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Joy Behar Page
The Modern Wife?; Live Better Now
Aired January 12, 2011 - 21:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
JOY BEHAR, HOST: You know, I`m still here in Las Vegas where I`m judging the Miss America Pageant and today my pal Suzanne Somers is sitting in for me in New York.
I`ll be back later in the show with some, you know, special interviews from Vegas. And I can`t wait until Saturday night when we actually choose Miss America. I`m so into this. It`s going to be great when the winner is overcome with emotion and gets hysterical, crying and everything just like John Boehner. It`s going to be great.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Coming up on THE JOY BEHAR SHOW, celebrity chef Giada de Laurentiis cooks up controversy by saying she doesn`t want to upstage her husband. So, with more and more women becoming the primary bread-winners, why do some still take a back seat at home?
Plus, Joy and her fellow Miss America judges give us all the dirt from behind-the-scenes of the pageant.
And Joy sits down with the iconic Suzanne Somers.
That and more starting right now.
SUZANNE SOMERS, HLN GUEST HOST: Hello, everybody, I`m Suzanne Somers here in New York for Joy. She`ll be back a little later in the show.
Well, celebrity chef Giada de Laurentiis is causing quite a stir. She made these comments in "Red Book" magazine about balancing her career and marriage. And she says, "I think it can be hard for any man to sometimes be upstaged by his wife. So when I am home, I work very hard to be Todd`s wife and Jade`s mother and I have no problem going back to those traditional roles."
So the question is, is that what it takes to make a marriage work and have a happy home when women are the primary breadwinners?
With me now are two very interesting women, E.D. Hill -- I used to watch you every morning. She`s a conservative pundit and author. She wrote a book called "I`m Not Your friend, I`m Your Parent" -- hear, hear. She should know, she has 9,000 children.
And Lisa Bloom out in L.A., she`s an attorney with the firm bloomfirm.com. Did I get that right, Lisa?
LISA BLOOM, THE BLOOMFIRM.COM: The bloomfirm.com, you got it.
SOMERS: Lisa, is there anything wrong with, you know, adhering to traditional gender roles in a marriage like Giada does?
BLOOM: Well, it`s so disappointing to me because here she is, a powerhouse chef and author with enormous success. And yet it sounds as though when she goes home, she has to assume the subservient role in order to make her husband happy. And she says in order that he won`t stray.
You know, why can`t it be a marriage between equals. Why can`t he celebrate her success? Why does she have to assume the traditional role when she goes home? I find it disappointing.
SOMERS: Does this type of thinking set women back 50 years, E.D.?
E.D. HILL, AUTHOR, "I`M NOT YOUR FRIEND, I`M YOUR PARENT": No, not at all. It sets marriages forward. It would be great if all men were really well adjusted and secure in themselves and I know the guys watching this show are.
SOMERS: Right.
HILL: However, the rest of them, are totally messed up. So if you want to have a happy home and you got a successful career, I`m not saying your husband`s going to stray if you don`t do this, but I think you`re going to have a happier marriage if you go out of your way to make him feel important. I mean, it`s like taking -- they`re big little boys.
SOMERS: Yes.
BLOOM: I would say this. Look, both partners should make each other feel important. That`s what my boyfriend and I do for each other. I celebrate his successes, he celebrates mine. But neither one of us feels as though we have to assume this inferior role and one of us has to be second class and especially in my case that his male ego would somehow be ok, that that`s necessary to preserve the relationship. Why isn`t the solution to educate men that successful women are hot and sexy, it`s time to start noticing them.
SOMERS: Hey, hey.
HILL: It is true. We know it, but we`re women. We`re ahead of them. They haven`t quite picked up on this.
And I live in the real world, you know? My husband`s great. He is totally supportive. He is not one of those guys that is going to go, you know, stray or is going to feel threatened. He supports me. And I couldn`t be where I am and what I am without him.
However --
SOMERS: And when you were doing that morning show, was he at home taking care of the kids?
HILL: He`s there whenever I need him.
SOMERS: So, you`re a partnership.
HILL: It is a partnership. However, when he put on a few pounds recently, and he`s taken them off, I said -- I went out of my way, because I thought he was probably feeling a little bad about that. I went out of my way to say, you know, wow you`re really looking handsome. And, you know, they have their birthday and they turn whatever it is, and you say, you know, honey, you`re still hot.
Should you have to this do it? No. I love your belly. Let me just rub little Buddha.
BLOOM: But it`s a great and loving thing to do. And I`m just saying that that should go both ways. There`s a big difference between being loving and kind to your partner which we all support and saying that a successful woman like Giada has to assume this inferior role when she goes home in order to save her marriage. It`s a terrible message for girls.
HILL: And saying he`s going to stray. You`ve got a problem if you`re successful and he strays because of that, that`s a different issue. Come on.
SOMERS: Although some husbands cheat on, you know, their beautiful wives who do dote on them. What`s that about?
HILL: That`s true. That`s true.
SOMERS: Is it the jerk`s fault?
HILL: Yes, they are.
SOMERS: Speaking from experience, they have yes, they are.
(CROSSTALK)
HILL: I felt at one point when I was over at Fox, the more successful the program became, the more successful I became, the more difficult my marriage became. And I think that that is a pretty --
SOMERS: Because he was threatened?
HILL: Yes.
SOMERS: Really? How about you, Lisa?
BLOOM: Well, I think that`s a very common problem. You can almost measure a woman`s success by the fact that she ends up getting divorced. God forbid, I`m not saying that that should happen to E.D. or anybody else.
(CROSSTALK)
BLOOM: Their relationships tend to suffer. Look, I`m divorced but I`m now in a very happy relationship with a man who completely supports and applauds any little thing that I do, any little success that I have. And that`s what I wish on all girls, on all women.
Hold out for a guy like that.
HILL: Right.
BLOOM: Don`t settle for somebody where you have to come home and be a second class citizen in order to feed his ego. That`s just not a healthy relationship.
HILL: But you know, I`ve been married for 43 years and we are a partnership.
SOMERS: Good for you. Wow.
I do cook dinner every night, but he makes breakfast. And I vacuum in a bikini, but other than that, you know --
HILL: That is the key.
(CROSSTALK)
HILL: That`s really what it`s all about. I mean, this gal cooks great. That`s what she should be doing is making breakfast in the bikini and feeding him breakfast in bed.
SOMERS: It`s a little cold, but you know.
HILL: It`s those crazy things. I`m sorry that she feels and maybe we`re reading more into it. But she feels perhaps her husband might not be as true as he should be if she doesn`t play that role.
SOMERS: Or insecure.
HILL: Yes.
SOMERS: But she goes on to say in the interview, she goes to say, quote, "All men want to be treated like kings in a relationship and I think if women don`t indulge that sometimes their men are likely to stray to look for someone who can give that to them." Ew. What do you think?
HILL: I think if you have a guy that you think that`s a possibility, dump his you-know-what in a heartbeat. You know.
SOMERS: I think we`re in agreement on that.
HILL: Show him the door real fast with a 2x4 behind him, because that guy is not going to change and nothing you`re going to do is going to make him any better.
SOMERS: Not even vacuuming in the bikini.
HILL: Not even the vacuuming, not playing he`s king. Not playing you`re a chamber maid -- nothing`s going to work there.
SOMERS: Lisa, a recent study shows that men who make less than their wives are more likely to cheat. What are women going to do, turn down great jobs?
BLOOM: Yes, I believe that. And I think that very sad. And, look, it`s a brand-new day for women. Young women are now out-earning their male counterparts in urban areas by about 6 percent to 8 percent. A lot of times they lie about their jobs. They pretend that they are not as successful as they are. That`s got to go.
Look, it`s up to all of us who are mothers who have boys as I do to educate our boys that successful women are hot. That having brains is desirable; that you want a girl for the long term that you can have a conversation with. That pretty is great for the first couple of days but after a while you really want someone who is a true partner. I think that`s where we have to start. Educate our boys.
HILL: Absolutely. Absolutely.
BLOOM: To want this kind of woman.
HILL: You hit it.
SOMERS: We`re not really very far apart, any of us.
HILL: No, but that`s -- I think that`s probably part of the problem right now is that you didn`t have that with this generation of, you know, husbands. You know, you had moms who were just starting to get into the workforce.
SOMERS: Right.
HILL: But still is pretty taboo and they filled that traditional role, so it would be extremely threatening.
SOMERS: Right.
HILL: I`ve got sons also and the first thing I ask when they say some girl`s name, is she smart? You want to drill that into them. I don`t care what she looks like, is she smart and then is she kind?
SOMERS: And it`s a changing world. I mean women --
HILL: We`re taking over.
SOMERS: We`re so fabulous.
HILL: We are.
BLOOM: And I`ll tell you something, a guy who is confident in himself likes a woman who is smart and got it going on.
HILL: You bet you.
BLOOM: It`s the men who don`t have the confidence, who have low self- esteem, who wants someone that they can push down.
SOMERS: And I think you hit it on the head. I think that`s what it`s about. It`s about their self-esteem. If they have low self-esteem, it`s not going to work.
HILL: It`s not.
(CROSSTALK)
SOMERS: It`s not, it`s not. Well, anyway --
HILL: Good thing we`re so well adjusted here.
SOMERS: Really. We got it all going on. How long have you been married?
HILL: For almost ten years now.
SOMERS: Ten years. But I hear that you have 9,000 children.
HILL: I do.
SOMERS: Where did you find the other --
HILL: I was married before, and the more successful I became, the more difficult it became. I think probably --- you know, I think that probably should have some of that blame, because, you know, you don`t -- you`re so wrapped up in it, that you may not realize how that`s impacting your partner. So maybe you are --
BLOOM: Why should you be blamed for that? You don`t blame a man for being successful.
HILL: Not blamed, but you`re in a partnership and so when something is impacting, you know, your spouse, you should probably be, you know, in tune with that and talk it out. That`s not my style.
SOMERS: Is that what you do, Lisa, with your boyfriend?
BLOOM: Absolutely. I mean, we have great communication. We talk about everything. We both have very high-powered careers and it`s all about the communication.
(CROSSTALK)
BLOOM: It`s sexy and exciting to be with an equal, to be with a true partner who is so intelligent who I can learn from and I think he feels the same way.
SOMERS: Totally. And do you share your money.
BLOOM: Well, we share some of it. Some of it but I always keep my --
(CROSSTALK)
SOMERS: All right. All right. Got you.
Thank you very much. We`ll be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
SOMERS: With New Year weight loss resolutions being broken all across America, I want to help you get back on track with healthy eating and de- toxing and staying sexy forever which just happens to be the title of my new book "Sexy Forever: how to fight fat after 40".
And joining me today is Dr. Andrew Weil, author of "You Can`t Afford to Get Sick", and isn`t that the truth. Hi.
DR. ANDREW WEIL, AUTHOR, "YOU CAN`T AFFORD TO GET SICK": good to see you.
SOMERS: I am so happy to meet you. Our paths have crossed so much in the future. I love this book and I agree with pretty much everything that`s in there. I remember you on the cover of "Time" magazine.
WEIL: True.
SOMERS: As you were like the first face of, was it alternative?
WEIL: It was alternative in those days.
SOMERS: Right.
WEIL: Now it is integrative.
SOMERS: Integrative.
WEIL: Right.
SOMERS: What do you consider yourself integrative or alternative?
WEIL: No, I`m not an alternative practitioner. I`m an integrative medical doctor. I use conventional medicine when that`s appropriate and I use other things when that`s appropriate and I try to teach other doctors to do the same.
SOMERS: It`s kind of common sense now.
WEIL: It is common sense and it also makes cost sense. You know, we`re in such a crisis with health care. And integrative medicine is really the way to lower costs both because it focuses on prevention and because it can bring into the mainstream treatments that are not dependent on expensive technology.
SOMERS: This is such a good book. Just in the foreword when I start reading it, everything is grabbing me. And last year I was misdiagnosed with cancer by six doctors over six days and offered chemotherapy. And when I turned it down, you better get your things in order. What has happened -- can you talk about this -- what has happened to our medical system?
WEIL: Well, I think it has been really undermined by profit. Medicine is not meant to exist in a rabidly for-profit system. And when you have doctors working in corporate situations where somebody above tells them how many patients they have to see an hour. And there`s no time to really sit and get to know a person and take a careful lifestyle history, you can`t do good medicine.
SOMERS: Yes. I have a friend who is a Canadian doctor who is practicing medicine in Denver and moved back to Canada. Under their system up there, we`re going to be careful if we get it here, he says he sees 70 patients a day.
WEIL: Yes, I mean their system is creaking and groaning as well, for the same reasons, health care is too expensive. We`ve got to find ways to bring these costs down.
SOMERS: right. And people are leaving this country to go get --
WEIL: Operations elsewhere.
SOMERS: Right. Right.
You write, I write in my book -- I think we`re kind of on a similar track about toxins. We`re under the greatest environmental assault in the history of mankind. What are the toxins doing to us?
WEIL: Nothing good. I think we`re seeing worldwide an increase in allergies and asthma and autoimmune diseases, certain types of cancers. I think these are all probably results of exposures to toxins.
And it`s not just single things. It`s a total that is of a total burden on us, so I think it is up to us to figure out ways to protect ourselves.
SOMERS: Did you see the President`s panel on cancer; that report this year?
WEIL: I did. I did.
SOMERS: Are you as shocked as I am that that did not hit mainstream media at all?
WEIL: Yes, right.
SOMERS: You can tell them what they concluded.
WEIL: Well, I think the conclusion is that we had better be careful.
SOMERS: Yes.
WEIL: That there`s a tremendous amount of toxicity in the environment and in many cases these effects are unknown, but I think I`m a great believer in what`s called the precautionary principle which is that if we don`t have all the evidence in, let`s err on the side of caution and take appropriate measures.
SOMERS: Our livers are groaning.
WEIL: Well, you know, the great thing you can do for your liver -- well, first of all, the first rule of de-toxing is to stop putting toxins in. So, to the extent that you can, you want to limit your exposure to things. And that means being careful about your drinking water. It means being careful about exposure to second-hand smoke. It means not having chemicals around the home. It means trying to get produce that`s pesticide free.
And if your liver is a concern and you know, it is, there`s a very simple remedy for that. There`s an herb called milk thistle that people should know about. This is perfectly safe, nontoxic, it`s cheap. For anyone who drinks a lot of alcohol, who takes any medicine that`s hard on the liver, who has exposure to any kind of toxic fumes, I recommend taking milk thistle. It`s a way of protecting your liver from toxics damage.
SOMERS: What about glutathione drips?
WEIL: Well, you know, with any kind of drips, I`m cautious. I would rather try things by mouth and try eliminating things before you do that. That`s a more specialized technique.
SOMERS: But we`re exposed to they say 80,000 different toxins on a regular basis, 200 toxins while we do our morning ritual, pretty hard to avoid, isn`t it?
WEIL: The body has a tremendous potential to detoxify itself. If you stop putting things and if you rev up the body`s own systems of detoxification.
So what are those? First of all you can drink more water so you increase your urinary output.
SOMERS: How much water should we drink a day?
WEIL: Enough so you can see that you`re urinating more and that your urine a lighter shade rather than a darker shade, it`s that simple.
SOMERS: I could say. Light urine is a good sign.
WEIL: Yes. Right. You want to have good elimination so that means eating enough fiber and drinking enough water and get enough exercise. A wonderful way to detoxify is sweating that many people never think to use. And you can do that by sitting in saunas or steam rooms. Make sure you drink plenty of water when you do that. That`s a great way to flush things out of your system.
SOMERS: Sex.
WEIL: Another way. Sure. I don`t often write prescriptions for that but yes.
Another way is increasing breathing, because we can breathe out toxins as well. When you exercise aerobically --
SOMERS: Yoga?
WEIL: Things where you`re getting more aerobic things.
SOMERS: For exercise it`s strength, flexibility and aerobic?
WEIL: Aerobic, right. So the aerobic with the other things may help you sweat, but the aerobic exercise when you increase your breathing, you`re exhaling more and then the exhalations you can remove things from your body as well.
SOMERS: I could talk to you for another six hours. "You Can`t Afford to Get Sick" and you can`t. Dr. Andrew Weil, thank you so much.
WEIL: Pleasure.
SOMERS: And I hope we get a chance to do this again; really interesting stuff.
WEIL: Good. Thanks.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
SOMERS: I`m back talking about living a healthier life and staying sexy forever, and joining me is a woman I love, and she is so smart, digestive care expert Brenda Watson.
BRENDA WATSON, DIGESTIVE CARE EXPERT: Hi.
SOMERS: Hi Brenda, how are you?
WATSON: You know, I`m wonderful.
SOMERS: I featured Brenda a lot in my book, "Sexy Forever" and she`s written a lot of great books. I want to get to it because we don`t have a lot of time. I just spoke with Dr. Weil about ridding the body of toxins.
What`s the toll that a person`s gut takes from all the chemicals and toxins out there?
WATSON: Well, it`s showing today in the average American who experiences so much bloating and heartburn and constipation and all of these digestive issues, not to mention Suzanne the fact that these issues once they start in the gut overlap and -- and run rampant in our body creating inflammation from all sorts of conditions like fibromyalgia and arthritis and -- and different conditions around the body that people don`t associate with the gut.
(CROSS TALK)
SOMERS: So you know --
WATSON: So it starts with the gut.
SOMERS: Right, you know what I hear on my Web site and I know you do too, I`m just going to get like down with it. They -- women can`t poop and that`s all I hear.
WATSON: Right.
SOMERS: How can I go to the bathroom? Why is everybody so constipated?
WATSON: I think it`s from the onslaught of what you talk about, that we talk about this issue a lot.
SOMERS: I know.
WATSON: And the whole bloating --
SOMERS: I know.
WATSON: -- and I feel like we`re on the phone.
SOMERS: Yes.
WATSON: But the -- but the issue is, it`s the onslaught of what you talk about in the book, "Sexy Forever" --
(CROSS TALK)
SOMERS: Right.
WATSON: -- it`s the toxins in the food that we`re eating. It`s too many prescribed antibiotics that kill all the friendly bacteria in our digestive tract.
(CROSS TALK)
SOMERS: So when it kills --
WATSON: And I read a study -- it kills everything.
SOMERS: So when it kills the friendly bacteria, then does the bad bacteria take over and what does it do?
WATSON: Well, what happens is -- imagine this much bacteria in that digestive tube.
(CROSS TALK)
SOMERS: Right.
WATSON: It`s about the size of a brick. So, just say you do rounds of antibiotics, it kills all the friendly bacteria, so the bad guys are there, too, and the yeast and they proliferate in the digestive tube and they create fermentation, and what do people feel, bloating? And they also produce alcohol, which gives people brain fog and they don`t even drink.
It`s a -- yes.
SOMERS: So -- so, when we rid the toxins out of our body, what happens to our -- our health?
WATSON: Well, when we start to stop putting in so many toxins and we start getting rid of them and we do detoxification and helping our channels of elimination, then we start to rebalance our friendly bacteria with probiotics as you well know --
(CROSS TALK)
SOMERS: Right.
WATSON: -- plenty of fiber and water and those types of things.
But the big key is we have to start eating better. You talk about it in the book "Sexy Forever" --
(CROSS TALK)
SOMERS: So do you.
WATSON: -- about the food sensitivity.
SOMERS: Right.
WATSON: -- that is rampant today, so the friendly bacteria by putting it back in, by creating a healthier diet, by choosing better foods.
(CROSS TALK)
SOMERS: And -- and you say --
WATSON: -- all of these things.
SOMERS: -- you say if we take fiber, 35 grams of fiber, we can lose how many calories just by taking the fiber?
WATSON: If you do 35 grams of fiber a day, you reduce your caloric intake by 245 calories, so that means you deduct.
(CROSS TALK)
SOMERS: And how -- ok, and how many billion probiotics, I got to go?
WATSON: The probiotics should start in the 15 billion to 50 billion range.
SOMERS: Fifty billion.
WATSON: Yes.
SOMERS: Ok you can go to her Web site, BrendaWatson.com. And thank you I`ll talk to you later.
WATSON: Thank you.
SOMERS: And bye, bye. Joy will check in from Vegas when we come back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BEHAR: I`m here at the Planet Hollywood in Las Vegas all week judging the Miss America contest. You know, I haven`t been asked to judge anything except when Rand Paul asked me if I liked his hairpiece. That was the last time. It`s a big job, and I couldn`t do it alone. There are six other judges, and I blackmailed two of them to join me here today, the creator and executive producer of "Desperate Housewives," Marc Cherry, and the lovely and talented actress and author, Marilu Henner. Welcome, guys.
MARC CHERRY, EXECUTIVE PRODUCER "DESPERATE HOUSEWIVES": Welcome.
MARILU HENNER, ACTRESS: Hey.
BEHAR: I feel very close to you.
HENNER: Oh, my gosh. It like we`ve been sequestered, like I quarantined, like a, you know, jury or something.
BEHAR: I mean, I find it to be so much fun. I`m enjoying myself.
HENNER: It`s a camp. And you know, there`s pressure on us but not the kind of pressure where, you know, every day you`re having to come up with some new things or whatever.
CHERRY: But we also are seven people who are even though it`s a different group of people, I think, we kind of bonded right from the start.
BEHAR: We did. We did. Everybody`s very nice. Nobody there is an idiot.
HENNER: No, no. And nobody is like meeting in the bathroom going --
BEHAR: That`s true. That`s very good point.
HENNER: No clinkers in the --
BEHAR: Because I`d be the first one doing it.
HENNER: Oh, yes. I`d be right there with you in the lady`s room.
(LAUGHTER)
BEHAR: But we know but we`re not a -- people don`t realize we`re not allowed to talk about the individual contestants. But we can talk a little bit about the preliminaries last night.
HENNER: Yes.
BEHAR: We saw some clogging. We saw some interpretive twilit harping.
HENNER: Right.
BEHAR: We saw singing.
HENNER: Singing, of course.
BEHAR: You know, I was wondering, I personally, the only talent I have would be stand-up comedy, and nobody wants to hear two Jews walk into a bar. No one wants to hear a joke.
CHERRY: They have had -- you know, they have had Miss Americas who tried stand-up comedy.
BEHAR: And they have not --
CHERRY: Well, and that`s the thing. It`s, you know, comedy as you know, it`s got to be a very specific, you know, you got to know your audience. And you got people from all over the country coming to see this thing so, yes.
HENNER: And it`s hard to do it in 90 seconds. I mean, how do you do, like, great jokes in 90 seconds?
BEHAR: Yes.
HENNER: And sort of establish the comedy for somehow.
BEHAR: But what would you do if you had to do the talent show?
HENNER: I`d do some big production number. I mean, you know --
BEHAR: What, singing and dancing?
HENNER: Singing and dancing. I`d do something, you know, from "Chicago" or something like that.
CHERRY: Actually, have you had moments where you wondered did I miss something here? I mean, did this bring you back to your childhood?
HENNER: Oh, no. I was never pretty enough to be -- no, no, this is never like in my real house. My oldest sister was the beauty queen of all catholic high school girls. My second sister made to the court. I didn`t even make the cut in my school. You know, no, no. I was never about my looks.
BEHAR: You`re pretty enough.
HENNER: I`m pretty enough now. But I didn`t become pretty until I was much older. Yes.
BEHAR: Aha. Did both of you want to be Miss America when you were a kid?
(LAUGHTER)
CHERRY: Well, I can honestly say I didn`t think about it that much. I had friends who did the pageants, and I was fascinated by what they went through.
BEHAR: Yes.
CHERRY: So, I would accompany them. My good friend in the blaze was Miss Yorba Linda. And so, I was so excited for her and proud of her. And I -- right from a very young age, I was kind of into the pageants in this weird, kind of oddly American ritual that we would put our young ladies through. And I was always fascinated by it, and it wasn`t until judging with you guys that I really started to really --
BEHAR: What`s the hardest part about judging?
CHERRY: Well, because, I`ll tell you, they come to us, as you guys know, in the interview section, we interview these 53 girls. We ask them political questions, pop culture questions, questions about their lives.
BEHAR: Right.
CHERRY: And you start to fall in love with these girls. Not all of them are the best public speakers. Not all of them have that thing that makes you think they could go out and represent this organization, but I would say, probably, 99 percent of them, I have kind of fallen in love with personally. I think they`re good girls.
HENNER: And you want to hear more. There were some girls yesterday because we only get ten minutes, which I think a lot of people don`t realize, we have ten minutes with each one. We fire these questions. We see how they handle it and that`s sort of a pressure situation. And the personal stories that came out so you didn`t feel like they were just little pageant caddies, they felt really connected to their hearts and their stories. And I found myself choked up a bunch of times.
BEHAR: I did, too. I felt bad for some of them. They had really tough times.
HENNER: And adversities that they overcame.
CHERRY: Yes. It was a moment of triumph for them to say I`m here and I can talk about this and I`ve survived it.
BEHAR: They not only overcame it, they`re thriving.
HENNER: They`re thriving, yes and in front of us.
BEHAR: It`s fantastic.
HENNER: And you know, the other thing is you could really see the girls who are connected to their brain cells, you know, where they think something and it comes out of their mouths, rather than the people that you go no matter what we`re asking, (INAUDIBLE)
(LAUGHTER)
BEHAR: Yes, that`s true. But, you know, at the press conference we did today, I thought a lot of interesting things came out there. For instance, what you said about how the Snooki`s and the Lindsay Lohan, how they have basically hijacked pop culture.
HENNER: Right.
BEHAR: And these girls are really the opposite of that with good role modeling and everything else.
CHERRY: Yes. One of the questions that I got that I was frustrated by is that the interviewer -- or the questioner asked me as though I was indicting all popular culture, and for me, it`s the entertainment magazines, those outlets by choosing to focus on these troubled young women.
BEHAR: Yes.
CHERRY: You know, you start to think, wait, there are some really upstanding gals in our society.
BEHAR: But it doesn`t make good copy, Marc. It just doesn`t.
HENNER: It doesn`t feel sexy or sizzly enough, you know? I mean, we`re just whipping through these kids, and they`re not going to have -- there`s a short shelf life, you know, where these girls are going to probably go on to do other things.
BEHAR: And you had the best sound bite when you said let`s see if the "Jersey Shore" is around in 90 years like Miss America.
CHERRY: And I think that`s what is important about the anniversary of the pageant and that`s being a part of it is it`s coming back to ABC, and it`s time for people to take a look at this pageant again and what it means and given, you know, recent events in Arizona and stuff, it`s kind of a reminder of there are some really good traditional values being represented by our young people.
HENNER: Right.
CHERRY: It`s time for like let`s give them some attention and let`s remember that they`re out there.
HENNER: And you know, these girls, they`re so real. They`re so much more real than I expected them to be. And I think if we pick a Miss America who can really be the voice of her generation because she`s been through something and has gone through the stuff that she has. I think that`s going to be a real step forward.
BEHAR: Now, I know that -- Marc, I know that you`re -- they were calling you an idiot savant, and Miss America --
CHERRY: They called me a savant.
HENNER: He`s unbelievable.
BEHAR: I know. So, I have to ask you, who was Miss America in 1971?
CHERRY: That was Phyllis George. She played the piano.
BEHAR: Even if I asked you some questions, I wouldn`t know if it was true.
CHERRY: You wouldn`t know, yes.
(CROSSTALK)
CHERRY: I have friends out there who would call in and they would correct me. The weird thing is complimenting my memory when I`m sitting next to Marilu. That`s a little odd because I can`t really do what she does.
HENNER: No, no, you`re the best guy.
BEHAR: You know, getting fact re-permitted to the diverse -- the hard times they had. You know, my favorite Miss America -- who was yours?
HENNER: I`ll tell you mine.
CHERRY: Well, because I worked with her on a daily basis, I have to say Vanessa Williams.
BEHAR: Vanessa Williams. Oh, she`s got it all.
CHERRY: And she had an unusual experience, and then the fact that she has overcome that and established herself as such a major force in the entertainment industry.
BEHAR: Yes.
CHERRY: And the fact that I work with her every day and she`s a sweetheart, that I just adore.
BEHAR: Yes. She`s a darling person.
HENNER: Yes. And a mom and, you know --
CHERRY: She`s amazing.
HENNER: And so talented.
CHERRY: But I got to tell you, some of the women that I`ve met here this week, just being on the panel with Debbie Turner, one of the most intelligent, well-spoken women I have ever met in my life.
BEHAR: Really?
CHERRY: I mean, I`m walking away just, you know, she just shot up to the top of my list.
HENNER: Yes. Her voice is incredible.
BEHAR: How about you?
HENNER: Well, you know, a specific one, definitely Vanessa Williams. And I remember when the whole thing went down and everything else and I kept saying, oh, and I watched her win and all that and, you know, and then everything that she`s done Broadway and the music and everything else. So, I would agree with you, and you know.
BEHAR: Well, my favorite because I said this before, you`ve heard this, Marilyn Van Derbur, because I was a kid, I don`t remember -- I don`t know what year -- what year was she?
CHERRY: 1958, I believe.
BEHAR: OK. So, she had a tremendous talent. She was beautiful and lovely. And then years later, it came out that she had been sexually abused by her father who was an upstanding judge or lawyer or something in the community.
HENNER: Oh, wow. I didn`t know that.
BEHAR: And she shared that with America. And I was thinking --
HENNER: Did she share it with the judges?
CHERRY: Not at that time.
BEHAR: You know, and now, these girls are sharing all adversity. Who`s mother hit her and beat her up --
HENNER: Right, right.
BEHAR: And other girl --
HENNER: But not in like a way like --
BEHAR: Knocked to unconsciousness by a bully. Remember that?
CHERRY: Yes.
HENNER: Yes, yes.
BEHAR: Are we allowed? We`re allowed to say this, right? As long as we don`t say who they are.
CHERRY: We`re not going to say -- no --
HENNER: And the stories might not come out.
BEHAR: That`s true.
CHERRY: And the truth of the matter is that I think with some of these girls, one of the things I do is I look and I go, are you sharing this in a truly this has happened to me and I processed it sort of way. You also want to make sure the girls aren`t going, look at what I`ve gone through. Look at what I`ve gone through. You got to pick me because my story is so sad.
HENNER: Yes, yes, yes.
BEHAR: Right.
CHERRY: And it gets a little tricky in that regard and stuff. So, we have to be on the lookout for that.
HENNER: Didn`t you feel that some of the girls told their stories just after a time, it was certainly not the first thing out of their mouths, and it wasn`t even necessarily their heat?
CHERRY: Yes, we brought it out of them.
HENNER: Which is great.
BEHAR: Well, because we`re attracted to the pathology just like these magazines are.
HENNER: Yes.
BEHAR: See, there`s the answer.
HENNER: Yes. Yes, yes.
BEHAR: Because when you read good stuff -- it`s like comedy, positive is not funny, and positive may not be good copy. That doesn`t mean, though, that Snooki and the rest of these girls are going to be role models, they`re really not.
CHERRY: And that`s the trick, which is what we want is in, perhaps, the pageant got a wrap because people felt that they were presenting Betty Crocker, Barbie Doll, homemaker robots, and in the time when Marilyn Van Derbur couldn`t talk about what had happened to her.
BEHAR: Right.
CHERRY: Now these girls, they have platforms where talk about the charities that they want to support. And many of them come from their own life experience. So, the fact that they`re so honest makes them more relatable and more relevant to today`s young women.
BEHAR: And weren`t you fascinated by the fact -- I got to wrap it. You get the last word.
HENNER: No, I was just going to say it`s interesting that so many girls had either a first or second side from a bullying, which is so in the news right now.
BEHAR: Yes.
HENNER: And I don`t think it all just came from the news. It`s so much came from personal experiences to them or their families, so they were completely relatable in that big way as well.
BEHAR: Right. Thank you, guys, so much.
HENNER: This was it? Over?
BEHAR: Yes, that`s it.
HENNER: Too fast.
BEHAR: I know. I know. That`s television.
HENNER: We didn`t get to swimsuit.
BEHAR: I know. I know. That`s another topic. My God. I haven`t been in a bathing suit since the Carter administration.
(LAUGHTER)
HENNER: They should have bathing suits with pantyhose.
BEHAR: And shoulder pads with pantyhose to hold it. I know. OK. We`ll be right back with some pop culture bit. Stay there.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BEHAR: Model, Stephanie Seymour, looked like she was having a fantastic time on the beach in St. Bart`s last week. See the picture? Guess what? That`s her son. At what point do you stop breastfeeding and bathing your kids? I say sophomore year. Other people may have something else to say.
And here now to discuss this and other stories of the day our Jim Florentine, comedian and co-host of "That Metal Show" on VH1 Classic, plus, comedian, Rita Rudner, we go back many years. Hey, welcome to the show, you guys.
RITA RUDNER, COMEDIAN: Now, before we start, because we go back many years I had to buy you a gift because I didn`t think you had a Miss America mug.
BEHAR: Oh, how nice. Isn`t that stunning? So understated.
RUDNER: Do you have one already?
BEHAR: No, I don`t, but thank you.
RUDNER: That they had one Miss America five years on with bigger hips.
BEHAR: You know, I`m doing Miss America this week.
JIM FLORENTINE, COMEDIAN: Yes, I know.
BEHAR: Doing Miss American -- I`m judging the show.
RUDNER: Perfect for you. You need a Miss America mug.
FLORENTINE: I feel bad. So, let me give you my Planet Hollywood mug.
BEHAR: Now, did you see the picture of Stephanie Seymour kissing her son?
RUDNER: Yes.
BEHAR: What did you think of it?
RUDNER: I thought it was obscene, because she`s had three children and she still has a flat stomach like that. And I don`t think pictures like that should be allowed on the internet. I hate her. I have a bathing suit burka that I wear all the time. You can just see the little clits of my eyes. See, how is that possible? She`s what? 45 and has had three kids.
BEHAR: Well, she`s a model.
FLORENTINE: Yes.
BEHAR: She`s a model.
RUDNER: But she`s still a member of the human race.
BEHAR: I know, but she`s a model. No, she`s not a member (ph) of human race.
RUDNER: OK. Well, then, I understand.
FLORENTINE: Her son defended the picture by saying, well, I`m gay, that`s why
BEHAR: Yes.
FLORENTINE: So, why would he take them of his mommy? He should take those pictures with his dad.
BEHAR: Well, see, that`s the thing. The son goes we have nothing to hide. And with that in mind, I would like to say that I`m openly gay. Now, that means that he`s not attracted to his mother. He`s attracted to his brother.
RUDNER: Yes.
BEHAR: It`s a weird way to like -- isn`t it?
RUDNER: Maybe Stephanie Seymour is really a man. It`s Steven Seymour.
FLORENTINE: If my mom looked like that, I`d be all over her, too. I got to admit.
(LAUGHTER)
RUDNER: You know, I think that these people are getting out of hand, taking pictures of people on vacation, don`t you?
BEHAR: Well, yes. I won`t go to the beach anymore. I hate the beach anyway, but they take pictures of your thighs, please.
RUDNER: Well, people have asked me not to go to the beach, so I stopped going. But you can`t have dinner without somebody taking pictures of you with food in your mouth. So, what -- he loves his mother and --
BEHAR: He says that she embraces all her children in this most intimate fashion. I should say it`s a little weird.
RUDNER: OK.
FLORENTINE: Yes. I can`t wait for him to be in therapy in like 20 years, and the therapist like, so, did you get hugs from your mom? He`s like did get I hug? Check these pictures out.
(LAUGHTER)
FLORENTINE: Because there`s like 20 of them. There are some real -- there`s been more. I`m waiting for the pictures to come out when they`re both smoking cigarettes afterwards.
RUDNER: But what about when you hug someone and you`re in an awkward position, and all of a sudden, the "Inquirer" says that, you know, you`re doing -- like if I just went to Jim and, you know, that -- that`s an accident.
BEHAR: Did you enjoy it?
FLORENTINE: Yes, absolutely. Thanks, mom.
RUDNER: Anytime.
BEHAR: Here`s another story. Arianna Huffington reportedly got in a major flight with a fellow airline passenger this weekend when she didn`t turn off her Blackberry during takeoff and started yelling. Police escorted both Huffington and the passenger off the plane. Hopefully, it was on the ground at the time. You know, and not in the air.
RUDNER: Yes.
BEHAR: Now, do you think Arianna was wrong by not turning off her Blackberry and this guy really going berserk on her?
RUDNER: Well, it`s a berserk, I don`t know. But you go on a plane, you agree to follow the rules of the plane.
BEHAR: Yes.
RUDNER: You know, when I go on, it`s a small world at Disney World, the ride, I keep my arms in. What is that? So, I think when you go on a plane, you have to obey the rules of the plane. And I don`t want to hear what people are talking about when you`re sitting next to somebody on the plane.
BEHAR: What if she`s talking to the president? You know, she`s a big muckety-muck.
FLORENTINE: Right.
RUDNER: Well, he should have hung up on her.
FLORENTINE: I think that whole thing is a farce about the Blackberries.
BEHAR: Me too.
FLORENTINE: I never heard of a plane going down because some guy was playing Pacman on his Blackberry.
BEHAR: Right. Or read an e-mail. And how many people do they check -- I`ve left mine on by mistake and other people have told me they have also.
FLORENTINE: If it really affected a flight, they would collect everybody`s phone when they got on the plane.
RUDNER: It`s affecting the person sitting next to you and it can be rude because I was sitting next to somebody on a plane and it was even before we took off and her life is very depressing, and I didn`t want to hear about it.
BEHAR: Yes. Well, there`s that, too.
FLORENTINE: I didn`t listen to any announcements. They`re all ridic -- they still tell you don`t smoke on a plane. Really? You couldn`t smoke on a plane since 1985. You can`t even smoke outside anymore. I get it. I always on the lies as to I always go did you say smoking or nonsmoking, I didn`t hear what you say. Yes.
BEHAR: Can you believe that we ever smoked on a plane? I mean, I can`t even believe they ever allowed that.
FLORENTINE: But then they got the little section where this was smoking and over here was not smoking.
RUDNER: But even the announcements, a lot of them I don`t believe, like the oxygen mask.
BEHAR: You don`t buy that?
RUDNER: It`s more to just muffle the scream, you know? It really is. It doesn`t inflate. You don`t see anything. You don`t hear anything.
(CROSSTALK)
BEHAR: I barely pay attention.
RUDNER: But they should outlaw snoring on a plane.
BEHAR: Snoring.
RUDNER: Because I have been sitting next to people on flights coast to coast and this guy, I`m telling you, he was causing inside turbulence with this snoring.
BEHAR: What did you do?
RUDNER: Well, I had the lady, excuse me, the flight attendant bring me earplugs and I stuck them up his nose.
BEHAR: OK.
RUDNER: So, there you go.
BEHAR: Let`s do one more story. I only have a minute left.
RUDNER: Oh, no. OK.
BEHAR: I`m sorry.
RUDNER: That`s OK.
BEHAR: Remember all those dead birds that dropped from the sky? Well, Cindy Jacobs, a self-proclaimed prophet says she knows why it happened. Do you want to know why? Because the country repealed, "don`t ask, don`t tell." Don`t you love that type of personality? Now, Israel has had like gays in the military forever. I`ve never heard of a bird falling on Jerusalem ever, have you?
FLORENTINE: No.
BEHAR: Or a chicken falling out of the sky. So, what is this woman about?
FLORENTINE: If God is mad at gays, he`s not going to kill a bird. He`ll kill the gerbils.
(LAUGHTER)
FLORENTINE: I`m sorry.
RUDNER: He`s excusing yourself right now.
FLORENTINE: This just came in late. That`s all I had. I`m very sorry.
RUDNER: What is her reasoning behind it, that birds don`t like to know if someone is gay.
BEHAR: No. It`s like they call it some kind of an apocalypse. I forgot the term.
RUDNER: Well, maybe, it was Elton John adopting the baby, maybe that`s what it is.
BEHAR: Didn`t Pat Robertson blame Katrina on gays, also?
RUDNER: No.
BEHAR: It`s always gays, gays, gays. Leave him alone. Shut up. These people are stupid, you know?
RUDNER: Why? What makes you said that?
BEHAR: An Iranian cleric blamed earthquakes on scantily clad women, OK? There you have it. Anyway, thank you, guys, very much for coming on. And here are the plugs now because you want to catch these two, they`re very funny. Jim is performing at Bonkers Comedy Club January 13th through the 15th, right here in Las Vegas. And Rita Rudner is opening at the Venetian on Saturday. She`s been here for a few years. She`s a huge hit. We`ll be back in a minute.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BEHAR: I`ve been hosting the show from Sunny Las Vegas while my soon to be ex-pal, Suzanne Somers, is holding down on the fort in the blizzard that is New York. Suzanne, thank you, and I`m sorry.
SUZANNE SOMERS, ACTRESS: Yes, you`re out there in the sunshine. I`m here in your snow. Hey, are you a clean freak? Because I noticed that you got --
BEHAR: Am I what?
SOMERS: A clean freak. You got Purell here. I`m kind of looking at all your stuff.
BEHAR: Oh, you mean a germaphobe?
SOMERS: Yes.
BEHAR: No, I`m not a germaphobe, but you know, I have to stay healthy. I have all these jobs.
SOMERS: Yes, that`s true. You are busy.
BEHAR: Now, you know, I know that you used to perform in Las Vegas. Do you miss it at all? I mean, it`s kind of fun here.
SOMERS: You know, I did it for 25 years, and I do miss it. And it`s changed a lot since I was there. You know, I loved it so much it was very hard to go back to television because I missed that life so much. But it`s very exhausting.
BEHAR: Look at the picture of you that they`re showing. You`re so sexy, like Marilyn -- look at you, you`re Marilyn Monroe over there.
SOMERS: I had fun.
BEHAR: Was that before or after the thigh master?
SOMERS: That was before. I was doing something there called "Raining Men," it`s "Raining Men." I had a ball there.
BEHAR: It`s "Raining Men." Look at you.
SOMERS: Right. Yes.
BEHAR: What was -- was there anything about Las Vegas that you didn`t like?
SOMERS: You know, I was Entertainer of the Year with Frank Sinatra one year. That was really great. I think two, two-hour shows every night for all those years is really -- it wears you down, but I`m kind of ready. I`d like to go -- you know my friend Barry Manilow has a great gig there, and he`s not there every night. He goes -- I think he`s on two weeks and then he`s off for a couple of weeks. That`s kind of the way to do it. I was doing it nonstop.
BEHAR: No, Barry`s got it down. Now, I hear you have this new book called "Sexy Forever." Tell me about it. I`m dying to hear.
SOMERS: Well, I have figured out the missing element why we`re fat. And I put it all in this book. There are tests that you can take so that you can find out what food is keeping you fat. Mine was egg. I gave up eggs when I was writing this book. It only took two weeks I lost 20 pounds.
My husband gave up gluten. He lost 18 pounds. You know, Elizabeth always talks about gluten. So, it tells you about the hidden foods that will keep you fat and the toxins that are keeping you fat and, of course, my favorite subject, hormones. If you have imbalanced hormones, it`s really, really hard to be thin so --
BEHAR: But you know what, I`m postmenopausal. I have many imbalanced hormones.
SOMERS: You do.
BEHAR: It`s not even an issue. I mean, my hormones are crazy.
SOMERS: I know, but, you know, there is no postmenopause. You never stop draining out. We have to sit and talk and have lunch sometime. I can get you on the track because, wow, when you are hormonally balanced, it`s so incredible.
BEHAR: Well, you know, Suzanne, I have to go. Thank you so much for sitting in for me. It`s a pleasure to see you again. And I hope that the blizzard didn`t annoy you too much.
SOMERS: No, I`m really enjoying it. It`s a privilege to sit here, Joy. I really appreciate it.
BEHAR: Be sure to check out Suzanne`s new book, "Sexy Forever," I know I will be, as well as her site, sexyforever.com. Goodnight, everybody.
END
