barbara walters

With new details continuing to come to light daily, the Arnold Schwarzenegger / Maria Shriver divorce should continue to provide talk show fodder for some time. Today on 'The View' (weekdays, syndicated on ABC), the panel took aim at Schwarzenegger's philandering and the general consensus forming around his shamelessness.

"Who knew that 'The Sperminator' was doing more than pumping iron?" said Joy Behar, calling Schwarzenegger "out of control." Elisabeth Hasselbeck was not impressed with his claiming full responsibility for his actions, "as if he could shed the responsibility on anyone else," she said.

Most pointedly, Barbara Walters questioned Schwarzenegger's timing and motives. "He didn't tell her until after he had left being governor," she said. "What was behind it? Why did he tell her now? There's a lot that we don't know. I don't care if we know it or not, I just feel sad for her and her family."

Don't expect this to be the last Schwarzenegger discussion on 'The View.' The topic will, to be sure, be back.

On 'The View' (weekdays, syndicated), Michael Douglas, who is set to play Liberace in an upcoming biopic, explained how co-star Matt Damon is readying for their inevitable kissing scenes. And Barbara Walters had an inventive idea for how Douglas himself could prepare.

Damon will play Liberace's lover, and has said he plans on using creative visualization in scenes where he and Douglas lock lips. "Matt said, 'Listen. Here's the way I look at it. When I kiss Michael Douglas, it's algebra. I'm kissing Michael Douglas and I'm going through him and I'm kissing his wife, Catherine Zeta-Jones,'" Douglas explained, leaning closely toward Walters.

Sara Ramirez of 'Grey's Anatomy' regaled Sherri Shepherd with an impromptu rendition of 'Happy Birthday,' but Barbara Walters seemed more concerned about having to pay royalties for the song on 'The View' (weekdays, syndicated).

"You know, if you sing 'Happy Birthday' you have to pay for it. You're welcome," said Walters, pointing at Shepherd. "We're going to charge you."

There has been frequent speculation lately that Katie Couric will be leaving 'CBS Evening News' for another show, perhaps even for her old gig on 'Today.' Couric dodged most of Barbara Walters' pointed questions today on 'The View' about her job status, saying there has been no announcement and her plans, whatever they may be, are not public.

"Will you finally confirm that you're leaving already?" Walters said.

"I don't think it's my place to do that," said Couric. "I haven't made a decision. I'm in the middle of discussions." Couric would say only that she is exploring different opportunities and "figuring things out," while still enjoying her job at CBS. Walters asked if anyone could have saved the 'Evening News,' a question which made Couric bristle a bit, insisting she was proud of the work, valuing quality over ratings.

Naomi and Wynonna Judd appeared on 'The View' to promote their upcoming series 'The Judds,' which is set to premiere on OWN this Sunday. They also fielded a question from Barbara Walters on Ashley Judd's new memoir, in which she states she was neglected by her family as a child.

"Do you feel that Ashley was neglected?" asked Walters.

"In a way I do," replied Naomi. "But, the thing I want to acknowledge is that I adore my daughter. These two girls and my husband, of course, Larry, are the joy of my life and I support Ashley."

A couple of weeks ago, we gave you the list of the 100 most memorable female characters in TV history. There was lots of talk and conjecture among the readers about who we missed and who shouldn't have been there, which is why we do these lists to begin with.

But there were a fair number of people who asked us "Where's Ellen DeGeneres?" or "Where's Oprah?" among others. Well, since we were talking about TV characters and not real people, those folks had to be left off the list (And, yes, we know Ellen played a pretty important TV character ... more on this later.)

Fear not, loyal TV watchers. We've got a list for those of you who want to celebrate women who put themselves out there, have created a brand, or have made significant contributions to the current TV landscape as themselves and not a fictional character.

The list isn't in any particular order; after the first few obvious names, the rest of the women on this list come so close, it's hard to rank them. So we'll just start with TV's most accomplished woman (hint: her name starts with an O ... and it ain't Omarosa) and go from there.

Alex Jones, the host of the radio show on which Charlie Sheen raged last week, vehemently defended the 'Two and Half Men' star on 'The View' (weekdays, syndicated), arguing that Sheen is a recovering addict who's being harassed and portrayed poorly by CBS, Chuck Lorre and the media.

"I just think that he's somebody going through a hard time who got clean," said Jones. "It's wrong from them to be prodding him and demonizing him and trying to make him blow up. That's actually what I believe's going on here ... Charlie's tired of being held up like the devil."

On 'The View' (weekdays, syndicated), Jessica Hahn brings up Barbara Walters' affair in the 1970s with married Senator Edward Brooke as a way to contrast her sexual relationship with televangelist Jim Bakker, which Hahn says was rape. But this prompts a strong reaction from Walters, who immediately shuts her down.

Hahn takes exception to Sherri Shepherd's description of her relationship with Bakker as an "affair," and tries to point out how different it was from Walters' dalliance with Brooke. "This wasn't an affair ... I don't want to be cruel or anything, but ... you had an affair with a senator and ... " Hahn started to say to Walters.

On 'The View' (weekdays, syndicated), Elisabeth Hasselbeck angrily responds to Bill Maher's joke about trading her for Lara Logan, the chief foreign affairs correspondent for CBS News who was briefly detained by Egyptian police in Cairo.

Barbara Walters has been married three times and has dated famous and powerful men. On 'Piers Morgan Tonight' (weekdays, 9PM ET on CNN), Morgan tried to get the 81-year-old to open up about which of her romantic partners meant the most to her.

"Who's been the love of your life?" Morgan asked.

"I have this little dog ..." Walters joked.

"Which is the man, if you had five minutes to live, you would take to a desert island?" Morgan tried again.

"If I had five minutes to live, it wouldn't be with any man. If I had five minutes to live it would be with my daughter, I would be with my closest friends. At this point in my life, I would not want to be with any one man," Walters explained.

After this, Walters forbade any more questions about her love life.

Drawing from past experience, Sherri Shepherd recalls dating an arsonist on 'The View' (weekdays, syndicated). The moral of this discussion seems to be that, while firebugs have hearts too, they really can't be trusted. And it's probably a good idea to hide your matches as well.

Sherri Shepherd has already announced that six-year-old son Jeffrey will give her away at her upcoming wedding to Lamar Sally. And today on 'The View' (weekdays, syndicated), Elisabeth Hasselbeck revealed that Shepherd picked her to be one of her bridesmaids. But, this news doesn't seem to sit well with Barbara Walters.

Last week, Snooki and JWoww of 'Jersey Shore' released a YouTube video making fun of Joy Behar. Behar responded by taking her own shots at the pair on 'The View' (Weekdays, Syndicated on ABC). On Monday, though, Snooki went on 'The Wendy Williams Show' and apologized, saying, "Everyone took it too seriously so I took the video down," and that she was a big fan of 'The View' and Barbara Walters.

Behar responded to the apology by saying it really wasn't necessary; she found the original video funny, and didn't take it too seriously. "I don't care if they make fun of me," she said. "I enjoyed that sketch that they did. That's the bottom line of it."

She did take another joking shot at the Jersey crew, saying, "I found the apology quite sobering, although maybe that's not the right word." Behar was also amused that Snooki was becoming enough of a media "player" that she has to watch what she does now. "This is called 'going Hollywood,'" Behar observed.

This clip just goes to show that lack of sleep can make you do crazy things. During a segment on losing weight and improving sleep, Barbara Walters and Sherri Shepherd preview the NightWave Sleep Assistant, a device meant to make people fall asleep faster on 'The View' (weekdays, syndicated).

Pretending to hold back tears, Whoopi Goldberg announced today that her 'View' (Weekdays, Syndicated on ABC) co-host Sherri Shepherd is engaged. Flashing a wide smile, Shepherd held up her left hand to show off the beautiful engagement ring. Her fiancée, Lamar Sally, proposed over the holidays and the couple are planning an August wedding in Chicago.

Barbara Walters asked Sherri if she was going to change her last name, and Shepherd said no. Sort of. "You know, no," she said, "I'm going to be Sherri Shepherd because I worked really hard to make it. I don't think people would know me as Sherri Sally. But my credit cards and everything will say 'Sherri Sally.'"

Walters then offered to plan Shepherd's bridal shower, just maybe not the one Shepherd has in mind. "With strippers and everything?" Shepherd asked.