The View is still a daytime ratings-getter, last year averaging 3.3 million viewers a day.
But still that was down from previous years -- according to focus groups -- that was the fault of Joy (Behar) and Elisabeth (Hasselbeck) who were too politically polarizing... And so, Jenny McCarthy is among the first of many who will be trying out for the big gig.
Apparently, the producers must not think of her as polarizing, despite the evidence. Like the fact that the vehement, anti-childhood- vaccine activist posed naked again last year on the cover of Playboy.
So writes the New York Post's very smart TV critic Linda Stasi. Linda goes on to deplore Jenny as a fake when it comes to giving advice about kids and saying she is a "stay-at-home mom." Joy states "It is the diversity of ages, races and opinions that makes The View work!"
Personally, I'd vote for New Yorker Brooke Shields to come on board. And bring back Joy Behar!
• Now is your chance to see the fabled Tommy Tune, and you won't have to pay an arm and a leg. He is appearing at Town Hall, 123 West 45 Street on June 1, a Saturday, at this great Manhattan gathering place.
I keep telling you that Tommy is the only person ever to have won nine Tony awards; they should re-name them "the Tommy Awards."
And his act is better than ever. You've never seen an over-six-foot-tall tap dancer do what he does. If you want to see me in person, be there although Tommy hasn't been reduced to having me join him onstage yet. He keeps saying "Please, Liz, let me do it myself!"
Here's how to get tickets. Go from 12 to 6 to the Town Hall box office. Take the easy way out and call Ticketmaster, 1-800-982-2787. Or call up the-townhall-nyc.org.
The show is called "Steps in Time."
• Happenings! Christine Baranski, who has had a lot of prizes in her acting career, always insists that family comes first and that she is just an old-fashioned wife and mother. I say nuts!
She keeps the dedicated and famous, such as director Mike Nichols and his like, never missing
a chance to view her performance, wherever it may be. So now she is doing "On Your Toes" in the Encores! concerts at New York City Center through May 8-12 and you can call for tickets, $30, and up at 212 - 581-1212.
I have just loved watching Christine play the partner in a law firm in the TV smash hit The Good Wife, and they allowed her to have sexy romantic moments just as many middle-aged women do! She is simply great as a realistic, demanding lawyer and "lover." Just as she stole the TV series Cybill away from Cybill Shepherd back in 1995, as a martini-loving friend.
If you go to see Baranski, you'll be seeing one of Cole Porter's greatest shows with the hit standard "There's a Small Hotel."
So I know Christine's husband and two grown daughters and she is devoted to their life together in Connecticut and around the world. But I also know, as they do, that acting comes a dead heat second -- and maybe she'd top it off with a Margarita.
• The Katharine Hepburn Garden Party is taking place May 11 at 1 p.m. on a Saturday at the Dag Hammarskjold Plaza. And you can find out how to go and how to have free coffee and cake on the Great Kate by calling 212-826-8980. Meanwhile, Miss Hepburn's house at Fenwick, out of Old Saybrook, Çonnecticut is now all done over and for sale at only $30 million or so. The rep for this is my pal Colette Harron at Sotheby's call 860-767-7488 ext: 107.
Now that young Taylor Swift has bought herself something expensive on the Northeastern Seaboard, realtors all over Connecticut, Massachusetts and Rhode Island are making big bucks having rich folks follow her example.
• Plan ahead if you love Christiane Amanpour and Cynthia McFadden because these two dynamos are chairing the Courage in Journalism Awards at lunch, Cipriani 42nd Street on October 23, with Bank of America the national presenting sponsor.
• Out in LA. this happens as a dinner October 29 with Cindi Leive of Glamour presiding and Chevron sponsoring. Contact Weinstein Special Events at 212-254-6677 ext 303 if you believe in The International Women's Media Foundation. Or if you believe in journalists who are risking their lives.
• I am personally still trying to write my acceptance for the Neighborhood Coalition for Shelter lunch which happens May 14 for "Women of Achievement," happening at the Boathouse in Central Park. And Bloomberg Philanthropies just gave a big hunk of change in my honor and in honor of our pal Cathy Blaney, a political not for profit fundraiser for the Museum of 9/11.
This might confuse you because there is to be another "Women of Achievement Award" gala honoring Women's Project Theater on May 13th at 10 Debrosses Street in Tribeca. Joanna Coles and the legendary Helen Gurley Brown will be saluted...as will Cosmopolitan Group's Donna Kalajian Lagani, HBO's great documentary film maker Sheila Nevins, and the B'Way League's Charlotte St. Martin. Call 212-228-7446 ext. 10.