Star’s come back down to earth
While walking from her Court TV office in New York City to a lunch appointment, Star Jones was approached by a fan.
“You know, I think they should leave Barry Bonds alone,” the man volunteered.
“I said, ‘I agree: They ought to prove it (about Bonds’ alleged steroid use) or shut up,’ ” Jones relates.
Clearly, she has a gift for connecting with people, and no shortage of opinions – as we’re likely to see when Jones returns to daily television today for the first time since exiting ABC’s “The View” more than a year ago.
“Star Jones,” which will air live weekdays at 3 p.m. on Court TV (cable channel 49 in Spokane, 68 in Coeur d’Alene), will be topical and news-driven, Jones says, with guests ranging from celebrities to ordinary people in timely situations.
Legal issues and criminal justice will loom large, of course: Jones, 45, is an attorney and a former prosecutor who started in television as a commentator for Court TV in 1991, then became legal correspondent at NBC News.
On “The View,” where she was a panelist from its conception in 1997, she adapted her knack for legal commentary into social commentary masquerading as chitchat.
Jones left “The View” on stormy terms in June 2006. Having been told weeks earlier that her contract wouldn’t be renewed, she announced her looming departure on the air (while setting viewers straight that it wasn’t her choice).
Barbara Walters, caught by surprise, later claimed to feel “betrayed” by Jones’ outspokenness.
By then, her public image had taken a plunge — or so said the network’s audience research that led to her firing.
Her extreme, and much-discussed, weight loss had become a cultural distraction. (This month, in Glamour magazine, Jones finally confirmed that she indeed had gastric bypass surgery four years ago, eventually losing 160 pounds.)
Beyond that, her lavish wedding to banker Al Reynolds helped to undermine her down-to-earth appeal.
“I needed to go away for a bit,” Jones says, thinking back to last summer. “I also needed to acknowledge that I had lost the immediate connection that I had with my audience. …
“I take responsibility 100 percent for enjoying celebrity a bit too much. I screwed up. … It’s intoxicating. I sucked it into my lungs and let it get into my bloodstream. Let’s put it like this: Now I’ve had a transfusion.”
Her second chance came late last year when Court TV, engineering its own relaunch (including, come January, a new name: truTV), proposed she join the network.
“I told them I don’t want to do screaming TV, fighting TV, insulting TV, and I don’t want to do gossip,” Jones says.
“I think I’ve been the subject of enough of it that I know what it makes other people feel like.”
The birthday bunch
Singer-actor Isaac Hayes is 65. Newswoman Connie Chung is 61. Singer Robert Plant (Led Zeppelin) is 59. “Today” show weatherman Al Roker is 53. Actress Joan Allen is 51. Actor James Marsters (“Buffy the Vampire Slayer”) is 45. Singer Fred Durst (Limp Bizkit) is 37. Actor Jonathan Ke Quan (“Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom”) is 36.