Watching The View

Whoopi Goldberg is bordering on blogging-addict (coming from me, who is on her seventh post for today) as she has posted another entry at her WowOWow blog, this one about Sarah Palin’s speech at the Republican National Convention.

Her entry echoed many of the comments that she made on today’s show, namely Palin’s discarding of Barack Obama’s work as a community organizer.

Whoopi also discussed the pregnancy of Palin’s daughter and wrote, “But I find it interesting that if this girl was Chelsea Clinton or black she probably wouldn’t have been treated the same way. When a black teenager gets pregnant she’s a welfare mother. When this teenager, when this nice white-lady-girl-teenager gets pregnant, it’s an Evangelical Christian choice. She’s unwed, and so how do we balance that? I guess the spin is the way to do it.”
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Here is a partial video of the Cindy McCain tribute luncheon at which Elisabeth Hasselbeck served as the MC today. (Courtesy of C-SPAN) I am not sure how long the luncheon lasted before the part that is at the start of the clip and am I not sure if we missed anything in that earlier part. For those of you who don’t want to watch the video, here is a brief summary.

Elisabeth Hasselbeck appears at the beginning of the clip and introduces country singer Clay Walker. He jokes that he has never been on The View and hopes maybe if the audience likes him that he will be invited to her show. He then sings “I’m proud to be an American.”

Elisabeth then returns to the podium and says that it felt good to sing that song. She then tells Clay that he is going to be booked on The View. Then she introduces actor Jon Voight who speaks. (I don’t know what he said, I fast-forwarded through it).

A video tribute clip to Cindy McCain then plays. Following that, Elisabeth introduces Todd Palin, husband of VP-candidate Sarah Palin, which I wrote about earlier today. Elisabeth says that Sarah Palin “knocked the cover off the ball last night” and she “knocked the wind out of the liberal smear machine” and she showed “grit and passion.”

Todd Palin then spoke. (I fast-forwarded again, but his remarks are summarized here). Todd Palin then introduced Cindy McCain who spoke for several minutes. When she left the stage at the end of the speech, she got a big hug from Elisabeth Hasselbeck.

The View, Elisabeth Hasselbeck, Cindy McCain, John McCain, Clay Walker

As I wrote previously, Elisabeth Hasselbeck is at the Republican National Convention today to host a luncheon for Cindy McCain, which was called “A Tribute to Cindy McCain.” According to ABC News, Todd Palin, husband of VP candidate Sarah Palin, spoke briefly at the luncheon.

Elisabeth introduced Cindy McCain and Todd Palin as “the next First Lady and future first Second Man.” She also reportedly told Todd Palin, “You better get your game face on because America fell in love with your wife last night.”

More information on his remarks here. I will post pictures of Elisabeth at the event if any become available. (Be sure to let me know if you see photos or video of her at the event anywhere!) EDITED TO ADD: I found video of the event on the C-SPAN website. I have posted it here: Video of Elisabeth Hasselbeck MC’s Cindy McCain Luncheon.

The View, Elisabeth Hasselbeck, Todd Palin

Here are some video clips of the September 4th episode of The View. You can read my full recap here: The View September 4th Recap.

The official View website has an “Elisabeth Cam” video posted. It follows Elisabeth Hasselbeck on this past Tuesday leaving her building and going back to work for the first day back from hiatus.

It shows her greeting audience members waiting in line outside, as well as greeting the other hosts when she arrives late to the dressing room. It also shows Sherri Shepherd enthusiastically shouting “PALIN!” before they go out on stage.

Click the photo to head to the ABC page to see the video or click here. Be sure to check out how they incorrectly spelled Elisabeth’s name in the caption of the video. EDITED TO ADD: They corrected the spelling. It had been “Elisibeth.”

Thanks to the person who emailed me the information. I would thank you by name but you didn’t leave your name in the message! (You know who you are!)

Elisabeth Haselbeck, Sherri Shepherd, The View

Today on the September 4th episode of The View, Elisabeth Hasselbeck was not present because she will be at the Republican National Convention later today. Sherri Shepherd was absent yesterday because it was Jeffrey’s first day of school. He was fine, but she didn’t want to leave him. She felt a “pang” that he didn’t cry or anything and it took her six tries to leave. When he got home, he kept saying he wanted to go to school. The school is for children who have developmental delays and she feels good leaving him there.

Sarah Palin gave her speech last night at the convention. Barbara Walters said she was “just wonderful” no matter what her views were and it will be tough for Joe Biden to debate her. Sherri was disappointed that she made fun of Barack Obama’s job as a community avtivist, which he did when he could have taken a high paying job instead. He was serving his country. Sherri broke down when Palin said that people who have a special needs children have a friend in her. Joy said she was great and could be a comedian because she has great timing. Joy thinks that men are attracted to her and she is like a librarian who has the hair up and then takes it down and “va va va voom.” She said that might be sexist, but that men did not find Hillary Clinton attractive.

Whoopi thought it was a good speech and she came out strong. She gave information we would not have known before. She was also bothered by the slighting of Barack’s role as a community organizer. Whoopi was really aggravated when Palin said she had to explain to her opponents what a mayor is and that community organizers don’t have actual responsibilities. Whoopi said that it is often the activists who are getting information back to the mayor about what is going on in the city. They liked the clip of the little daughter holding the baby and fixing his hair with spit. Barbara said it may cost her an interview, but read from an article that said that as governor, Palin raised taxes, pursued pork belly projects, looked into banning books, and thinks the Iraq war is God’s will. Palin also recently cut funding for teen mothers who don’t have a place to live. Barbara said that none of those things were addressed in her speech.
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At her blog on WoWoWow, Whoopi Goldberg recommends various books for children at different levels of reading/development because it is back-to-school time. She wrote that the books she is recommending are “safe and won’t freak them out, but are really adventuresome.”

Here are the books (and other learning tools) that she recommends:

For the little kids: Dr. Seuss Beginner Concept Cards: Opposites
For kids a bit older: The Adventures of Captain Underpants by Dav Pilkey (Winnie’s note: My 6-year-old nephew loves these books so I can attest to their appeal)
For ages 8-12: Gregor the Overlander by Suzanne Collins
The 39 Clues by Rick Riordan
For teenagers: The Twilight Series by Stephanie Meyer (Winnie’s note: Not just for teens. I know a lot of adults who love these books)

To read her desriptions of all the books or for more information about them and why she recommends them, be sure to check out her blog at WowOWow. She also talks about how much she loves Amazon’s Kindle book reader, which she has mentioned on The View before. I think that the Kindle is a great idea, although I do not know if I would miss reading actual books. Not that there is really much to debate, though, because a Kindle is quite expensive and cannot afford one right now anyway.

Feel free to comment about any other books you recommend for kids or even books that you have read yourself and enjoyed that others here may also be interested in. Do any of you have the Amazon Kindle? Is it as wonderful as I imagine it to be?

Whoopi Goldberg, WowOwow, Amazon Kindle, The View, children’s books

In lieu of my complete written recap please enjoy these videos from the September 3rd episode of The View. There are four videos of the extended hot topics that they had today. Prior to the videos I have written a brief recap of what happened before the discussion in the first clip. The last video is the musical performance by singer Adele. Although Maura Tierney was scheduled for today, I guess that she got bumped or canceled at the last minute. If anyone was looking forward to her appearance, I will let you know if she is rescheduled.
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Today on The View, Sherri Shepherd was absent because she was taking her son Jeffrey to his first day of school. They talked about how school starts younger these days. Joy Behar said she had to sing Italian songs in Kindergarten to get cookies and milk.

Elisabeth Hasselbeck went to see Whoopi Goldberg in Xanadu last night and had a lot fun. Whoopi is only in the show through Sunday. Elisabeth said that Whoopi shares a dressing room and bathroom with her cast mates there, even though she is famous enough to have gotten a trailer. Joy was skeptical of a trailer at Broadway. Whoopi said that it was love that Elisabeth went to see Whoopi rather than stay at home and watch the Republican convention.

I hate to be so lax so early into the new season, but work commitments will keep me from getting a recap of today’s episode of The View up today.

Feel free to comment here about today’s episode. If you missed the announcement on Tuesday, Sherri Shepherd will be missing today’s episode to take her son Jeffrey to his first day of school.

Scheduled guests are Maura Tierney from E.R. and Broadway’s “Three Changes” and singer Adele.

The View, Maura Tierney, ER, Three Changes, Adele, Elisabeth Hasselbeck, Joy Behar, Whoopi Goldberg, Barbara Walters, Sherri Shepherd

Here is a video of the second segment of The View hot topics today, September 2nd, in which they discussed Sarah Palin and the pregnancy of her daughter Bristol Palin.

You can also see the new purple background for this season of The View.

The View, Bristol Palin, Sarah Palin, Sherri Shepherd, Elisabeth Hasselbeck, Joy Behar, Barbara Walters, Whoopi Golberg

Here is a video of the interview segment of the New Kids on the Block’s appearance on The View today. The video also shows (at the beginning) the new intro design/color scheme that The View has for this season where various words combine to form “The View.”

The View, New Kids on the Block

Here is a video of The New Kids on the Block from today’s episode of The View. This is the second song that they performed on the show, one of their greatest hits “Step By Step.” (Ignore the “click here” button; it will send you to another, unrelated, YouTube page)

The View, New Kids on the Block

The View finally returned from its hiatus with its first new episode since late July. All five hosts were present for the show’s return and the start of season 12. {I have to admit I was happy to see them all come out on the stage. I guess I missed the show more than I thought I would!} They have a new purple background and a new introduction.

Whoopi Goldberg was busy during hiatus doing Xanadu. The co-hosts will be going to see her perform later this week. She doesn’t want to know which day, though, because it will be distracting. Sherri wants to scream “Whoopi!” but Whoopi told her only when the show is over. Barbara still has her book Audition out. It will be in paperback this spring.

During the hiatus, Joy went to Barbara’s summer house for dinner. Barbara asked all her guests who they would vote for if the election was that day and they all said McCain, even though they were liberals. Barbara said that was before the convention. Sherri e-mailed a lot to Elisabeth to get parenting advice during the hiatus. She now has Jeffrey full-time now.

Whoopi encouraged people to support the Red Cross and other organizations to help out after Hurricane Gustav.
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Here are a couple of photos of Joy Behar, who attended an event in East Hampton, New York, on August 25th. The event was for @Ross and featured a performance by Aretha Franklin and benefited Ross School’s Programs and Scholarships at Ross School.

Joy Behar, @Ross, Hamptons

Unless her plans are derailed due to Hurricane Gustav, The View host Elisabeth Hasselbeck plans to attend the Republican National Convention in St. Paul, Minnesota this Thursday.

According to The New York Daily News, Elisabeth Hasselbeck will fly in and out of Minnesota on Thursday. She will attend an event with Cindy McCain and will also shoot some kind of piece for The View. I wonder if they had one of the hosts attend the Democratic National Convention to prepare a similar piece?

Elisabeth told The New York Daily News that her willingness to travel to the convention shows how great her support is for John McCain. She stated, “I must really want John McCain elected, because I would not get on a plane like that for anyone else.”

The article also discusses The View and Elisabeth repeats the frequent comment that even though they argue on the show they are all friends. She said, “It’s quite invigorating to sit there with the ladies and have heated discussions - they don’t call it ‘Hot Topics’ for any other reason. . . The reason it can go to those corners that are a little more energized, we’ll call them, is because we have such respect for each other. … We are people who want to have a good conversation and respect one another and know we can go there, go as far so we can touch the edge of that talk, and always come back to center, because we’re friends.”

As you know, The View will return with its first new episode in over a month tomorrow, Tuesday September 2nd.

Thanks to readers Dee and Vegas for sending me the link to the article!

The View, Elisabeth Hasselbeck, Hurricane Gustav, Republican National Convention