Star Jones

Star Jones Reynolds (born March 24, 1962) is an American lawyer and television personality, best known for her stint as a co-host of the ABC weekday morning talk show The View. On August 20, 2007, she began hosting an eponymous talk show based on the law and pop culture as part of Court TV's daytime programming.

Early life, education, and legal career

Born Starlet Marie Jones, she graduated from Notre Dame High School in Lawrenceville, New Jersey. She earned a B.A. degree in The Administration of Justice at American University and a Juris Doctor degree from the University of Houston Law Center.

Jones worked as an assistant district attorney in Kings County (Brooklyn), New York for six years and became Senior Assistant District Attorney at the age of 29. Her felony conviction rate of 31 out of 33 cases earned her top honors and acknowledgement in the law enforcement community.

Jones is also a prominent member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc.

Television career

Jones was recruited by Court TV in 1991 as a commentator for the William Kennedy Smith rape trial, and spent several years as a legal correspondent for NBC's The Today Show and NBC Nightly News.

She left NBC in 1994 to host her own court show Jones & Jury. Although the show was canceled after one year, Jones quickly was signed up as chief legal analyst on Inside Edition, where she was assigned to lead the coverage of the O.J. Simpson murder trial and was the only reporter to interview Simpson during his civil trial.

The View

File:StarLarryKing.jpg

Jones, in her first interview since leaving The View, speaks on CNN's Larry King Live

In 1997 Jones joined The View as a co-host, a role that increased her public exposure significantly.

From September 2004 to September 2005, Jones was a red-carpet host for the E! television network, conducting interviews at awards shows. Jones and E! declined to renew her contract after one year.

On June 27, 2006, Jones officially reported that she would be leaving The View after nine seasons as co-host. She told People Magazine that the decision to leave was not her own. "What you don't know is that my contract was not renewed for the 10th season... I feel like I was fired." She found out her contract would not be renewed just days before Rosie O'Donnell's addition to the show was announced.

The following day, Barbara Walters, claiming she had been "blindsided" announced that effective immediately Jones Reynolds no longer would appear on The View, except for segments that had already been pre-taped (which proved to be minimal. When the series went into summer reruns, only programs in which she had been absent from the panel were rebroadcast). Jones was removed from the opening credits, leaving only Walters, Joy Behar, and Elisabeth Hasselbeck. In addition to being removed from the credits, Jones was immediately removed from the ABC.com website. After June 27, her only appearances on The View were on the Friday June 30, 2006 episode, which was taped prior to her departure, and then replayed on Tuesday July 4, 2006.

Shortly after, Jones joined Larry King on his talk show to defend her position and respond to questions about why ABC had refused to renew her contract. The network claimed that not only did Jones's excessive reports about her wedding plans alienate viewers, but her acceptance of clothing and merchandise for the event, in exchange for mentions on The View, was in violation of network policy. When questioned about these issues by King, Jones adamantly stated that every mention of her wedding and those connected to it on The View was specifically approved and negotiated by the network themselves, clearly not in violation of any policy. She also reminded viewers that the ratings during that time were the highest ratings The View had in the nine years she was a co-host.

Star Jones on Court TV

Media reports on March 7, 2007 stated that Star Jones would return to Court TV as the new Executive Editor of their Daytime Programming and would host a live weekday talk show based on the law and pop culture. It premiered on August 20.

Recent

In July of 2006, Jones hosted a week of the HGTV program, House Hunters, in New York City. Her appearance on the program "scored the largest household ratings in the cable channel's history."

In December of 2006, for three days, Jones sat in for Michael Eric Dyson to guest host his radio show in his absence. Also that month, she produced for the Cathy Hughes-owned TV-One cable station The Star Jones-Reynolds Report, which reported on events that tremendously affected the African American community the previous year .

On April 2, 2007 she sat in as host of Larry King Live, interviewing Beyoncé Knowles while Larry was on vacation.

She appeared in "Screwed," the eighth season finale of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit. While her character was also named Star Jones, she was not playing herself, but rather a prosecuting attorney from Brooklyn.

Authorship

Jones has written two books. The first, You Have to Stand for Something, or You'll Fall for Anything, is a collection of autobiographical essays published in 1998. In January of 2006, Jones published her second book, Shine: A Physical, Emotional, and Spiritual Journey to Finding Love, detailing changes she made to re-shape her life, including her marriage and dramatic weight loss.

Personal life and public image

Jones married Al Reynolds on November 13, 2004. The much-publicized wedding was held at Saint Bartholomew's Church in New York City in front of 500 guests, and featured three matrons of honor, 12 bridesmaids, two junior bridesmaids, three best men, 12 groomsmen, three junior groomsmen, six footmen, four ring bearers and four flower girls. More than 30 corporate "sponsors" donated wedding attire and merchandise for the event, in exchange for mentions in the media and on Jones' website. WE: Women's Entertainment named Jones Reynolds the top bridezilla of 2004.

Jones immediately added her husband's last name to her own and began using Star Jones Reynolds professionally. In an interview in the August 24, 2007 issue of Entertainment Weekly, she explained she reverted to Star Jones professionally in order to keep her public persona separate from her private self.

In a September 2007, Glamour magazine interview, she reveals she had gastric-bypass surgery in August 2003, resulting in a loss of 160 pounds over three years.

External links

• Official Star Jones website
• Star Jones on Sawitcoming.com
• Star Jones at IMDb
• Template:Tvtome person
• Landscaper sues "The View" star, a December 2004 article from The Smoking Gun
• collection of excerpts from Jones' second book