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The women of The View were joined by Keke Palmer, who is starring in Cinderella on Broadway, as their guest co-host of the day!  

Australian Standoff: Whoopi started off today’s show letting the audience know the hostage situation in Australia has finally ended.  Nicolle said the terrorist threat in Australia is worse than we realize.  She said Islamic extremists now use the Internet as a recruitment tool and therefore these types of situations affect the entire world.  Rosie P loved how the people of Australia came together with the #IWillRideWithYou social media campaign.  All the ladies loved the idea too and offered to ride with people of the Muslim faith who are afraid to travel, in an expression of solidarity.

Hollywood Confidential:  The ladies discussed how the Sony hacking scandal just keeps growing with recent hacked emails of Sony executives now being released to the public.   Whoopi didn’t think the Sony executives were guilty of being racist but simply guilty of making jokes in bad taste.  She called it stupidity and said she doesn’t know anyone who hasn’t said something in an email as a joke.  She advised everyone to leave the jokes to the professionals.  Keke thinks we live in an age where everyone is now forced to be accountable for every little thing they say.  Nicolle believes people should simply not be ugly in private!  She said she comes from the world of politics where they believe everyone is hacking into their emails.  In the White House, when they would get mad at reporters, they would never rant about them in an email.  She said they would just walk down the hall and complain to each other.  She said if you’re acting in an embarrassing way in private, you should expect to get caught.  Rosie P thinks what the Sony heads said was “slightly racist” but she admitted that we all talk shit about everybody when we think we’re in private.   Rosie O thinks it’s funny that North Korea feels like hacking Sony is the way to get back at America.  Whoopi doesn’t think the leader of North Korea has much of a sense of humor so she wasn’t surprised they went after Sony.  They discussed whether or not they believe the executives may be fired for their emails and further about whether or not the tone of the emails was offensive.  Whoopi thought the execs were just having a real conversation about black people and what movies they like to watch but Rosie O said she would be very offended if they were saying such things about a gay person [that gay people only like to watch movies with gay themes].  Whoopi doesn’t think the execs were being racist but she said Rush Limbaugh has said some things that to her were truly racist.   Rosie O said no one with a brain takes Rush seriously but all the other ladies at the table agreed there were thousands of people who take Rush Limbaugh VERY seriously.

Beverly Johnson:  Beverly joined the ladies at the table to discuss her recent allegations against Bill Cosby.  She discussed the story she describes in a recent Vanity Fair article.  You can read the article here.  Rosie O asked Beverly how she found the courage to confront Cosby that night she knew he had drugged her.  She said she wasn’t sure if it was the drugs but she just kept calling him a “motherfucker” louder and louder until Cosby came to the realization that his plan to drug her and have her pass out, wasn’t going to work.  He eventually kicked her out of his brownstone and put her in a taxi.  The next thing she remembered was waking up the next morning.  Beverly said she decided to come forward with her story because of all the courageous women coming forward and telling their own stories which sounded eerily similar to hers.  She also sits on the Board of Barbara Sinatra’s Children’s Center for Abused Children where she has witnessed the stories of brave children who have come forward with their personal tales of abuse.  She said her conscience would not let her sit in silence any longer.  She was so fearful about other people’s opinions but she eventually realized she didn’t care what other people thought.  Beverly admitted she never told anyone about the incident and she said that is the norm when something like this happens to a woman.  She felt devastated and numb the next day when she realized what had happened.  She also remembered in 2006 reading about when Bill Cosby settled with some of his accusers thinking the authorities had finally gotten him for what he had been doing to women.  And then the story disappeared.  Keke wanted to know if Beverly ever saw Cosby again after the incident.  Beverly said about 10 days after the incident she decided to call Cosby and confront him but Camille answered the phone and she never got to speak to him.

 

Whoopi asked Beverly why she didn’t worry about what he had drugged her with and go to the hospital when she got in the taxi. Beverly said she wasn’t thinking straight and at that point she was just struggling to stay conscious.  Beverly said her coming forward is not an attack against Cosby.  She called him a “lightning rod” for a conversation about violence against women.  She wasn’t raped (at least she doesn’t think she was) but she wanted to come forward to tell her truth.  Nicolle said Cosby was recently quoted as saying he only expects the “black media” to uphold the standards of excellence in journalism and remain neutral.  And she asked Beverly what she would like to happen to Cosby now.  Beverly just wants women who have been raped by Cosby (and others) to be free to come forward and to not be afraid to speak out.  Rosie O told Beverly, “And by you doing so [speaking out], you have given every one of us a voice.  So, thank you.”

Guest:

Maggie Gyllenhaal: Maggie just received Golden Globe and SAG award nominations for playing a business woman caught in the middle of the Israeli/Palestinian conflict in the mini-series The Honorable Woman.  Maggie said she’s never been more proud of anything she’s ever worked on.  Rosie O asked her if she was scared to take on the role and Maggie said she’s always scared to take on a role.  She’s never sure she can give justice to her performances.  Even before she walked out onto the stage at The View, she said she felt nervous.  But this project was a mini-series, 8 hours on film, and that felt very overwhelming.  So, she decided to just take it scene by scene, moment by moment and one day at a time.

Since The Honorable Woman deals with a very controversial theme [the Palestinian/Israeli conflict] Maggie said she read up on it as much as she could.  She said the topic itself is incredibly difficult to unravel but once she decided to work on the project she realized her character stands unapologetic in her truth.  She hopes that the series might encourage people to learn more about the conflict so they too can become more aware about what is going on in the world.

Maggie talked with the ladies a little about her performance in The Real Thing on Broadway.  She said she originally read the play when she was just 17-years-old and the script “blew her mind.”  She was beyond excited when she was asked to do it on Broadway.

The Honorable Woman premieres this Thursday (12/18) on Netflix!

Must Have Mondays: The View has partnered with fantastic vendors to give the audience up to 84% off the retail price for 48 hours only (while supplies last)!  To see the complete list of the Must Have Mondays visit their website.

Audience Giveaway: Everyone in the audience received a free one year subscription to Netflix and all of the items featured in the Must Have Monday segment!

Take a little time to enjoy The View!  

written by Kelly Weist
KidRo Productions