Barbara Walters made her co-hosts on “The View” nearly spit out their coffee when she asked them “Do you like it when he is rough?” and commented “I forgot my whip” during a segment on the talk show yesterday.
Walters comments were part of a conversation of the best-selling book “Fifty Shades of Grey,” the erotic fiction novel about a college student swept up in an S&M-tinged affair with a business magnate. The tome was recently the subject of a Hollywood bidding war, with Universal and Focus Feature winning the screen rights to the work.
“The View” discussion of the book started off tame.
“Because it’s about bondage,” said Joy Behar, answering the question of why women are so intrigued by the book. “And might I say Barbara, you are looking mighty S&M today.”
The 82-year-old news veteran happened to be wearing a black leather jacket.
“I do. I left my whip,” Walters responded. “The whole idea of this is that women like us, who work and argue and this and that — when you go home, you want the guy to be in charge and, more than be in charge, do very kinky things.”
As Walters discussed the opening sex scene of the HBO show “Girls,” Whoopi Goldberg and Elisabeth Hasselbeck appeared taken aback.
Goldberg gripped her eyes, “That visual you just gave me made my eyes bleed!”
“I’m just avoiding the whole conversation,” said Hasselbeck.
But Walters would not let the conservative blonde stay neutral on the subject.
“What about you and your husband?” she asked.
Hasselbeck responded, “We are on a pregnancy prevention program right now because we have three kids and avoiding a fourth so we do what we do.”
Walters kept prodding.
“Do you like it when he’s rough?” she finally asked.
“Wow, wow,” said Goldberg. “That’s too much.”
The ladies soon moved on to a new point of discussion.