Everything about Star Jones totally explained
Star Jones Reynolds (born
March 24,
1962) is an
American lawyer and
television personality, best known for her role as a co-host of the
ABC weekday morning talk show
The View.
Early life, education, and legal career
Born
Starlet Marie Jones in
Badin, North Carolina, Star moved to
New Jersey as a small
child where she graduated from
Notre Dame High School in
Lawrenceville, New Jersey. She earned a B.A. degree in The Administration of Justice at
American University and a
Juris Doctor degree from the
University of Houston Law Center. She is also a member of
Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Incorporated.
Television career
Jones was recruited by
Court TV in 1991 as a commentator for the
William Kennedy Smith rape trial, and spent several years as a legal
correspondent for
NBC's
Today and
NBC Nightly News.
She left NBC in
1994 to host her own court show
Jones & Jury. Although the show was canceled after one year, Jones quickly was signed up as chief legal analyst on
Inside Edition, where she was assigned to lead the coverage of the
O.J. Simpson murder trial and was the only reporter to interview Simpson during his
civil trial.
The View
In
1997, Jones joined
The View as a co-host, a role that increased her public exposure significantly. She was The View's first African-American co-host.
On
June 27,
2006, Jones officially reported that she'd be leaving
The View after nine seasons as co-host. She told
People Magazine that the decision to leave wasn't her own. "What you don't know is that my contract wasn't renewed for the 10th season ... . I feel like I was fired." She found out her contract wouldn't be renewed just days before Rosie O'Donnell's addition to the show was announced.
The following day,
Barbara Walters, claiming she'd been "blindsided" announced that effective immediately Jones Reynolds no longer would appear on
The View, except for segments that had already been pre-taped—which proved to be minimal. When the series went into summer reruns, only programs in which she'd been absent from the panel were rebroadcast. Jones was removed from the opening credits, leaving only Walters,
Joy Behar, and
Elisabeth Hasselbeck. In addition to being removed from the credits, Jones was immediately removed from the ABC.com website. After
June 27, her only appearances on
The View were on the Friday
June 30,
2006 episode, which was taped prior to her departure, and then replayed on Tuesday
July 4,
2006.
Shortly after, Jones joined
Larry King on his talk show to defend her position and respond to questions about why ABC had refused to renew her contract. The network claimed that not only did Jones's excessive reports about her wedding plans alienate viewers, but her acceptance of clothing and merchandise for the event, in exchange for mentions on
The View, was in violation of network policy. When questioned about these issues by King, Jones adamantly stated that every mention of her wedding and those connected to it on
The View was specifically approved and negotiated by the network themselves, clearly not in violation of any policy. She also reminded viewers that the ratings during that time were the highest ratings
The View had in the nine years she was a co-host.
Star Jones on truTV
Media reports on
March 7,
2007 stated that Star Jones would return to
truTV (formerly
Court TV) as the new Executive Editor of their Daytime Programming and would host a live weekday talk show based on the law and pop culture. It premiered on
August 20.
On January 31, 2008, it was announced that Jones and truTV has mutually decided to end their relationship as the network made changes in their programming selection. The final episode of The Star Jones program aired on February 1, 2008. "[Jones'] show averaged 186,000 viewers and, by its final telecast, was down in the neighborhood of 85,000." (Washington Post, Feb. 2008) She will remain a legal expert contributor to "in session" trial coverage. She was making $8 million a year from Court TV.
Other appearances
From
September 2004 to
September 2005, Jones was a red-carpet host for the
E! television network, conducting interviews at awards shows. Jones and E! declined to renew her contract after one year.
In
July 2006, Jones hosted a week of the
HGTV program
House Hunters, in
New York City. Her appearance on the program "scored the largest household ratings in the cable channel's history."
In
December 2006, for three days, Jones sat in for
Michael Eric Dyson to guest host his radio show in his absence. Also that month, she produced for the
Cathy Hughes-owned
TV-One cable station
The Star Jones-Reynolds Report, which reported on events that tremendously affected the
African American community the previous year.
On
April 2,
2007, she sat in as host of
Larry King Live, interviewing
Beyoncé Knowles while Larry was on vacation.
She appeared in "," the eighth season finale of . While her character was also named Star Jones, she wasn't playing herself, but rather a prosecuting attorney from
Brooklyn—a position she held earlier in her career.
She hosted Oxygen Network's hit television
The Bad Girls Club reunion episode, set to air on
May 20,
2008.
Authorship
Jones has written two books. The first,
You Have to Stand for Something, or You'll Fall for Anything, is a collection of autobiographical essays published in
1998. In
January 2006, Jones published her second book,
Shine: A Physical, Emotional, and Spiritual Journey to Finding Love, detailing changes she made to re-shape her life, including her marriage and dramatic weight loss.
Personal life and public image
Jones married
investment banker Al Reynolds on
November 13,
2004. The much-publicized
wedding was held at
Saint Bartholomew's Church in
New York City in front of 500 guests, and featured three
matrons of honor, 12 bridesmaids, two junior bridesmaids, three best men, 12
groomsmen, three junior groomsmen, six footmen, four
ring bearers and four
flower girls. More than 30 corporate "sponsors" donated wedding attire and merchandise for the event, in exchange for mentions in the
media and on Jones' website. named Jones Reynolds the top
bridezilla of 2004.
Immediately after the wedding, Jones added her husband's last name to her own and began using Star Jones Reynolds professionally. In an interview in the
August 24,
2007 issue of
Entertainment Weekly, she explained she reverted to Star Jones professionally in order to keep her public persona separate from her private self.
In
2006, she was a guest on
Bob and the Showgram on
WDCG 105.1 FM in
Raleigh, North Carolina, and when asked about her
gastric bypass surgery, she denied having the surgery.
However, in a
September 2007 interview in
Glamour magazine, she revealed she'd
gastric bypass surgery in
August 2003, resulting in a loss of 160 pounds over three years.
On
March 9,
2008, MSNBC reported that Jones and Reynolds were "calling it quits.". Fueling to the fire about the circumstances around the divorce were pictures posted online of Jones with Miami Heat star
Dwyane Wade, sparking rumors of an affair.
Three years after her marriage to banker Al Reynolds, Jones filed divorce papers
March 26,
2008 in New York Supreme Court in Manhattan.
Controversy
Jones was named to PETA's "Worst Dressed" List four years in a row. An anti-fur ad from PETA featured drag queen Flotilla DeBarge dressed as Jones in a spoof. Jones threatened to sue PETA and DeBarge as a result of the ad.
Rosie O'Donnell, who was hired to replace Meredith Vieira on The View, has criticized Jones Reynolds for not publicly admitting to having gastric bypass surgery. Joy Behar also made a small joke on The View after guest co-host Kathy Griffin asked "Where's Star?" and Behar replied, "No one knows, because she got so skinny, she disappeared."
A non-profit Detroit women's group, Full and Fabulous, invited Jones Reynolds to speak at their "Health, Beauty and Self-Esteem" conference during the 2006 Super Bowl in Detroit. The group claimed Jones Reynolds demanded a first-class airfare, a suite at a five-star hotel, and $30,000 to show up. On November 2, 2007, she [was] accused of "stealing" from a Michigan non-profit organization after accepting plane tickets from them to party during the 2006 NFL Super Bowl. Jones allegedly changed the flight by moving the departure up two hours, doubling the cost of the flight, without the approval of the organization. The group then told Detroit TV station WXYZ that Jones Reynolds elected to party during the Super Bowl weekend and to plug her book rather than attend the conference. However, Jones Reynolds' representative refutes the group's claims, branding them "distorted." According to the spokesperson, Jones honored all contractual terms of the deal the organization fabricated a fascinating story to make a meaningful name for themselves. But neither Jones nor her spokesman have provided any evidence to support their claims. Full and Fabulous took Star to small claims court in Detroit. Jones never showed up for the hearing nor did she respond to any of the court papers. The judge ordered Jones to pay back Full and Fabulous $20,000.00. Jones has yet to obey the court order and pay the group back.
Jones wrote an open letter to Bill O'Reilly in response to comments made towards Michelle Obama. O'Reilly's quote is as follows "I don't want to go on a lynching party against Michelle Obama unless there's evidence, hard facts, that say this is how the woman really feels. If that's how she really feels — that's a bad country or a flawed nation, whatever — then that's legit. We'll track it down."
On September 16, 2001, Star Jones declared on The View that she "would not vote for an atheist" for president, although an atheist "could babysit her kid—possibly". She refused to apologize for her comments, ultimately resulting in a call for a boycott against Payless ShoeSource who signed her on as a spokeswoman during the midst of the controversy.
Various rumors have been circulating about the sexual orientation of Star's then husband. In 2005 a radio station retracted a claim that Al Reynolds patronized Las Vegas gay bars,(External Link
) and more recently the couple sued the National Enquirer for falsely claiming that Al Reynolds is gay.(External Link)
In May 2008, in response to the publication of her former boss Barbara Walters' autobiography Audition, Star released a statement: "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 family with accounts of her illicit affair and speaking negatively against me all for the sake of selling a book," Jones told US Magazine. "It speaks to her true character."
Star Jones filed for divorce from Al Reynolds on March 26, 2008, a few months short of their fourth wedding anniversary.
Further Information
Get more info on 'Star Jones'.
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