The war of words between The Apprentice's Donald Trump and The View's Rosie O'Donnell continued this week, with O'Donnell's View co-host Barbara Walters getting pulled into the struggle even further.
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O'Donnell reportedly confronted Walters on the set of The View on Monday and shouted at her for not strongly denying allegations Trump had made that Walters regretted hiring O'Donnell for the ABC talk show, according to Tuesday's The New York Post. The fight reportedly started around 8:30AM when Walters, just back from a two-week vacation, walked into the hair and makeup room at ABC studios and tried to hug O'Donnell, according to The Post. O'Donnell reportedly recoiled from Walters' touch and yelled, "You kept me in the newspapers this whole time!"
Both View producer Bill Geddie and Walters tried to calm O'Donnell. Walters reportedly told her, "I did everything I could to squash the story" -- prompting Rosie to scream, "You didn't call me for ten goddamn days, and you didn't tell me what you were going to say on television!" After O'Donnell's outburst at Walters, The Post reported Geddie jumped in and told Rosie, "You've crossed the line." O'Donnell replied, "Cameras are now outside of my house where my wife and kids are." She then turned to Walters and said, "You went all around this and never called [Trump] a liar. You never said, 'Donald is lying.' You never called him a liar."
When Walters tried to defend herself, according to The Post, O'Donnell erupted, "Are you looking me in the face and denying you didn't tell him you didn't say this? You're a [bleeping] liar."
Okay, so O'Donnell was angry that Walters didn't call Trump a "liar." So how did The Donald respond to all this after apparently reading The Post's article? With an "open letter" to O'Donnell, of course.
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"After your maniacal and foolish rant against me two weeks ago, Barbara called me from her vacation (I did not call her) in order to apologize for your behavior," said Trump in the letter, which he released to the media on Wednesday afternoon. "She had heard that I was going to retaliate against you and tried to talk me out of it. She very much wanted me to go on the show as soon as she got back so that she could 'patch things up' (I said no)."
But that's not the worst of it, as Trump also threw some of what he claimed to be Walters' comments about O'Donnell back in her face.
"To be exact, [Walters] said that 'working with [O'Donnell] is like living in hell' and, more pointedly, 'Donald, never get into the mud with pigs' and 'don't worry, [O'Donnell] won't be here for long,'" Trump wrote. "Barbara knows exactly what she told me over the phone and she has to live with it. Perhaps that's why her initial statement was so mild!"
Trump also said in the letter that during another incident when he saw Walters dining at La Cirque two months ago, he asked how O'Donnell was doing on The View.
"[Walters] sarcastically rolled her eyes and said, 'Donald, do you have to ruin my meal?'" Trump said in the letter.
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O'Donnell maintains that Walters should have said Trump was lying, but Cindi Berger, a representative for both Walters and O'Donnell, told The Post that Walters has remained fully supportive of her co-host and they have put the issue behind them.
"Whatever happened in the hair and makeup room was hardly a squabble," Berger told The Post. "It's business as usual, everyone has moved on."
Trump's recent feud with O'Donnell began last month when he announced Miss USA Tara Connor would keep her title, which was in jeopardy due to underage drinking. As part of her agreement with Trump, Connor is currently attending an in-patient substance abuse rehabilitation center. O'Donnell said Trump, who is twice divorced, had no right to be "the moral compass for 20-year-olds in America," sparking a string of nasty media exchanges between the pair.
About The Author: Christopher Rocchio