Free Republic

<p>Madeleine Albright got big laughs with a joke about Fidel Castro the other day, but not from Barbara Walters.</p>

Twenty-nine years, 93 interviews, one regret. That's Barbara Walters' personal scorecard when it comes to ranking her internationally famous Oscar-night interviews that come to a close Sunday evening in a program featuring Mo'Nique and Sandra Bullock. For nearly three decades, the interviews made up one of the most sought-after, eagerly watched, highest-rated programs on television, but now, Walters has decided to stop doing them. It's not a retirement, because she admits that she's going to continue delving into the private lives of the world's big names, but the showbiz-specific package she puts together at Oscar time each year will be...

Barbara Walters interviews South Carolina’s First Lady Jenny Sanford in conjunction with her memoir “Staying True,” which will be published in February. Sanford discusses how she tried to stay true to herself and her family after husband Governor Mark Sanford disappeared and then revealed his extramarital affair with an Argentinean woman, the heartbreak behind the headlines of their marriage breakup, and being a political spouse. The “Barbara Walters Special” airs on “20/20,” FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 5 (10:00-11:00 p.m., ET) on the ABC Television Network.

In addition to a roundtable that includes Roger Ailes and Arianna Huffington, TVNewser has learned substitute host of ABC's "This Week" Barbara Walters will interview Capitol Hill's man of the moment, Massachusetts Sen.-Elect Scott Brown. This will be Brown's first Sunday show appearance and the only one he's doing this weekend.

The Laura Ingraham show is on now. She has Bill Donahue from the Catholic League for Civil Rights discussing the latest Ron Howard/Tom Hanks anti-Christian epic.

Is Barbara Walters ready to retire? The 79-year-old television legend will reportedly be done with TV later this year. In fact, she's telling friends already that once her ABC contract expires shortly, she'll be calling it quits. Apparently, Walters is "burned out" and ready to relax. An inside source said, "Barbara's thought long and hard over whether she wants to extend her contract when it expires with ABC this summer. It's left her with many sleepless nights. ABC sees her as one of its marquee female stars and would like to see her continue, but Barbara's decided she's 'done it...

Here is video of Ann Coulter appearing on "The View" today, where extreme fireworks took place from beginning to end! Coulter let the liberals have it, as usual, in discussing her new book, "Guilty." . . . . (watch video)

The women of “The View” are seething over the show’s main guest Monday — conservative pundit Ann Coulter. “Why are you such a b----?” is the question co-host Joy Behar wants to ask Coulter, she said at an event for the New York Times Arts & Leisure Weekend.Co-host/comedian Whoopi Goldberg took a low blow at Coulter — literally.“Are you blond on the top and on the bottom?” Goldberg sarcastically said of the question she’d pose to Coulter.Coulter is on the ABC talk-show to promote her controversial new book “Guilty: Liberal ‘Victims’ and Their Assault on America,” whose second chapter focuses...

And here you have the best reason for Sara Palin to keep doing what she is doing. She helped get Saxby Chambliss elected. She was the first to accept the CPAC invitation for next year. She is playing for keeps. If Rush has her back in 2012, the Conservatives will be there too, and she will be tough to beat. Video at link . . .

Barbara Walters Looks for 'Fascinating' Flaws of Palin, Limbaugh By Colleen Raezler December 6, 2008 - 10:41 ET ABC’s Barbara Walters showed the 13.2 million viewers who watched her Thursday, Dec. 4 “Ten Most Fascinating People” special that she can swallow pretty much anything but mainstream conservatism. Walters gave cushy treatment to actors Will Smith, Frank Langella and Scientologist Tom Cruise, Olympian Michael Phelps, comedienne Tina Fey, embarrassingly photographed actress/singer Miley Cyrus, and pregnant "man" Thomas Beatie. She named liberal President-elect Barack Obama 2008’s most fascinating person (see Brent Baker's account), but went head to head against well-known conservative Rush...

The Barack Obama media tour is making another stop -- and at another high-profile place. A week after the president-elect and first lady-elect Michelle Obama spoke to "60 Minutes," they're sitting down for an interview with ABC's Barbara Walters. It'll air as a one-hour special Wednesday night on ABC. ABC said the interview would touch on the transition, the economy, foreign policy and how the family is dealing with the immense change in their lives.

Thomas Beatie, the controversial "pregnant man" who gave birth to a daughter earlier this year, reveals to Barbara Walters in an exclusive interview that he is pregnant again with his second child. Exclusive: Pregnant man Thomas Beatie speaks about life with his new daughter. More Photos Thomas Beatie, a transgender, welcomed a baby girl, Susan, June 29. Since sharing the story of Susan's birth with ABC News, he and his wife, Nancy Beatie, hadn't spoken to the media until they sat down last month with Walters. Thomas Beatie, who is in his first trimester, tells Walters he did not go...

With the rumor mill buzzing that a discontent Elisabeth Hasselbeck may vacate her cushiony seat on The View for the cool, hard Eames chair of Fox News, it's up to den mother Barbara Walters to restore order on the set of her chat show. True to form, Walters has eschewed hugging it out in favor of a more clinical approach; according to the Chicago Sun-Times, she's had to schedule a staff meeting to deal with the increasingly hot-under-the-collar Hasselbeck: BIG RIFT ON 'THE VIEW': A longtime staff member on ''The View'' chatfest says, ''It's not as bad as during the...

The ladies of the view just hammered Sarah Palin, no big suprise. John and Cindy McCain are about to be on the view if you can stomach the hosts.

Barbara Walters: Syrian Dictator 'Charming,' 'Intelligent' By Justin McCarthy | July 7, 2008 - 15:31 Surprise! Barbara Walters visits an anti-American dictator and returns with very nice remarks about him. Returning from the week long break on "The View" July 7, Barbara Walters described how she spent America’s birthday, and the celebration of a document denouncing tyranny, with an anti-American tyrant.While most Americans celebrated Independence Day with fireworks and barbeques, Barbara Walters spent the occasion dining with Syrian leader Bashir al-Assad, whom Walters described as "intelligent" and "charming" who wants "very much to have good relations with us." Perhaps...

Star Jones is speaking out against Barbara Walters for including her in her new memoir, Audition. In the book, Walters claims Jones forced her to lie about her gastric bypass surgery on The View. Walters also reveals that she had an affair with then-married Senator Edward Brooke during the 1970s. Usmagazine.com caught up with Jones (who recently split from husband Al Reynolds) as she left a tennis workout in NYC Wednesday. “It is a sad day when an icon like Barbara Walters, in the sunset of her life, is reduced to publicly branding herself as an adulterer, humiliating an innocent...

This is one of those rare cases where "Let Sleeping Dogs Lie" isn't just a figure of speech. In this case, the female dog who was sleeping around and won't stop talking about with whom she allegedly slept, has the surname of Walters, the first name of Barbara. And she has the very sad, insatiable need at her twilight age of 78 to get more attention.

Barabra Walters is out with her memoir, Audition. In it she provides insights into her relationship with Alan Greenspan and his chracter... "How Alan Greenspan, a man who believes in the philosophy of little government...could end up becoming chairman of the greatest regulatory agency in the country is beyond me..." ...she had problems with Greenspan's frugality...he had a raincoat...he wore until it almost fell apart."He rarely remembered to pick up a check or buy a Christmas or Birthday card."

Barbara Walters used an appearance on "Oprah" today to reveal her three-decades-ago affair with a married member of the U.S. Senate: Ed Brooke, the liberal Republican who represented Massachusetts from 1967 to 1979 and the first African-American ever elected to the chamber.