knock it off after getting some angry letters from viewers when Whoopi’s admission surfaced. There was also that incident in July where Whoopi seemed baked out of her mind on The View and had admitted to just getting off a flight.

Barbara Walters and her “View” co-host Whoopi Goldberg are locked in a “smokin’” feud – over Whoopi’s pot use!

After Whoopi admitted she was high at the 1991 Academy Awards show, irate “View”-ers deluged Barbara with e-mails, letters and phone calls, and she asked Whoopi to tone down her tlak about dope smoking, a source revealed.

“According to Barbara, viewers were angry because Whoopi was basically saying smoking pot is OK, while they’re trying to convince their kids that it’s not,” a source on “The View” set told The Enquirer.

“Barbara has said that Whoopi is acting like an advocate to legalize marijuana, and she doesn’t like it. She’s told her in no uncertain terms to stop glamorizing the use of illegal drugs on the air,” the source added….

“That’s the type of admission that’s caused problems on ‘The View.’ Many of the women in the show’s target audience are mothers who are pretty conservative when it comes to drugs.

“Barbara has reiterated to Whoopi that they’re on ‘The View’ to entertain and inform, not to offend.

“Whoopi doesn’t appreciate having to censor herself, but she told Barbara that she’d make an effort to tone it down.”

[From The National Enquirer, print edition, April 19, 2011]

I’m surprised anyone can work for Barbara Walters for an extended period of time. She seemed like such a nasty shrew on her book tour and in the few episodes of The View that I’ve watched with Barbara it’s like she’s lecturing everyone on the panel and brings a chill over the room. I like Whoopi and am glad she found a home on daytime talk TV. It’s not like I’m going to watch that show because of her or Joy, though. I have better things to do and I’d rather avoid having to listen to Elisabeth or Barbara at all.

Here are Barbara, Whoopi and the rest of the panel discussing the potential legalization of marijuana in California last October, which of course never happened. Whoopi was saying that weed smokers don’t really leave the house and endanger others like drunk drivers. She joked that she wasn’t speaking “from experience.” I doubt she talks about getting high on the show, and it’s not her fault an old video surfaced online.

Whoopi on air in July. She was “jet lagged” and admitted she took some drugs to sleep on the flight.

Photos of high looking Whoopi are from December, credit: PRPhotos. She looks like she should be on that Hocus Pocus movie. Remember that?

There was a big discussion on The View yesterday about an article in the Sunday New York times that seemed to have a glaring factual error by stating that only seven black actors had won Academy Awards. The article was worded confusingly and wasn’t technically inaccurate in that they referred to an earlier paragraph about 2002, when Denzel Washington and Halle Berry took home Oscars, to say that only seven black actors had won prior to that. Then they named checked all the African American Oscar winners since, which didn’t include View panel member Whoopi Goldberg, who won her Oscar in 1990 for Best Supporting Actress, for Ghost. Whoopi said that it hurt her “terribly” not to be mentioned and she called the piece “sloppy journalism.” She even whipped out her Oscar to prove her point.

Whoopi Goldberg blasted the New York Times today for not mentioning her in a Sunday article about black Oscar winners.

“I am embarrassed to tell you it hurt me terribly,” Goldberg said Monday on “The View.” “When you win an Academy Award, that’s part of what you’ve done, your legacy. I will always be Academy Award-winner Whoopi Goldberg.”

Goldberg said she was “dismissed and erased” by the Times’ top film critics and described the piece as “sloppy journalism.” And to settle any doubts whether she’s an Academy Award-winner, Goldberg pulled out her Oscar for the 1990 film “Ghost.”

It’s true that the Times didn’t mention Goldberg. And clearly she was offended by the omission. But did the Times make a factual error?

The Times films critics described how Denzel Washington and Halle Berry won Oscars in 2002, before noting in the following paragraph that the Academy “had given statuettes to a total of seven black actors in the previous 73 years.”
It would be incorrect to claim that only seven black actors have ever won the award, which is apparently how Barbara Walters read the piece. But the Times is correct that only seven won the award before 2002.

Either way, Elisabeth Hasselbeck is siding with her co-host and said Monday that she canceled her subscription.

A Times spokeswoman declined to respond to criticism on “The View.”

[From News.Yahoo.com via Gossip Rocks]

I agree with what Whoopi had to say about how it was a full 70 years between when Hattie McDaniel won (update: which is technically incorrect, it was 51 years, but she corrected herself later in the show) for Gone with The Wind and her win in 1990, and how that was significant. Out of the 13 black Oscar winners, only Whoopi, Louis Gossett Jr. (Best Supporting Actor, Officer and a Gentlemen, 1982), and Cuba Gooding Jr. (Best Supporting Actor, Jerry Maguire, 1996) weren’t mentioned. That’s just three people and they easily could have been incorporated into the article. In a story about how minorities get shafted by Hollywood and the Academy, the Times kind of proved their point.

Also I have to mention this story from 2008 where Whoopi Goldberg was upset when she was left out of a clips reel including Oscar hosts over the years. She hosted the Oscars four times, starting in 1994 and last in 2002. The Academy has a short memory and admitted that leaving her out was an oversight.

Camille Grammer said during part one of the RHOBH reunion that her estranged husband, Kelsey, cut her off from sex “ten years ago.” She’s also hinted in other interviews that he enjoys cross dressing, although she’s since tried to take it back. In appearances on The View and The Joy Behar show yesterday, Camille elaborated on her “sexless marriage” claims and also talked about how Kelsey became distant from her when he moved to NY for work around the beginning of last year. It’s interesting to note that these stories about how they never had sex are consistent with reports in the National Enquirer around the time of their split.

On The View, Barbara Walters really got harsh with Camille and asked her why she was surprised that Kelsey went for another woman when she wasn’t having sex with him. Camille answered that that they didn’t mesh sexually, there was more to marriage than sex, and that Kelsey was her best friend. On the Joy Behar show, Camille explained it like Kelsey was the one that didn’t want sex, not her.

Barbara Walters seems to blame Camille for Kelsey cheating
When Barbara mentioned that Camille implied on the reunion show that she didn’t have sex with Kelsey in a couple of years, Camille said “We tried… something just didn’t click with us on an intimate level, but we were best friends and it’s too bad I lost my best friend.” Barbara retorted “You also lost a man who wasn’t your lover.” That’s nasty! This is coming from a woman who had multiple married lovers and admitted cheating on the men she was with. She obviously justified her behavior by telling herself that the married men weren’t getting laid at home.

Camille said she met Kelsey’s new fiance Kayte when Kelsey and Kayte came over to her hotel to pick up the kids. Camille came down to meet the two of them, and told the ladies of The View that Kelsey was steaming like he never expected her to come down with them. As for whether she’s going to go to Kelsey’s planned wedding with Kayte (which still may not go through because Camille is trying to delay the divorce) she said “no, that would be awful.”

Kelsey watched Fox News, Camille just wanted to cuddle
On the Joy Behar show, Camille again addressed the fact that she didn’t have much sex with Kelsey toward the end. As for whether it was her fault or Kelsey’s, she said “Could be both, but it was more on his end.” When Joy brought up cuddling, Camille said they didn’t even cuddle because Kelsey was “too busy watching FOX News.” She also said that they had some political differences.

As for whether Kelsey manipulated the situation by having her appear on RHOBH, she said “it makes one think. I don’t know if it was totally set up, but it makes one think. I think he had something going on for a while.”

Camille is really handling this press tour expertly. She may have been a nasty piece of work on the show, but she’s recovering quite well. She didn’t even snap back at Barbara Walters when she got snippy with her and seemed to blame her for her husband straying. I’m not a Camille fan by any means but she’s a savvy woman and she’s playing this situation to her advantage.

Meanwhile the NY Post is reporting that Kelsey has already sent out invitations to his wedding to his jump off, scheduled for February 25 at the Plaza Hotel. He still isn’t divorced from Camille, and his petition to bifurcate the divorce (separate it into a quick legal divorce so he’s free to marry and then work on the property settlement later) hasn’t been granted and Camille’s people are trying to block it. So this whole expensive wedding reception, which is rumored to run in the six figures, may have to be scrapped.

Here’s the video from The View. Sex talk starts around 1:15. What the hell is Whoopi wearing? It looks like a Snuggie.

And here’s the video from The Joy Behar show.

Story leads via Huffington Post and Radar.

Check out this picture from 8/31/10. Look at big mouth Taylor sucking up to Camille: (Fame Pictures)

Levi Johnston was on The View on Monday trying to promote himself. He’s running for mayor of Wasila, Alaska as part of the plot for his as-of-yet unsigned reality show. Barbara really lit into him right off the bat, and it was amusing.

Barbara rips Levi
“You and I have not met. I have to say that in my mind I have walked out on you many times. You became famous for impregnating a 17 year-old girl. You’re 20 years old, you don’t have a high school diploma yet, you don’t have a trade. Now you’re running for mayor. Would it not be better for you, instead of seeking publicity, to learn a trade, to find a job, to get an education and to support your son?”

Levi then gave Barbara and the rest of the panel yellow roses. It went downhill from there, though. “Um, I’m going to have to say, running for mayor is a job, that is the job I want to take.” When Barbara asked him if he was qualified for that job he lamely answered “There really are none. You’ve got to live in city limits for one year. You don’t need a high school diploma, which I’m working on anyway. I feel like it’s one of the biggest challenges of my life and I want to do it for me and my son.”

Barbara countered that “there are people there who need jobs and the economy is not that good and there are other problems and you don’t think you need to have any experience?”

Levi on how he’s qualified to be mayor
“I believe.. you’ve got to listen to the people. I feel if I go around talk to people just like any other mayor. Like, maybe not now I might not be ready, but a year from now yeah.”

Sherri asked “You’ve got a depressed state, you’ve got people who have serious problems.. do you think that you are hurting the people of Wasila?”

“I don’t see how I’m hurting ‘em any more than the next guy coming up saying ‘hey, I want to make a change for Wasila.’”

On his 2009 interview with Vanity Fair trashing Sarah Palin
“I stand by everything I’ve ever said,” he offered without elaborating. This of course includes his allegations that Sarah Palin’s marriage is on the rocks and that Sarah wanted to keep Bristol’s pregnancy a secret and adopt the baby for her. Barbara brought all that up again and all he did was repeat the statement.

He has no idea why people should vote for him for mayor
Whoopi asked why people should vote for Levi instead of a more experienced candidate and he said very plainly “At this point in time, I couldn’t tell you.” This cracked me up so hard. He tried to explain “I said I was running for mayor, what a month ago?”

Sherri was all “usually when people say they’re running for mayor they’ve thought about it before they run.”

This kid is a joke and he has no clue. I honestly wrote that before I heard Whoopi tell him “I really want you not to be the joke people are making you out to be, because becoming mayor of a town is a big deal… Have you seen things around Wasila that have bothered you and that’s why you wanted to run?”

Joy asked “What’s motivating you?” and Sherri wanted to know if he was a Republican or a Democrat.

On why he’s running
Levi would only say he’s a “conservative” rather than aligning himself with a party. His motivation was rather weak. “Wasila is a great place, I just want to keep it that way for my son and for everybody.”

On whether he’s running for mayor for a reality show
“That’s how it got brought up, yes, but it’s become much more than that to me.”

Barbara concluded “I’ve been tough on you, but I have to give you credit. You came here, you didn’t walk out, you sat here you answered our questions as best you could.” Then she gave him his rose back! Yeah he’s a joke and I hope that the incumbent wins and that no networks pick up his reality show. This kid’s 15 minutes were up when he got shown on camera at the Republican National Convention with his pregnant fiance.

Here’s Levi outside the View on 10/18/10. Credit: Fame Pictures

Last week there was a big controversy over the fact that Whoopi and Joy walked off The View while Bill O’Reilly was a guest. The topic was the proposed “Mosque at Ground Zero,” (which is neither a mosque nor is it at ‘Ground Zero’ but whatever) and when the shouting started happening and Bill said “Muslims killed us on 9/11” Whoopi and Joy both hightailed it out of there, leaving Barbara Walters and the rest of the panel in a tizzy. On Monday’s View, Joy and Whoopi spoke out about the incident. O’Reilly also apologized on his show, adding that it was everyone else’s fault for not understanding that he meant something that he didn’t specifically say. He said “I assumed that most people would be intelligent enough to know that I was saying ‘radical Islamists attacked us’.”

Both Whoopi and Joy said on The View’s postmortem that they’re glad they walked off. Whoopi claimed that she was about to go off on Bill and needed to leave while Joy explained that she was “enraged.” Barbara noted that Bill had played them both and that he got a huge kick out of it. Here’s Radar Online’s recap, where you can also watch a video clip.

On Monday, Whoopi Goldberg and Joy Behar finally had their chance to defend walking off the set of The View last Thursday in response to guest Bill O’Reilly’s controversial remarks about Muslims being behind 9/11.

Since the show last Friday was pre-taped prior to the walkout, this was their first chance to publicly address the controversy on their own show.

“On this show we always speak about standing up to bigotry, so I stood up,” Behar said.

“I had reached my saturation point,” Goldberg added. “I had enough. As soon as I said the B word, I knew to get up and leave. Because I knew what was coming next. I was going to cuss him out.”

As RadarOnline.com has previously reported, on The View last Thursday, O’Reilly said, “The Muslims killed us on 9-11.” Shortly afterward, an enraged Behar stormed off the set; Goldberg quickly followed her. The other ladies of the panel stayed on, and Barbara Walters scolded her colleagues for walking off.

Monday, Goldberg made no apologies; she said that O’Reilly needed to be more cautious in his statements because it’s a volatile time. “I”m glad that I left,” she said.

Walters countered that the country needs conversations without yelling and walking off. “You don’t walk out of your own home,” Walters chided her colleagues. “We’re used to Bill O’Reilly. He loves this. He loves to pull your chain. He loves to get you angry. This is just what he wanted.”

Responding to some critics who questioned if the entire scenerio was staged in a ploy to get ratings, Sherri Shepherd adamantly stated that it was not staged and that O’Reilly seemed “energized” during a commercial break. He promised to show the clip on his Fox show, The O’Reilly Factor, and said it would help the ratings for The View, Shepherd said.

Shepherd said that Walters told O’Reilly: “We’ve been doing fine without you trying to make our ratings.”

Shepherd added, “He knew what he was doing.”

The notoriously conservative Elisabeth Hasselbeck said her staying didn’t mean she agreed with O’Reilly. Hasselbeck stressed that the terrorists killed us in the 2001 attacks.

Behar also brought up the Henry Fonda movie 12 Angry Men, cited the bigoted character played by Lee J. Cobb. She pointed out that the other jurors stood up to him. “I believe that was what I had to do,” Behar said.

“We are supposed to be civilized,” Goldberg said. “I know that had I stayed there, for me at least, it would have gotten worse. … He was so enraging and so disrespectful.”

“Bill loves to pull your chains,” Walters said.

Behar admitted her surprise at all the attention the incident attracted, saying, “Two girl comedians walk off in the face of a bully, and it gets to be all over the world. Interesting.”

During the interview with O’Reilly last Thursday, both Goldberg and Behar returned to the set to finish the interview after O’Reilly -prompted by Walters- apologized if he offended anyone by his comments.

[From Radar Online]

Whoopi and Joy interview people for a living, they’ve been doing it for years, and they should be able to handle some ass who is known for being incendiary without getting all offended and storming off. Bill needled the crap out of them and he got the response he was looking for. The fact that they still can’t see that they reacted just as he hoped they would just serves to show why they would leave in the first place. I don’t like Bill O’Reilly and I don’t agree with his point whatsoever, but everyone knows how he is. If they don’t want to deal with his behavior they shouldn’t have him on the show.

Joy also talked about this on her CNN show yesterday. I like what her experts have to say about the issue. Here’s video of that.

Do you know how much I hate covering anything to do with The View? SO MUCH. But CB sent me this, and I suppose people will be talking about it. Bill O’Reilly came on The View this morning, and I guess they were talking about Obama’s low poll numbers and then they got to polling numbers for what America thinks about the “Ground Zero Mosque” and then sh-t gets all shouty and hysterical. After Bill says “Muslims killed us on nine-eleven” Joy Behar gets up and says something about not engaging in this sh-t while Whoopi is shouting about extremists. Then Whoopi gets up with Joy and they both walk off the stage. Barbara then gets her lady drawers in a twist and says that we should all be able to talk about this sh-t without having people disengage or whatever.

I have mixed emotions. Obviously, Bill was trying to get the ladies riled up, and he was much more animated and blowhardy than he would have been on, say, The Daily Show. That being said, he threw out a relatively easy one (compared to other bullsh-t he could have said) and Whoopi and Joy took the bait like morons. Bill will get extra coverage, blah, blah, blah, so that makes him smart, I guess.

But in defense of Whoopi and Joy: I do this too. I would much rather disengage from some heated argument than sit there and try to shout my point. I realize they walked away for different reasons, and it might have even been preplanned, but I’m just saying, I get it. When it comes to these stupid hot-button political issues, for the most part I’m not interested in shouting my point of view to whoever disagrees with me. Is it maturity? Is it a heightened fight-or-flight instinct? Or it my smug sense of superiority? I don’t know. I just know I don’t care enough to shout about it. And if you shout at me about something, I’m never going to agree with you anyway.

Dina Lohan had a little talk with Barbara Walters ahead of yesterday’s View. It’s clear that she wanted to make it known that she has three other kids that are doing great and that they’re all going to visit Lindsay in rehab next week. Does this mean she’s kind-of admitting that Lindsay isn’t doing that well now that she’s in rehab awaiting additional jail time? That’s doubtful given all the delusional ways she’s tried to spin Lindsay’s last sentence, but at least she realizes that it’s a PR issue she needs to stay on top of. Ali, 16, is modeling now and Dina would love to get her into “the business.” Dina needs to make herself seem like a competent parent despite all the evidence to the contrary. Here’s what Barbara said on behalf of Dina:

There are three other children. The son just graduated summa cum laude from Ithaca. The son Michael is 22, daughter Ali, 16, and another boy of 14, all very responsible, terrific children. They are all going to visit Lindsay at Betty Ford where she is now. There is going to be a family week… she is supposed to be there for 30 days according to her mother, I just talked to her, she is doing very well. She has 24 days left and on October 22 the judge will rule on the misdemeanor violation and decide whether Lindsay goes back to rehab or goes to jail but in the meantime she’s trying very hard to work through her problems.

[The View via Radar Online]

I wonder what kind of deal Dina will work out with the paparazzi to capture these happy family reunion moments. Bill Zwecker of the Chicago Sun Times has some insider information on Lindsay’s rehab stay. He reports that she’s “stand-offish with other patients and staff” but is cooperative overall. She’s also said to have “offered to kick in funds to help the clinic pay for the additional security staff they need ‘to cope with all the paparazzi.” You know she’s doing this so that she can control who gets photos of her in rehab and subsequently demand a higher asking price. Zwecker reports that Lindsay has “ditched her cell phones and erased the contact information” for her “old heavy-partying crowd.” She’s hoping to show the judge that she’s changed and get off without additional jail time, but legal experts think that she’ll be sentenced to 30 more days on October 22. There are only so many ways the Lohans can spin this, and it’s obvious that rehab is a last ditch effort for Lindsay to avoid jail. I’ll be surprised if she stays on the straight and narrow for even a few more months.