Star Jones plans to "interrogate" guests in a witness box on her live Court TV afternoon hour debuting Aug. 20, in addition to having cozy conversations in chairs and topical discussions across a news-style desk.
But the onetime Brooklyn prosecutor, who made her name on ABC's contentious daytime talkfest "The View," didn't do so great under her own interrogation this morning at TV critics' press tour. Jones deflected questions about her dramatic weight loss and sleek new look, admitting only "you've seen me gain a whole person and lose a whole person." [See current Court TV promo photo, right.]
She shied away from explaining where she's been since her stormy departure from "The View," too, preferring to emphasize her new show's focus on "the most important political, news-making and cultural issues that affect our nation," she said, "from the Don Imus controversy to Ms. Paris Hilton and her Biblical studies, from airport security to why in the world are we still so obsessed with [the VH1 reality series] 'Flavor of Love.'"
That might make sense, except her new Court TV weekday series is titled simply "Star Jones." Even if "it's not all about me," as Jones stressed yesterday to persistent reporters, her own controversial reputation certainly serves as the hook to lure viewers to the table, or the chairs, or the witness box.
Jones finally got the message and got personal, after show producer Gail Steinberg ("Donahue," "Ricki Lake"), sitting on the press conference stage alongside Jones, urged her to discuss "the reason why you took a year off." Then Jones opened up, saying "I spent some time getting to know Star. Getting fired will make a person want to learn a little bit about themselves."
That introspection, which she said included teaching a civics class in an East Harlem school, brought her back to what sent her to law school in the first place, she said, "because it's about serving people." In moving to TV, initially in 1991 as a Court TV trial analyst before her big "View" splash in 1997, she said she "was trading in one jury for a bigger jury. And I think for a long time I lost sight of that. I enjoyed a little bit more of that which was around instead of that which is in." Jones was even frank about "correcting some of the misconceptions about who I am, and correcting myself so that there would not be misconceptions. Because people can only take you for what you give them."
But this new Star isn't completely a changed Star. Producer Steinberg said that if the most successful TV personalities "take a clear stand on issues and what they think, with Star you'll never be left to wonder." Jones proved it by telling critics that, despite her residual warm feelings about "The View" having given her "the opportunity of a lifetime," she's "disappointed" that "no person of color has been permanently placed" on the show's high-profile panel since she left in June 2006. That's important, she said, for the show's "editorial purpose. We all sat in the back [production meetings] and brought different values to the table. We need to make it look like the fabric of society, not just to look like that from the outside but to feel that way from the inside."
Recently departed panelist Rosie O'Donnell was an asset to "The View," Jones said. "I really think she's one of the smartest people that I've ever seen on television. She knows how to make people talk about her and the things that she does. I didn't get to work with her, as you know. I actually think that probably would have been good TV."