The Woman's Network

Perhaps her greatest triumph, in 1977, was landing an extraordinary joint interview with Anwar Sadat and Menachem Begin before the Egyptian and Israeli leaders made peace. Her biggest blunder, in 1986, was briefing Ronald Reagan on information involving American hostages she had gotten from Iranian businessman Manucher Ghorbanifar, without telling her bosses. She was stung, she writes, when ABC News publicly reprimanded her after the news came out.

Her most celebrated interview was the much-ballyhooed 1999 sit-down with Monica Lewinsky, whom she courted over lunch at Walters's Manhattan apartment. Almost every question she asked "had some embarrassment behind it," says Walters, citing the "nearly pornographic" Starr Report. But the Lewinsky spectacle didn't stop her from landing an interview with Hillary Clinton when her book came out, or asking the former first lady what she would do if her husband strayed again.

Walters is primarily known these days for her all-women gabfest "The View," which was thrown into turmoil when Rosie O'Donnell joined the panel, clashed with the staff and kept talking her way into trouble. Walters tried to broker a cease-fire between her big-mouth colleague and her other friend Donald Trump, whom she called "from my boat in the Caribbean." It didn't work, and O'Donnell was dumped in 2006 after one year.

Walters tries to be diplomatic, proclaiming her love for O'Donnell, but adds: "When Rosie was good she was very, very good, and when she was bad she was horrid."

By the second half of the memoir it is clear that Walters is friends with just about everyone. She pals around with Michael Douglas, whom she has interviewed several times, and his wife, Catherine Zeta-Jones. She takes vacations with Oscar de la Renta and parties with Queen Noor. Has that undermined her on-air role?

Chatting up stars is different than interviewing politicians, she says. With celebrities, says Walters, "you're doing them a favor, but they're doing you a favor. You want them to be comfortable and open up. My way of doing that is never to attack. I often start by asking about their childhood, and that's when they cry."

For all her ease in the glittering world of which she became a part, it was a change in the television culture that finally prompted Walters to step down as a "20/20" anchor four years ago.

"They weren't interested in heads of state or presidents or more serious interviews," she says. "They were much more interested in celebrities. I had done hundreds and hundreds of celebrities. I was tired of them."