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Video of Paula Deen and Barbara Walters on the View
Food News

Paula Deen Becomes a Hot Topic on the View

In January 2011, Food Network host Paula Deen appeared on The View to promote her new children's cookbook.
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In January 2011, Food Network host Paula Deen appeared on The View to promote her new children's cookbook. Those who caught it know that it wasn't pretty to watch. Put the sassy Paula Deen and the straight-laced Barbara Walters together, and you get an uncomfortable dynamic.

As the ladies of The View sit behind a stupendous spread of fried chicken and other Southern comforts, Paula licks strawberry cake off her fingers and pictures of macaroni and cheese grace the background. Walters then forces the queen of Southern cuisine to answer a rather serious question:

This is a cookbook for kids. Obesity is the number one problem for kids today. Everything you have here is enormously fattening. You tell kids to have cheesecake for breakfast . . . Does it bother you that you are adding to it? No? Not at all?

Stunned, Deen bumbles something about moderation — "you know, we don't eat this every day" — to an unconvinced Walters.

UPDATE: With the news that Paula Deen has type 2 diabetes, the women of The View furthered the debate on "hot topics" this week. Watch the video, and weigh in on your thoughts after the jump

Jake Gyllenhaal Talks About Restaurants on Jimmy Kimmel Live
Video

Jake Gyllenhaal Talks About His Love of Food and Finding the Right Restaurant

Jake Gyllenhaal, it appears, is quite the lover of food!
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Jake Gyllenhaal, it appears, is quite the lover of food! On his recent visit to Jimmy Kimmel Live, the self-proclaimed "food aficionado" and star of the upcoming film The Source Code dished with the talk show host about taking a journalist out to eat at the Ikea snack bar in Burbank ("they have the best Swedish meatballs in Los Angeles"), who he turns to for restaurant advice (Alice Waters), and what it's like to be overshadowed by other celebrities when dining out.

Katie Couric and Ricki Lake Courted For Daytime Talk Shows
Advice

Katie Couric vs. Ricki Lake: Who Should Be the Next Queen of Daytime?

There's a job opening for a noncertified therapist to the masses!
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There's a job opening for a noncertified therapist to the masses! Oprah may have mentored Tyra Banks, but Tyra's finished with talk shows. Gayle King, editor at large for O magazine, best friend to Oprah, and current talk show host on OWN seems like an apparent heir, but is not. At least not according to ABC, who's losing its daytime queen, and NBC, who's circling above to swoop in and fill the daytime void.

Nobody can replace Oprah, but networks hope to launch the next big talk show. Katie Couric's contract with CBS expires in June, and the word is she's met with NBC and ABC to discuss talk shows. After spending five years as the anchor of CBS Evening News, she seems like a serious choice, but Katie always shined best in the morning as cohost of Today.

Meanwhile, Ricki Lake remains a contender. She's been trying to get a talk show since 2005, the year after her first long-running one ended. After discussing it on Oprah and The View late last year, she's been getting serious interest from the three major networks.

Personally, I would like to see the two, among others, duke it out in a competitive reality show called America's Next Daytime Queen, but no network will take my tweets. So until then the choices are Katie and Ricki — who's yours?

NBC's New Boss is Courting Jon Stewart
TV

NBC's New Boss is Courting Jon Stewart

The news: NBC's new head of programming, Ben Silverman, recently wined and dined Jon Stewart and his agent, saying that if everyone's favorite "news"man ever became free, he'd be interested in doing business.
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The news: NBC's new head of programming, Ben Silverman, recently wined and dined Jon Stewart and his agent, saying that if everyone's favorite "news"man ever became free, he'd be interested in doing business.

Could it happen? Quite possibly. Stewart's "Daily Show" contract is up in 2008. NBC should have an open late-night slot in 2009 if it goes through with its plans to have Conan O'Brien take over "The Tonight Show." Though late night seems like the most obvious place for Stewart, NBC also could try wooing him for prime time.

The good: Jon Stewart on network TV = more Jon Stewart for everyone. Plus, a late-night lineup of Conan followed by Jon would be amazing.

The bad: While Stewart wasn't the original host of "The Daily Show," he built it into must-see TV, and I have a hard time imagining the show without him now.

The bottom line: Any change is a while off at this point — plenty of time for more talks and for Comedy Central to groom a "Daily Show" correspondent to take over if Stewart did decide to leave.

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