Showbiz411

So. Barbara Walters had Rielle Hunter, John Edwards’ mistress, over to her posh New York City apartment three years ago. It was a  secret meeting. Hunter writes in “What Really Happened”: “She was really angling hard for me to talk to her.” The whole thing was off the record. Hunter went because she wanted to see how Barbara lived. Barbara wanted Rielle for “20/20.” She brought her friend Mimi Hockman and baby Quinn. Walters she says, used the fact that Hunter knew the daughter of her agent, Mort Janklow, as bait to get Hunter come to lunch at all.

Hunter writes in her book, “What Really Happened,” that she backed off of Walters’ advances when “20/20,” she says, “rolled out the red carpet for the Youngs”–Andrew and Cheri–”allowing them to spew their BS on national TV. Of course, Barbara screaming at me on the phone, trying to bully me into doing her interview, also didn’t do her any favors.”

Ironically, Hunter has now been on “20/20″ and has a deal with ABC for multiple appearances. Elsewhere in the book. Hunter writes that John Edwards was obsessed with comments George Stephanopolous made around that time about Edwards being the possible father of Hunter’s baby. Now this week, Hunter will appear with Stephanopolous on “Good Morning America.” That should be pretty interesting.

Roger Friedman

Roger Friedman began his Showbiz411 column in April 2009 after 10 years with Fox News. Friedman previously wrote the Intelligencer column at New York Magazine, He writes for Parade magazine and has written for Details, Vogue, the New York Times, Post, and Daily News and many other publications. He is the writer and co-producer of a film about R&B Music called “Only the Strong Survive,” which was released by Miramax in 2003 and was a selection of the Cannes, Sundance, and Telluride Film festivals.