In 2013,Jenny McCarthyandBrooke Shieldswere both being considered for a job atThe View—and ultimately, it went to McCarthy.
During a Tuesday night appearance onWatch What Happens Live with Andy Cohen, McCarthy was asked about Shields’ remarks aboutalmost being cast as co-hoston the ABC talk show, which she made during her own recent appearance onWWHL.
“I’m friends with her, I love her, and I think she knows deep inside that I took one for the team,” joked McCarthy, 46. “Because let’s just face it, that was hell. So you’re welcome, Brooke!”
On the Bravo talk show last week, Shields, 54, was asked to confirm a rumor that she was in talks to become a co-host afterElisabeth Hasselbeck‘s departure.
“Yes,” she said. “I went through a week of being on the show and I did all my homework. I take everything very seriously.”
David M. Benett/Getty; Rob Latour/Shutterstock
Shields said she then got a call from a producer informing her they had decided to go with McCarthy.
“I was like, ‘Okay.’ I mean, she’s a friend, but you want one or the other,” she acknowledged. “So, you know, I think they were going for something different.”
A rep forThe Viewhad no comment.
OnWWHL, McCarthy was also asked whether she regrets anything she divulged in Ramin Setoodeh’s book,Ladies Who Punch: The Explosive Inside Story of “The View.”(In the book, which was published in April, McCarthy characterized her 2013-2014 stint on the show as “miserable” and shared accounts ofBarbara Waltersyelling at her andscrutinizing her clothes.)
“Oh God no, nothing,” McCarthy told hostAndy Cohen. “You know, they did kind of slant a little bit more towards Barbara … the newspapers want to get the salacious part, but in the book, you hear my admiration for her. I love her.”
“I panicked because I don’t consider myself a political person,” she said. “Now I had to figure out, ‘Am I coming out as a Republican or a Democrat? Where do I stand on all the social issues and political issues?’ ”
McCarthy said she became increasingly unhappy as the show swiveled back to politics.
“I was going to work crying. I couldn’t be myself,” she says. “My fans were telling me, ‘Where’s Jenny? They aren’t letting you be you.’ ”
Still, she said she felt sympathetic for Walters, the legendary broadcaster who launched the talk show in 1997.
“I had zero hard feelings,” she said. “I loved her like a grandma. She didn’t know any better.”
Watch What Happens Live withAndy Cohenairs Sunday-Thursday (11 p.m. ET) on Bravo.The Viewairs weekdays (11 a.m. ET) on ABC.
source: people.com
