Star Jones, or Half of Her

Star Jones was telling everyone just exactly how she’d be telling it like it is and leaving no holds barred and keeping it real in her new Court TV talk show next month.

But she wouldn’t say a word about the most shocking things for reporters at the TV critics press tour, encountering her after a year from the public eye: how exactly she lost enough weight to seem unrecognizable to anyone who saw her on “The View” for nine years, with shorter, straight shoulder length hair, glasses, and primarily enough weight loss to make her appear to be thinner than not only Oprah, but Gayle King as well.

“I know that people are curious,” she allowed. “I mean I've changed completely from the way I looked when I first started in television and the way I look now and I think it does a service to our audience to really explain, and in the coming months I think that I will have answered every question that you want the answers to.”

Wait, wait, wait! Coming months? What happened to telling it like it is? Keeping it real? No holds barred?

“Star is not someone who will leave you guessing where she stands on the issues, which is one of the things that we are so excited about in having Star as the host of the show,” said the show’s producer Gail Steinberg.

OK fine. But we’re still left guessing at what happened to her.

“By the time the show goes on the air, I guarantee you no one will ever have to ask those questions again,” Jones teased.

Reporters, as you might have guessed, weren’t having it.

Q. I just want to clarify. I'm a little confused. You are saying -- is there going to be a story, or are you going to do an interview that explains your weight loss before the show launches? I guess I'm curious whether or not you are going to deal with the question today.

A. Well, today, as you can imagine, there's a whole lot of people who put a whole lot into this particular day. This is really to talk about the Star Jones show on Court TV and ultimately truTV. And I wouldn't want to take away from what everyone here has worked so hard to get us to. But I recognize very clearly that my viewing audience is interested, and I own in that. So what I'm saying to you is, in the next coming months, before the show gets on the air August 20th, I will address it in a more appropriate forum. I think it's a fair way to put it and not address it right here.

Q. What forum? And, this is a room full of reporters. Isn't this a good forum?

A. I know, but put it like this: There is one reporter who would be very annoyed with me.

Q. You sold the story, then?

A. Of course not.

Q. You sold the story?

A. Absolutely did not. Absolutely did not. It's not something to sell when you talk about your health. That's not something to sell. That's something to give.

So give, Star, give!

She didn’t.

Q. So you have a commitment to a journalist?

A. No. I have a commitment to the viewer. Don't you want to find out? Can you just hold off until August 20th? And you will never ask the question again. I promise.

Q. So it will be a part of this show? You are saying it's going to come out before the show?

A. I guarantee you it will come out before the show, 100 percent.

Q. And you won't tell us in what format or who you are going to talk to?

A. I don't want to ruin somebody else's opportunity that we've put out there. Come on, guys.

Q. Is it Barbara Walters?

A. She didn't ask.

Q. Larry King?

A. No, absolutely not. Absolutely not.

Q. Is it me?

A. Are there any other questions?

It wasn’t just morbid curiosity about surface appearances. Jones was fired from “The View” after she was less than forthcoming about her exact manner of weight loss at the time. She said it was exercise and diet in a book, but that didn’t seem to be the case.

Someone did change the subject and asked about Rosie O’Donnell, her perceived rival and successor to her seat on “The View,” who questioned Jones’ exercise claims, doubting she could even do a push-up.

But Jones said of O’Donnell, “I think she is really one of the smartest people that I've ever seen on television. She knows how to make you all talk about her and talk about the things she does. We didn't get to work together on the show, as you all know, and I actually think that probably would have been good TV.”

But evading the question over weight loss kept coming up:

Q. Do you realize the public relations damage you've done by being coy about this upcoming interview?

A. In all honesty, I think over the last four years, you all have watched me change so much on television. You've seen me gain a whole person and lose a whole person, and I hope that you have understood if you were to put yourself in my position that that's a whole lot for a human being to handle, not just physically, but emotionally. And it has taken a long time for me to feel comfortable to talk about it, to talk about it honestly and openly and to allow myself to be vulnerable and allow you into my life in that way. I've taken people on my journey publicly for so many years, and this was something that I could not do. And I really want the opportunity to express that to you in a way that's open and fair and honest, and this is not the format to do it.

Telling, she says, “ would do a disservice to all of the women out there and to me and to my health and to their health. I really do. And I'm asking that you trust that you will have all of your answers, but by the same token, it's not being coy, not in the least tiny bit."

Really? Not in the least tiny bit? The questioning continued.

Q. I would just settle for where I can find this interview. You can't tell me that? I mean, is it going to be on CNN?

A. No.

Q. Court TV?

A. It's not an in-person interview. Actually -- I actually wrote about my experience over the last four years. It's not a book. It's just an article.

Q. Oprah Magazine?

A. No, absolutely not.

Q. Well, can you give me the name of the magazine?

A. You are going to guess?

Q. What letter does it start with?

A. I don't mind saying it. It doesn't bother me at all. It's going to be in Glamour magazine in a column.

Wow. All that grilling to just get that tiny bit of information? That she’ll write about it in Glamour? And “she didn’t mind saying it.” Well, why didn’t she say so about 20 minutes earlier?

Steve Koonin, CEO of Turner Entertainment Networks, stepped in: “Time for one more question.”

A reporter asked carefully a hypothetical.

Q. If, on your show, you have a guest appear and there's an obvious answer -- an obvious question to be asked from that person sitting right in front of you and that person refuses to discuss it, goes off in another direction, begs off, how will you handle that?

A: I hope to handle it with the same sort of gentleness that you've handled me.