Star Jones is right about Barbara Walters

Is anyone else but me following this story?

Why, in God's name, would a 78 year old Barbara Walters choose to reveal an affair (years ago) with the married Senator Edward Brooke in her new autobiography?

What purpose could revealing this information at this late date possibly serve at this point in Ms. Walters' life?

Star Jones, who was also mentioned in the book, said this:

"It is a sad day when an icon like Barbara Walters, in the sunset of her life, is reduced to publicly branding herself as an adulterer, humiliating an innocent family with accounts of her illicit affair and speaking negatively against me all for the sake of selling a book. It speaks to her true character."

For once, I agree with Star Jones.

I don't see any reason for this book. I don't know about the rest of you, but I don't care who she did it with, what she did with him, where she did it with him, when she did it with him, why she did it with him, or how she positioned herself with him. I don't care, so shut up Barbara!

AlwaysShocked said:

branding herself as an adulterer, humiliating an innocent family with accounts of her illicit affair and speaking negatively against me all for the sake of selling a book. It speaks to her true character."

For once, I agree with Star Jones.

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An adulterer is a man. A woman is called an adulteress. Get it right Star. You ARE in journalism after all! The affair was in the 70's and Barbara Walters was single for half of that decade. If the affair took place while she was single then she couldn't have been an adulteress either as that term means a married woman, not a single one. Star Jones picks inflammatory and inaccurate words to describe her nemesis. And that.....speaks to HER true character.:twocents:

Ms. Glow,
Tisn't how the word adulterer is defined anymore.
Ms. Jones is correct.

http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/adulterer
: a person who commits adultery; especially : a man who commits adultery
___________________________________
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/adulterer

a·dul·ter·er

Audio Help/əˈdʌl

tər

ər/Pronunciation Key - Show Spelled Pronunciation[uh-duhl-ter-er]Pronunciation Key - Show IPA Pronunciation

–noun a person who commits adultery.

Notice that word "especially" in the dictionary definition? It might not be so noticeable if she wasn't a journalist. AND if BW was unmarried at the time of the affair then NEITHER word applys.

I'm gonna stick with the original suffixes and prefixes especially since Star is my age and should know the English language we were taught in school.

er for men ess for women

A friend just finished a foreign language class (Spanish) and they went to great detail to explain that Spanish terms are based on the English language of 50 years ago. That being a more universally stable form of English/Spanish that is understood globally, instead of current American terms. Apparently our changing vocabulary is keeping apace with our illiteracy but I for one don't intend to join it! :crazy:

Hey whatever floats your boat.
IMO, Star was correctly using the word adulterer.

Well its really neither here nor there since if Baa baa Waa waa wasn't married when she engaged in the affair she is not an adulterer OR an adulteress. That term is for married people who cheat.

I just think Star Jones, as a journalist, should honor her profession in her cut downs. :crazy:

If I were a mistress, I would still consider myself an adulterer. But come on, that is just splitting hairs. :crazy:

Babs shouldn't have told on the senator and she shouldn't have spoken about Star. They're both stooping to a new low, IMO. Star would be better off just keeping her mouth shut, instead of trying to extend her 15.

Yeah said:

If I were a mistress, I would still consider myself an adulterer. But come on, that is just splitting hairs. :crazy:

Babs shouldn't have told on the senator and she shouldn't have spoken about Star. They're both stooping to a new low, IMO. Star would be better off just keeping her mouth shut, instead of trying to extend her 15.

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I agree! They both should have just zipped it :crazy:

Yeah said:

If I were a mistress, I would still consider myself an adulterer. But come on, that is just splitting hairs. :crazy:

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LOL, so would a single man cheating with a married woman be referred to as mister, instead of mistress?

LOL, philamena, I know what you mean about the old-fashioned usages. The word authoress instead of author is like fingernails on a blackboard!

They both need to grow up & get over themselves! Barb. really didn't need to give names about her affair. I don't feel sorry for the man but for his wife and children I do. Star needs to worry about what's going on in her own backyard. I used to really admire and respect Barbara. Now she just gets on my nerves...

She's a living legend that is going on 79 years old... she wrote her memoirs and told the truth, good and bad... I kind of don't understand the disdain. Does she need to get over herself? Well, she's going on 79, still kicking it, and she's a woman that historically changed the face of news media for women: dang, she's earned the right to be full of herself. LoL

I just finished reading the book... it was a slow read at times... but overall, it was pretty good. I think it may be leading up to her walking towards official retirement... and who better to tell her story, but her own self. If she hadn't, then books would have ended up coming out, probably filled with half-truths and rumors. The naming of whom she was engaged in an affair at one time, probably would have been printed, sooner or later... but only she knew the truth... so she told it.

Well I think people have the right to write their "story" if they want to. BW writes about her life and her experiences and she does have the right to document her life...even the not so "good" parts of it. We are interested (and the book got published) because she is BW - as opposed to Sue Smith, but there is no difference in Sue Smith's diary and BW's Book except that a LOT more people will read BW's stuff.

As to the "affair" - it is relevant because when it happened it was not common for inter-racial relationships of ANY KIND to be accepted publicly and certainly they were FORCED to keep it a secret for MULTIPLE REASONS - RACE, Her FAME, Him MARRIED, Him a SENATOR. Perhaps they would have married if the same thing had happened in the more open/accepting culture we enjoy now. It's obvious that the they cared a great deal for each other and still keep in touch - and he did know she was writing about their relationship in her book. And why shouldn't she "tell" - certainly not to protect HIM - he was half of the affair and the blame/guilt is properly something they should share equally. It could just as easily have been the Senator that "told" in his book - BW just spoke 1st. I think confession is good for the soul - sometimes you just have to drop the bag of guilt you carry, make amends and move on, leaving the baggage behind you.

Star Jones has her own issues. She LIED and worse, asked other people close to her to lie and be a PUBLIC SUPPORTER of her LIES. Once again, BW just TOLD THE TRUTH about her experience with Star Jones - and Star had already confessed her big elaborate lie about the weight loss so exactly what did BW tell that Star is so offended by? Star has already proven she lies, she lied about her weight loss, about her wedding, and about why she left "the View". I'm convinced she lied about her relationship with Reynolds too - I think it was always a marriage of convenience and one created for "public consumption" that was to benefit both people in different ways. I look at the whole thing like they were playing a happily married couple in a made for TV movie... And you note that BW didn't slam Star back after she made that statement either - BW just said she loved working with Star and cherished the memories and that Star was going thru a rough time right now. Frankly I don't think most people care what Star Jones thinks about BW's Book, but saying something nasty and snarky did get the currently unemployed Star some free publicity and face-time on TV.

Obviously I think BW didn't spill ALL the beans in her basket with this book. I am certain BW has dirt on folks we can ONLY IMAGINE. But she told ONLY the DIRT ON HERSELF - which is her choice to tell - so long as it is the TRUTH, she has a right to be honest about her own life and her personal experiences. And notice, no one is questioning the TRUTH of her book. No-one is coming forward to sat BW lied, or told something untrue or slandered anyone.

The lovely thing about this is it's a BOOK and nobody has to buy it or read it, or watch BW interviews or on TV. I am thrilled we live in a place where it's someone's inalienable RIGHT to speak their mind and tell their story and leave a piece of themselves and their life around after they are no longer with us. I don't like BW, in fact I have NEVER liked BW, can't watch her on TV and could care a fig about her book (or reading it). But I LOVE that she wrote the book and that she made HISTORY in so many ways, an inter-racial relationship in the 70's, breaking new ground in the world of TV (and still breaking new ground), holding her own in a business with a glass ceiling at every turn, still being out there at her age and making it look easy to be vital and engaging and powerful, and intelligent and relevant in a career that's at least 80% VISUAL and beauty and youth usually win over experience and ability.

So, don't read the book, don't support BW in ANY way, write a letter, post an entry on your blog, share your thoughts and your opinion here on WS. But just like it is YOUR CHOICE to do those things, to speak out, it's BW's choice to do the same. BW doesn't have to endorse you and you certainly don't have to endorse her - but ain't it GRAND that we all have the freedom to tell OUR STORY to the world???

There's that old saying that the TRUTH will set you free, and maybe BW is looking for a little freedom and some honest reflection on her extraordinary life as she ends her career. I think it takes a lot of GUTS to sit and interview famous, important people and ask the TOUGH questions and I wouldn't expect BW to be any less GUTSY or HONEST when examining her own life and answering her own questions.

My Opinion

Well I just liked her better when she wasn't on the view with the rest of the cackling hens. I could give a rats patootie that she didn't protect the guy she had an affair with. I'm just thinking of the guy's family is all.. You certainly can't judge a book by it's cover. I never EVER would of thought Barbara Walters would of been engaged in an affair with a married man. Not that I think she is anything more then a human being like the rest of us who make mistakes..I just thought she was above that.

Mygirlsadie said:

Well I just liked her better when she wasn't on the view with the rest of the cackling hens. I could give a rats patootie that she didn't protect the guy she had an affair with. I'm just thinking of the guy's family is all.. You certainly can't judge a book by it's cover. I never EVER would of thought Barbara Walters would of been engaged in an affair with a married man. Not that I think she is anything more then a human being like the rest of us who make mistakes..I just thought she was above that.

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It was the 70's - "free love" before AIDS, after the pill set women free to be more like men. And BW lived and worked in a MAN's WORLD.

The heart wants what it wants - and while it seems out of character now (she is 79), she may have been a very different woman (in her personal life) at that time in her life. I think it's the Senator's responsibility to worry about his family and also to deal with the fall-out - for all we know his wife (at the time) and his children may have known about the affair already. I am sure both now look back and wish they had done many many things differently - we aren't always rational when we are in love. We all make mistakes and often the worst are all entangled in "love" somehow. Hindsight is 20/20 and we shouldn't look back too long or too hard - can't go back and change what was - isn't everything a mix of joy and pain in the end anyway?

I think we all make bad choices and do things that aren't rational or "right" - we'd be less than human if we didn't accept that life and people aren't perfect. We don't know that BW didn't LEARN from that affair and henceforth never let herself be in that position again. The worst mistake would be to find oneself in that place, with a married man, or you yourself are married and cheating and not LEARN FROM IT. You can accept the good things you were left with and the memories while rejecting the manner in which they were obtained and at the same time accept responsibility for the pain you caused for OTHERS.

We all WISH we were "better" than the mistakes we have made in our lives. Mother Teresa doubted her FAITH, her GOD and her calling - I am sure we all thought she was "better" than that, perhaps more "perfect" than us. And yet, she thought herself horribly flawed, faced her fear every day and worried that she had somehow made a huge mistake in her life. Soon she will be a SAINT and yet she was on earth, delightfully, beautifully, inspirationally HUMAN - flaws, doubts and all.

Even those we look up to, envy, aspire to emulate are underneath JUST LIKE US. Perhaps they are better at the "mask", more skilled at the "dance" but you might be surprised to find that they too look around and find themselves lacking compared to others. Funny how when we "arrive" at the place we thought was "it" the view from there is still all uphill.

My Opinion

I'm in hearty agreement with FlowerChild.

Flowerchild when you said ''Perhaps they are better at the "mask", more skilled at the "dance".. That's exactly what i'm talking about. BW is good..real good.

I'm just tired already of all the publicity about the book!
BW has been everywhere promoting it. On Oprah she said the senators wife knew he was having the affair with her so the book coming out would not have been a big revelation for her, they divorced years ago. BW seemed quite irritated when Oprah refered to her being a mistress, BW made a big point then of how she was a working self supporting woman!

VB

AlwaysShocked said:

Is anyone else but me following this story?

Why, in God's name, would a 78 year old Barbara Walters choose to reveal an affair (years ago) with the married Senator Edward Brooke in her new autobiography?

What purpose could revealing this information at this late date possibly serve at this point in Ms. Walters' life?

Star Jones, who was also mentioned in the book, said this:

"It is a sad day when an icon like Barbara Walters, in the sunset of her life, is reduced to publicly branding herself as an adulterer, humiliating an innocent family with accounts of her illicit affair and speaking negatively against me all for the sake of selling a book. It speaks to her true character."

For once, I agree with Star Jones.

Click to expand...

Many, many people in show business write books like this. I don't see anyone coming down on Janice Dickinson, Hugh Heffner, Cher or anyone else because they told stories. The guy was MARRIED. It seems to me that he's the one that should be ashamed, not Barbara. Star's career is shot to hell. Her marriage is over. She's bitter as hell and she's taking it out on others.

I don't watch The View but caught enough bits and pieces to learn that Star lost a ton of weight while insisting she was doing it with pilates and portion control only to have BW reveal in her book that in fact it was gastric bypass surgery. What an idiot Star made of herself. If she didn't want anyone knowing she had the surgery fine but then keep your mouth shut, going on and on how much hard work she was doing, cmon!!!

Jubie