Tuesday, May 9

Score One For O'Donnell

From Socialite's Life:

Page Six is reporting this morning that Star Jones will be exiting "The View." According to Page Six's source, this was at the request of Barbara Walters and Rosie O'Donnell. I have to say I'm a tad disappointed. What could have been must see television, has now become "that talk show that Rosie is going to be on." People would have tuned in droves to watch the unpleasantness on set between Jones and O'Donnell.

ABC will announce this week that the big-boned talking head is out at "The View," a source close to the inner workings of the late-morning gabfest tells Page Six. "It was always Rosie's condition of joining the show, and Barbara agreed to those conditions from the outset," our source said. The network and Jones are now concocting a face-saving scenario in which Jones will be touted as moving on to pursue important new projects.

Jones' camp yesterday denied the blustery babbler is going anywhere. "It's 100 percent not true. Where are you hearing this?" a rep for Jones said. A "View" flack echoed that. But those denials come on the heels of reports that Oprah Winfrey's best friend, Gayle King, may be in line to take over Jones' chair on the kitschy coffee klatch.

And while publicly, the show says Jones is "welcome" to remain on "The View" as long as she wants, insiders confirmed late last week that her agents are quietly shopping around for a new job for her.

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