| Star Jones | |
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Jones in April 2011 |
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| Born | Starlet Marie Jones March 24, 1962 Badin, North Carolina, U.S. |
| Alma mater | American University University of Houston |
| Occupation | Lawyer, journalist, talk show host, writer |
| Years active | 1991 – present |
| Spouse | Al Reynolds (2004-2008) |
| Website | |
| http://www.starjones.com | |
Star Jones (previously Star Jones Reynolds; born March 24, 1962) is an American lawyer, journalist, writer, and television personality. She is known for her role as a co-host of the ABC weekday morning talk show The View. She was one of the contestants taking part in the fourth installment of Celebrity Apprentice, coming in 5th place.[1]
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Born Starlet Marie Jones in Badin, North Carolina, Star moved to Trenton, New Jersey as a child where she graduated from Notre Dame High School in Lawrenceville, New Jersey.[2] 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. She was initiated in the Lambda Zeta Chapter at American University.
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 case and was the only reporter to interview Simpson during his civil trial, which she covered for American Journal.
In 1997, Jones joined The View as a co-host, a role that increased her public exposure significantly.
On June 27, 2006, Jones officially reported that she would be leaving The View after nine seasons as co-host. She told People Magazine that the decision to leave was not her own. "What you don't know is that my contract was not renewed for the 10th season ... I feel like I was fired." She found out her contract would not be renewed just days before Rosie O'Donnell's addition to the show was announced.[3]
The following day, Barbara Walters, claiming she had been "blindsided", announced that effective immediately, Jones 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 had 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, were 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.
In May 2008, in response to the publication of Barbara Walters' autobiography Audition, Jones released a statement to US Magazine: "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 . "It speaks to her true character."[4]
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 mutually decided to end their relationship as the network made changes in their programming selection. The final episode of Star Jones' program aired on February 1, 2008. According to The Washington Post, "[Jones'] show averaged 186,000 viewers and, by its final telecast, was down in the neighborhood of 85,000."[5] She will remain a legal expert contributor to "In Session" trial coverage. She was making $8 million a year from Court TV.[6] In January, 2011, the talk show was featured among "10 Notable Talk Show Failures" in a CNBC.com slide show article.[7]
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.[8]
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." [9]
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 King was on vacation.
She appeared in "Screwed," the eighth season finale of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit. While her character was also named Star Jones, she was not playing herself, but rather a prosecutor from Brooklyn—a position she held earlier in her career.
She hosted Oxygen Network's hit reality television show The Bad Girls Club Season 2 reunion episode, which aired on May 20, 2008.
In 2009 she appeared on several episodes of The Insider as a celebrity panelist.
On April 22, 2009, Jones appeared on the syndicated talk show Dr. Phil. As a former Brooklyn, NY Homicide Prosecutor, Jones sat on a legal panel to discuss the alleged murder of Sandra Cantu by Melissa Huckaby.
On July 17, 2009, Jones appeared on a celebrity version of Are You Smarter than a 5th Grader?, during which she won $25,000 to benefit The East Harlem School at Exodus House, a New York City middle school for under served populations.
Star Jones also appeared on the 4th season of The Celebrity Apprentice. She placed 5th on the show, eliminated after her brand messaging efforts in a TV commercial for OnStar were not well- received by the OnStar executives. She also feuded with Nene Leakes.
Jones has written three 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. Her most recent book, Satan's Sisters, a work of fiction, was released on March 22, 2011.
Among the issues that emerged while Jones was a host on The View was her weight loss, which seemed to occur fairly suddenly, after her years of weight struggles. Viewers and commentators suspected that she had had gastric bypass surgery. However, in 2006, when Jones was a guest on Bob and the Showgram on WDCG 105.1 FM in Raleigh, North Carolina and was asked whether she had had such surgery, she denied it. However, in a September, 2007, interview in Glamour magazine, she revealed she had, indeed, undergone gastric bypass surgery in August 2003, resulting in a loss of 160 pounds over three years.[10] A number of commentators criticized Jones for refusing to be honest and for claiming, for some time, that she had lost weight via a portion control diet and exercise. Before admitting the surgery she even went so far as to adamantly deny ever lying to People Magazine and stated that she "wasn't ashamed." [11]
Jones was named to PETA's "Worst Dressed" List four years in a row.[12] 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.[13]
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 five hundred guests, and featured three matrons of honor, twelve bridesmaids, two junior bridesmaids, three best men, twelve groomsmen, three junior groomsmen, six footmen, four ring bearers and four flower girls. More than thirty corporate "sponsors" donated wedding attire and merchandise for the event, in exchange for mentions in the media and on Jones' website.[14] 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. On March 9, 2008, MSNBC reported that Jones and Reynolds were divorcing.[15]
On March 17, 2010, Star underwent cardiac surgery related to a surgery she had three decades earlier for a thoracic tumor.[16]
In June 2003, Jones was sued by a landscaping company, which alleged she had agreed to ensure that the firm would receive credit for their work on a rooftop garden for her Upper East Side penthouse duplex in a quid pro quo exchange. The work was done in advance of an article about her home in the October 2003 issue of Architectural Digest. The Smoking Gun website published a copy of a letter she signed which agreed to the deal. The lawsuit was eventually dismissed in Jones' favor.[17]
A non-profit Detroit women's group, Full and Fabulous, accused Jones of theft after they invited her speak at their "Health, Beauty and Self-Esteem" conference during the 2006 Super Bowl. Full and Fabulous alleged that Jones made changes to her flight itinerary that doubled the travel expenses the group was paying for, and that she spent the bulk of her time attending Super Bowl parties to promote her book rather than being at the conference. Jones-Reynolds' representative refuted the group's claims, insisting that she honored all contractual terms of the deal, and that the organization fabricated the allegations for the sake of publicity.[18]
| Media offices | ||
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| Preceded by none |
The View third co-host 1997–2006 |
Succeeded by Sherri Shepherd |
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