Joy Behar Takes Fire From Miss America CEO Over Nurses Comment

It’s a safe bet Joy Behar might wish she could just go back about a week and not say the comments she said about the woman who wore a nurse’s outfit at the Miss America pageant. Because this is the real world, Joy Behar has to live with the fact that she has made those comments and she has to deal with the fact that the furor surrounding them isn’t being allowed to die down. While it seemed that almost everyone had weighed in on Behar’s comments, the CEO of the Miss America pageant has yet to comment about what Joy said. Until now.

People Magazine reports that Sam Haskell III was quite offended by Joy Behar’s comments, explaining that they hit especially close to home for him. “My mother was a nurse. It hurt all nurses to hear Michelle [Collins] and Joy criticize the talent choice of Kelley Johnson, Miss Colorado!” Haskell told the mag. At the same time, the CEO acknowledged that Behar and The View did issue an apology and he said it was the right thing to do.

“Kelley used the talent portion of the Miss America competition to share her passion about a special story experienced through her job,” the CEO said. “I am glad that Michelle and Joy apologized.” Behar has had to do quite a bit of backpedaling since her comments actually led to sponsors pulling their ads from The View. While the former comedian turned talk show host is used to seeing her comments come under fire, Joy Behar and her colleagues have never seen the kind of backlash they have experienced over these particular comments.

TMZ reports that Party City, Snuggle, and McCormick have kicked off the weekend by being the latest sponsors to pull out of the show. This is despite the fact that Joy Behar and The View are working hard to show how much they appreciate nurses. Their efforts aren’t convincing many, including 2016 Miss America winner Betty Cantrell, who said, “I’m really proud of Miss Colorado, Kelley Johnson, for getting out there and using the talent portion to preach about something she’s passionate about – being a nurse – and I’m really proud of her and I say props to Kelley for speaking about what she believes in.” At this point, one has to wonder just how many more people are going to pile on Joy Behar and The View in the wake of her comments.

[Photo by Michael Loccisano/Getty Images for Disney Live!]