NAMES & FACES
From left, Meredith Vieira, Star Jones, guest Bette Midler, Joy Behar and Lisa Ling on "The View," Jan. 3, 2001. Vieira says she now never watches the show and that it's "a joke." Ouch!
(By Eric Liebowitz -- Cbs)
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Vieira, No Longer a Viewer
Meredith Vieira , who will become co-anchor of NBC's "Today" show on Sept. 13, no longer watches her old program, "The View," citing what she considers its decline in quality.
"I have to admit, the day after Star made her announcement, I watched," Vieira said in an interview published in Time magazine yesterday. "But I feel very sad for everything that's happened and for everybody involved."
Star Jones Reynolds left "The View" in June following an announcement that Rosie O'Donnell would join the cast.
Vieira, who had stepped down after nine years on the program, is proud of her efforts for the popular daytime talk show, but she told Time that it's not what it used to be.
"It's hard to watch. It sort of became a joke," she said.
Vieira turned down a job on CBS's "Early Show" in 2002, but said she couldn't let the opportunity to co-host "Today" pass her by: "It's an institution. I'm not somebody who loves getting up at 4 in the morning, so this might kill me, but we'll see."
Footage of Welty Discovered
Five hours of color footage of writer Eudora Welty was discovered in the National Endowment for the Arts media archives and has been returned to the author's home state of Mississippi.
The footage, which NEA Chairman Dana Gioia describes as being in excellent condition, was shot in 1975 for an NEA-funded project. A few minutes of the footage was used in a documentary titled "The Writer in America."
The NEA is awarding the Mississippi Department of Archives and History a $10,000 grant to be used for the preservation of the film.
Born in 1909 in Jackson, Miss., Welty remained in her home town for most her life. She provided a colorful image of her native South in "The Ponder Heart," "Losing Battles" and "The Optimist's Daughter," and in 1973 she won a Pulitzer Prize. In addition, she was widely praised for her photographs of Depression-era Mississippi, which depicted the pride and grace she saw even among those hit hardest by poverty.
Welty died in 2001.
Franz and Friends
"NYPD Blue" star Dennis Franz still has a special place in his heart for law enforcement.
![[slate.com logo]](http://media.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/graphic/2007/09/27/GR2007092701096.GIF)
