Rosie Perez: Calling 'The View' A 'Catfight' Is 'Pure Sexism At Play'

Don't call it a catfight.

Rosie Perez told HuffPost Live's Ricky Camilleri on Tuesday that she's not happy with the way she and her fellow "The View" panelists are singled out for having the same kind of conversations men have on television all the time:

It's pure sexism at play. Because listen, you look at one of my favorite shows, "Hardball," you see the spit coming out of Chris [Matthews]'s mouth at times when he gets really passionate. Even on "Meet the Press" -- remember [Rudy] Giuliani and Mike Eric Dyson? Oh my gosh, I thought they were going to go to fisticuffs. They didn't call that a catfight. They didn't even call it a brawl. They called it a debate. But when we do it, it's a catfight ... and [people say] we hate each other, and that is just not the case.

Perez admitted that squabbles between panelists provoke a reaction from "The View" audiences, but she added that it's never personal among the cast.

"We do have lively debates, and sometimes they get really, really, really uncomfortable and touchy. But you know what? It also makes for good TV, to be quite frank," Perez said. "But afterwards when we go home, we call each other. 'You alright?' 'Yeah, I'm alright.' ... We work it out, we're grown-ass women, and then come Monday, we go and do a show."

She also offered an idea of what "The View" might look like without the passionate exchanges it's known for -- and it's bleak.

"If we all were singing 'Kumbaya,' it would be so boring," she said. "It would be a horrible show because you wouldn't have anything else to talk about except Kim Kardashian's ass -- which is quite lovely."

Watch Rosie Perez's full HuffPost Live conversation here.

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