On Monday, The View is about to get a whole new face lift. Aside from existing member Whoopi Goldberg, the ABC daytime talk show will welcome returning member Rosie O’Donnell and two new additions in Rosie Perez and Nicole Wallace.
Rosie Perez is a film actress and director, who is known for her gritty role in the cult film Do The Right Thing. Appearing in dozens of films, Perez is a triple threat flipped on its head as she was a choreographer, talent coordinator and director for the groundbreaking sketch comedy show In Living Color . She’s also an activist for the Puerto Rican community and has directed campaigns and films centered around the advocacy of HIV/AIDS research.
Nicole Wallace is a prominent Republican, but unlike The View’s old co-host Elisabeth Hasselbeck , Wallace doesn’t seem to be an aggressor or someone who’s out to get specific antagonistic talking points across. Instead, Wallace has the political clout that Elisabeth lacked. As a woman who served as senior adviser for McCain’s campaign, and a political analyst for MSNBC, there’s a lot more going on in there than what we had with Hasselbeck. Additionally, she acted as the communications director for George W. Bush throughout his presidency. Simply put? She doesn’t seem to be just a talking piece — she knows her stuff.
So who’s the smart one here? That should be an important question given The View’s old format, but as we noted this is a new regime, and it looks like Rosie O’Donnell is leading this spanking brand new era of the veteran show. The two latest additions had a lot to say on this and stepping into the new program without attaching to those strong personalities that existed in the old panel.
Perez told The Wrap , “I am very opinionated but I also think that my background … coming from abject poverty, being a person that was once in the child welfare system, I see the world in a specific way and I also see the world in a way that it has an enormous amount of gray area.”
Wallace has a very refreshing outlook on playing ball with her fellow cast mates.
“I think in politics there are a lot people who are interested but feel so disconnected from Washington … if there’s a political story to talk about one morning, I think we can sort of sit back and let the story breathe a little bit.”
She continued, “I’d love to hear what my co-hosts think about this country maybe having to do something to protect ourselves from these new terrorists Isis … I think people want to hear what Rosie O’Donnell and Whoopi Goldberg and Rosie Perez think about things.”
It seems like everyone is playing nice with each other and being very respectful of each other’s own backgrounds. Will this be the case when everyone sits down on Monday? We’ll have to wait and see.
[Image via ABC]