This morning on “The View”: Barbara Walters said Elisabeth Hasslebeck isn’t leaving so fast. Hasselbeck performed her own version of “And I Am Telling You I’m Not Going. ” But where there’s smoke, there’s fire. I am told that Hasselbeck will not remain with the show next season. ABC has agreed to let the announcement of her departure come from her, and it will take place “in a few weeks.” Maybe the much disliked former “Survivor” contestant will say she decided to spend time with her kids now that they’re in school and need her more. Whatever. “She’s leaving,” says a source. “It’s just a matter of time.”
Walters did not address our exclusive scoop from this weekend, that Brooke Shields is coming to “The View” in September. It’s too soon for that. Anyway, whoever wrote that Walters might leave is the craziest. Walters owns half of “The View.” She will be on TV well past the year 3000. You know she will be seen crawling on all fours underneath a rope line, with a microphone in her hand, to interview Richard Nixon after procuring a press pass to Hell. That’s the intrepid Barbara.
