If you love Barbara Walters and The View, you may want to pick up Barbara Walters recent memoir, Audition. In it, she spills the beans about the show – including some morsels about Star Jones and her weight battle.

And Star isn’t too happy about it.

According to Babs, View cohosts were ask to fudge about Star’s gastric bypass surgery. She made the same claim when she recently visited The Oprah Winfrey Show.

(She also chatted about her alleged affair with Senator Edward Brooke. But that’s another post, isn’t it?)

Star went on the war path, telling US Weekly that the stories “speaks to her true character.”

Pilates and healthy eating habits was the explanation Star offered during her View stint. A year after leaving the show (in 2006), Star gave up the goat and said she’d had the procedure.

Caught this little number online. I guess Oprah wasn’t paying attention when Mariah Carey made a recent visit to her show.

It was a week before Mariah’s wedding to singer Nick Cannon, and the couple had kept it all a big fat secret.

Except Mariah had a tattoo scribble across her bod that read: “Mrs. Cannon.”

Oprah didn’t see it and didn’t hear about it until after Mariah’s recent appearance on her show.

Ah well. It was probably all that Tom Cruise that went to her head.

Probable Republican presidential candidate John McCain intimated that his running mate could be Dwight Schrute, the shrewd and borderline psychotic middle manager on NBC’s The Office. Only one problem. Schrute’s a fictional character. I just don’t see that working out for McCain.

Jokes just as bad as that one – and including that one – were traded when McCain made visit to The Daily Show Wednesday. The wily senator poked fun at Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, surprise, surprise, and stormed off the set in mock anger when host Jon Stewart asked him if George W. Bush was as much of a monkey on McCain’s back as the Rev. Jeremiah Wright was on Obama’s.

McCain used the time to do some politicking, too, but we’re more interested in the jokes here at About Talk Shows. We’d like to point out, too, that it’s been awhile since McCain has popped up on The Daily Show. And his casual friendship with the show should make for interesting episodes in the near future. I have a feeling Stewart will be as much a factor in this election as any other news outlet.

Stephen Colbert is not going to let this go. I’m sure of that.

The host of The Colbert Report was named “Person of the Year” during the 12th Annual Webby Awards. The awards honor excellence on the Internet and are doled out by the International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences.

Joke prediction! Webby Awards are presented June 9th and 10th and winners are limited to five-word acceptance speeches. I think Stephen will be spending the better part of this month selecting his five words. Stephen, if you’re reading this, I’d like you to include “flabbergasted”.)

”Person of the Year” is tantamount to winning the Oscar for Best Picture, and Colbert received it for his innovative use of the Internet to interact with fans of his show.

So much going on last week that I didn’t get a chance to blog about! I thought I’d catch up with this short news roundup.

Did you see the item about Rachael Ray giving a tribute to Rosie O’Donnell on her show last Friday? She saluted the former talk show host, who once fronted her own program, The Rosie O’Donnell Show and turned The View around last year, by showing some classic moments from her talk show.

But the folks at Telepictures, who own the footage, said such a maneuver was a no-go for them. Why? Turns out Telepictures produces The Ellen DeGeneres Show, and Ellen competes with Rachael in some markets. So Telepictures, understandably, didn’t want to compete against itself.

The show went on as planned, and Rosie spent the hour tawking with Rachael Ray. She gave kudos to Barbara Walters, called Keanu Reeves one of her worst interviews (he wouldn’t talk – on a talk show), and said things work best when she’s the boss. (Surprise, surprise.)

No word yet on whether Telepictures is going to put up more of a stink. Guess we have to wait until ratings come out.

In other Rachael Ray news …

Ray held a fundraiser for the Alliance for a Healthier Generation and Ray’s Yum-o! organization (which teaches children healthy eating habits) and invited Carly Simon. Simon attended – and gave an impromptu, four-song mini-concert.

Other guests in attendance included Bill Clinton, celebrity chefs Bobby Flay, Mario Batali, and Michael Symon, and The View’s Joy Behar. The event was catered by five teenage chefs (with Symon’s guidance), and each received a $10,000 scholarship for their work.

The event raised more than $200,000 for Ray's charity. Ray also showed off her new cookbook, "Yum-o! The Family Cookbook.” Proceeds from the book will benefit her foundation. Oh, that and Ray’s own $500,000 advance.

You can catch highlights from the show on the Wednesday, May 7, show!

I wish it were Sunday. And one without the nine-month-old. I’m sleepy!

Okay, of course I don’t wish that – well maybe the sleep – but I am using it as an excuse, as I deliver, to you, faithful reader, only a short “What to Watch” – Basically, what to watch on Monday. I’ll follow up later today/tonight with a full “What to Watch.”

But no fear, schedules are posted!

And expect a mammoth blog post today, as well. I have to catch up on all that happened at the end of last week! And that means you, Barbara Walters!

Monday

• Tom. Really, are you going to miss the second part of this – interesting – interview? Tom Cruise checks in live in studio with Oprah Winfrey Show. It’s all about Tom and Oprah celebrating his 25 years in the film industry. An all-star lineup that includes Will Smith and Jada Pinkett Smith, Dustin Hoffman, Renée Zellweger, Steven Spielberg, David and Victoria Beckham, Dakota Fanning and Jamie Foxx, will make appearances (live and via tape).It promises to be a couch jumper! (I Think that’s like a barnstormer.)

Don’t forget to check out this week’s schedules

The Daytime Emmy battle is brewing, and this year’s contenders are Ellen DeGeneres, Rachael Ray and all those women from The View.

Those are the three series - The Ellen DeGeneres Show, The Rachael Ray Show and The View – nominated for Outstanding Talk Show – Entertainment for the 35th annual Daytime Emmy Awards.

Battling in the new category of Outstanding Talk Show – Informative, are Dr. Phil, The Tyra Banks Show and A Place of Our Own/Los Ninos En Su Casa, PBS’s child care educational series.

Ellen and the ladies from The View – Barbara Walters, Whoopi Goldberg, Joy Behar, Sherri Shepherd and Elisabeth Hasselbeck – are joined by Regis Philbin and Kelly Ripa (Live with Regis and Kelly) in the category of Outstanding Talk Show Host. Regis and Kelly are the Susan Lucci’s of the talk show world – often nominated, rarely awarded. They’ve even cooked up their own version of the Emmys (the Rellys) to help them lick their annual Emmy wounds.

Talk Show directing nods go to Ellen, Regis and Kelly and The View; and a writing Emmy will be awarded to either Ellen, The View or the non-talker Today’s Homeowner with Danny Lipford.

Find out more about these daytime shows and their hosts!

• The Ellen DeGeneres Show
• The Rachael Ray Show
• Dr. Phil
• The Tyra Banks Show
• Live with Regis and Kelly
• The View

If you haven’t been keeping up with your morning news/talk shows, then you may not realize that The Today Show’s Matt Lauer is back on the road.

The anchor launched his sixth edition of “Where in the World is Matt Lauer?” on Monday, landing in South America. His annual trips have taken him all over the world, more than 210,000 miles, in fact. Among his destinations: Egypt, Monte Carlo and the Taj Mahal.

If you’re not familiar with the segment, “Where in the World …” sends Lauer off to exotic locations each day for a week. His colleagues don’t know where he’ll turn up next, and neither does the audience. Lauer dishes out elaborate clues, though, that are almost impossible to decipher.

How does he pick his destinations? According to a CNN report, the destination must have an iconic image, like the Eiffel Tower and interesting enough to talk about for two hours. Light is an important factor, too. No one wants to see an exotic locale in the dark.

And so it goes once more. When will it stop? Lauer threatens to halt the popular feature every year, but it endures. Chances are, you’ll be wondering where in the world is Matt Lauer 10 years from now.

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Jimmy Fallon seems set to take the helm of NBC’s Late Night when current host Conan O’Brien moves to The Tonight Show in 2009. So reports to big time industry resources: The Hollywood Reporter and Variety.

No official word has been doled out, but Saturday Night Live alum Fallon has been the front runner for the spot for more than a year. In fact, no other names have been publicly mention, as far was we at About Talk Shows can tell.

It’s not official, but that might just be a matter of time. After all, Lorne Michaels, SNL’s iconic producer, is producer of Late Night as well. It doesn’t seem at all strange that he’d slot one of his own behind the desk.

O’Brien official leaves Late Night in early 2009, when he will move West and take over The Tonight Show (though there are rumors the show could return to its New York roots).

What do you think of Jimmy Fallon as a talk show host? Sound good? Leave a note in the comments below!

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Looking for a train wreck to watch? Well, look no further! Actor Tom Cruise has signed up to celebrate his 25th year as one of our greatest actors (okay, he is a really great actor, I have to admit), on The Oprah Winfrey Show next month.

His appearance comes at a great time for Oprah – sweeps month – and a good time for Tom Cruise, as the summer movie season bows. It’s good to keep your face in the public eye when you don’t have a blockbuster on tap.

Cruise will appear in an interview with Oprah at his Telluride, Colo., home on Friday, May 2. Then he turns up in her Chicago studio on Monday. There the celebration continues, as special guests and a taped messages from friends and co-stars unspool for all to see.

It’s quite a difference from his last visit, on June 23, 2005, when he professed his love for actress Katie Holmes, and then bounced up and down on Oprah’s couch to prove the point (poor couch). The episode has been parodied ever since.

Tom can restore some good will if he’s a bit self-deprecating about the event. I mean, guys in love do crazy things. He’s just got to show that his crazy was all about the new love – and that he’s not generally crazy.

I’m keeping my fingers crossed!