Barbara Walters to Elizabeth Vargas: "We all knew you were a drunk."

[quote]'We all knew,' Walters said. 'I am very fond of Elizabeth and proud of her. But we knew... It was public at that point.'No it wasn't,' Vargas responded, looking at the host. 'But we all knew,' Walters returned. Vargas looked at her in shock as the other women on the set fell silent.

See, this is what old people will say that other people won't say.

I applaud Barbara this time. Vargas is a drunk who should have been fired and she continues to minimize her drunkenness by stressing her "anxiety" problem.

Vargas would be nowhere without affirmative action. There's nothing special about her except that she's a Latina.

That old cunt's true colors. Always there, just below the surface. While I don't care for Vargas, I respect and admire her for her courage dealing with her problem.

Look at the cunt at R3. Cunt, cunt, cunt.

Was Vargas drunk on the air?

I don't know if Vargas was drunk on the air, but she says she realized she had a problem when she was too drunk to conduct an interview and had to go home. So Vargas was on the job in some capacity and DRUNK and not fired. Vargas is the affirmative action cunt.

Ex-drunks always like to pretend no one could tell they were drunk but them--it adds to the fantasy they just CHOSE to stop but didn't need to stop. But everyone always knows.

Haven;t we all seen a co-worker DRUNK at an office party over and over and over again.

Coming in hung over constantly, yet saying they have a cold?

I think that is what Babs is referring to.

The signs are all there.

Thanks, R6. I was only superficially aware of Vargas and her rehab and what I had read made it sound like she tippled at home. Wow. That's pretty significant. Of course, everyone knew.

Good for Barbara.

She told the truth that the drunk needed to hear.

Barbara Walters was born a cunt, grew into a cuntier cunt, and has spent the last 60+ years of her life cunting all over the world.

That she was a cunt to Vargas is not a surprise.

The bigger question is, why isn't anyone calling out Diane Shhhhawyer for being an even bigger drunk?

[quote] 'We all knew,' Walters said. 'I am very fond of Elizabeth and proud of her. But we knew... It was public at that point.'

Barbara meant everyone at ABC knew. Elizabeth meant, the general public did not know

Barbara is old school and had to claw her way to the top during some very sexist decades. A woman in Barbara's time would have been fired for on-the-job drunkenness. Vargas, however, gets away with it and still minimizes her drunkenness and unprofessionalism.

Barbara told the truth in a public forum about the actionable conduct of an EEOC-protected Latina. Vargas is the cunt, not Walters.

Christ. I'm just a viewer who tended to avoid Vargas (the crooked-lip sneer mouth), but from occasional glimpses I knew she was a drunk.

How do these people think they are hiding anything?

But, of course, that's different from Walters nailing someone to get attention. And it worked for her.

And Walters may have a hidden grudge, no matter how much she "loves and respects" Vargas. MIss Walters at this point, apart from the gristle of her ego, is held up by the bone of her peeves and private rages.

Barbara lost it years ago. This is classic old-timers disease: no tact, no filter, no edit button. She should have bowed out gracefully 10 years ago, but no. Bitter, egotistical cunt.

What R14 says is interesting about being able to detect Vargas' alcoholism just from watching her on TV. I am clueless about these things. A friend and I once watched a CSPAN interview featuring Joan Didion and she (my friend) instantly declared Didion an alcoholic and she knew nothing of Didion's work or persona. My friend is a psych RN and swears she has alkie-dar.

She didn't call her a drunk.

She called her a dwunk.

I just Babs a mention on the horrible interviewers thread, and this is why! She just don't give a damn anymore. When you get this old you stop caring about how big a cunt you are.

r13, you are correct. Barbara still has that old school mentality, which is why she comes off so bad.

"Vargas would be nowhere without affirmative action. There's nothing special about her except that she's a Latina."

Racist much? Trolldar reveals that r6 and r13 are posted by the same racist

R19 reveals he is a brilliant detective, but a poor debater.

A poor debater? There is no evidence that she was hired solely for being a Latina, you are just making assumptions based on your racist Republican beliefs. Studies have linked social conservative beliefs to low IQ, which explains your posts.

I never said Vargas was hired for being Latina. But if you think her double minority status did NOT factor in the network's decision not to fire her for on the job drunkenness, then I would think you have never experienced the modern workforce.

Affirmative action? A news reader's main job is to look pretty. It's not like they promoted her over a thousand prettier white women.

If you never want to hear then truth, stay away from old people and little children.

[quote]If you never want to hear then truth, stay away from old people and little children.

... and Datalounge.

Walters should not have interrupted Vargas.

She should have let Vargas finish her story and then tell Vargas that, at ABC, she wasn't fooling anybody but herself that her drinking was a secret.

Every drunk that was, or is, a "secret drinker", thinks they are, or did fool the people around them into thinking they weren't drinking.

I should know, my alcoholic brain told me nobody knew, so keep bending that elbow. It's only now, with the benefit of many successive 24 hours that I can look back at myself and know that nobody was fooled except me.

I dislike both of these women, hell, all of 'e. Vargas, however, needed to hear that she wasn't fooling anyone, but Walters should not have interrupted her.

Barbara knew nothing. She's 84 years old and barely remembers breakfast. The only reason she said it is because she IS the Queen of ABC News and wanted to come off as she is still in control.

...all of 'em.

It's reprehensible that Baba would so casually speak about this woman's shame and in the most sweeping generalizations. Disgusting.

"Your beloved booze, Elizabeth! See what an alcoholic you are? You'd even drink GASOLINE if it was in a bottle!"

DRUNKEN HOORS

[quote]"Your beloved booze, Elizabeth! See what an alcoholic you are? You'd even drink GASOLINE if it was in a bottle!"

"Bottle"?? I'd settle for it being in an Alberto VO5 spraycan!

Nothing worse than being called out on your shit Elizabeth.

The thing about admitting your an alcoholic is that you need to be willing to face the consequences a mere action from your friends, family and. coworkers.

If Elizabeth is upset, she should call her sponsor.

[quote]after her father went to Vietnam when she was six-years-old, she began suffering from daily panic attacks

Maybe she should sue the estate of Lyndon Johnson.

Fuck Elizabeth Vargas and he god damn celebrity sobriety.

The program says maintain anonymity at the level of press, tv and films, so go out and be the face of it all, bitch, and when you relapse come back on and explain that AA doesnt work and how you tried and so hundreds of people who are teetering find your failure as a reason to continue using.

Fuck you in your gin swilling throat.

That sounds like a pretty personal rant, R35.

It's true, though, that no one seems to take the second A seriously in any of the 12-step groups.

Then again, no one values privacy (facebook users tell each other when they fart and what it smelled like, while instagram users take a pic of it, and twitter users sum it up in a faux-witty way) anymore at all, so why are any of us surprised that the 'anonymous' is gone?

I went online and watched the interview - and I think Walters was making an important point.

I've worked with two alcoholics and they both thought they were "functional alcoholics" and that no one knew they had a problem until they went into rehab.

Which was ridiculous - we all knew.

It was irritating for Vargas to try and imply or claim otherwise.

Baba reminds me of that other Barbara. She loves to make the pretty girls cry.

Barbara now reminds me of my granny. Both are so old neirher audits what they say, they just blurt it out without thinking they might hurt someone's feelings.

How did anyone know Vargas was a drunk? Was she drunk in public? How are posters saying they knew? Did you see her drunk? Was she ever drunk on the air? I mean, c'mon. I don't think the public DID know. But her co-workers? Barbara was right, I bet.

Elizabeth could have been classy in her response, perhaps telling Barbara that they are like a family, and they acknowledge each other's problems, such as Elizabeth's alcoholism or Barbara's senility.

My God, people! EV is simply doing her best to recover from a DISEASE! She finally has the strength to admit it! F'ing BW is a big C*nt for exploiting EV's and her family's struggle through their recovery. Yeah, be comfortable with listening to BW justify her friend's (WA's) behavior. Hope people like those two are your neighbors.

Alkie-dar is interesting.. anyone want to elaborate on what kind of things tip them off?

R43--Rule #1 of Alki-dar: it takes one to know one.

A bit of decorum, Barbara. No need to get nasty and embarrass your guest. It's difficult enough for an addict to come clean.

It's cunt vs. cunt here.

Because Barbara Walters never pissed on Matthew Shepard's grave, I side with Barbara.

I wonder why she tries so hard to minimize her alcoholism. She gave an interview right after she got out of rehab, stating that she had a glass or two of wine every night to cope with anxiety, and she thought that was too much. Who does she think she is kidding?

r43, the biggest tip-off starts from knowing the person when they're in moments of sobriety.

Aren't they "there?" By that I mean, they're clear-eyed, attentive, lucid, and most of all, you can't smell alcohol on them.

A myth exists that vodka is undetectable by scent. That's wrong. Alcohol, no matter what its form,when ingested, emits a scent. All the breath mints in the world doesn't cover it. It merely masks it.

Now, take the same person when they've been drinking. Isn't there an intuition or gut feeling you have when interacting with this person that something isn't quite right? I remember now the looks on family and friends when they spoke to me while I was "fooling" them. It was the fleeting look of resigned heartache.

Perhaps it's as subtle as a slight hesitation when the respond to you that isn't there when they're sober, or, otoh, they become a boring motor mouth.

For me, the number one indicator that someone I'm interacting with has been drinking is smell. Alcohol has an unmistakable, piercing scent on a person's breath.

Again, I know what Walters meant and she's right. Otoh, Vargas needed to hear that, but I maintain Walters should not have interrupted Vargas.

Oh please, those yentas interrupt one another all morning long. Barbara interrupted with the piercing truth, so I think we can excuse her.

r49, yes, you're right, but doesn't it depend on the topic?

After all, they weren't discussing, say, a pic of Kim Kardashian, or however her name is spelled, which showed her wearing her latest pair of gravity defying, ass-boosting jeans.

Vargas was their to tell her story of being an alcoholic. Let her do it, THEN nail her.

And I do agree that Vargas continuing to believer her own nonsense about fooling people shows a lack of humility, an absence of which means that somewhere, in your alcoholic brain you believe you had some control when the truth is, you had none.

[quote] F'ing BW is a big C*nt

Is the letter U on your keyboard broken?

I have some sort of voyeuristic satisfaction from seeing Barbara and Joan Rivers and MOST old people tell it like it is. They don't suffer fools and bullshitters and fake people. They call them out. No, it isn't socially proper and might be rude as hell but that's why I LOVE it! Old people get right to the point!

I agree, r52. My partner's grandma has been pissing everyone off in his family because of her 'honesty' but I think it's hilarious. His mom showed the grandma photos of her other son's girlfriend, and grandma's response was "she's not much of a looker, is she".

Barbara really wasn't right. Barbara specifically said, "It was public at that point". The public did not know she was an alcoholic. I'm sure all her co-workers knew, but that is a different thing.

You raise a good point.

My posts are premised on, when Vargas describes herself as a "secret drinker," she is including her co-workers, as well as the viewing public, as not being in the know about her drinking.

Just gimme a drink and raise the goddamn cue cards!

Hm, I wonder. Sometimes people say 'I knew it' but with the benefit of hindsight and things 'falling into place' due to the confirmation. But if Vargas says she was too drunk to even work, well, people must have noticed.

R57:

That, and when La Liz took a shit in the breakroom sink.

Barbara Walters to Bob Woodruff: "You speak stwangely. Are you on dwugs?"

Della and R43- in my experience recognizing an alcoholic in the workplace isn't about the individual not being sober while at work.

It's about recognizing the aftermath of having been drunk the night before.

Find these behaviors in one person - and you are probably dealing with an alcoholic:

Chronically out on Monday or Friday

Chronically late to work

Sleeping during the day (on breaks and lunch)

Reasons for being out - frequent car trouble, frequent needs to stay out for home repair

Distracted, inability to focus as day goes on.

Missing deadlines

They could just be slackers but don't be surprised that when you start progressive discipline then end up in rehab.

Last week there were reports that Elizabeth's husband cheated on her while she was in rehab. He denied it, but this week he's saying it's a private matter

Vargas’ husband says alleged cheating is a ‘private matter’

The husband of ABC News’ Elizabeth Vargas has issued a smarmy statement after Page Six revealed he cheated on the “20/20” anchor while she was in rehab.

We reported that “Walking in Memphis” songwriter Marc Cohn embarked on an affair with Flywheel spin guru Ruth Zukerman while Vargas was in treatment for alcohol addiction. But in his statement, Cohn appears to blame his straying on Vargas’ battle with addiction and “long-standing issues” in their marriage. “I will not comment on what is an extremely sensitive and private family matter — addiction and recovery are serious challenges and it’s been a tough road for all of us,” Cohn told People. “I have been supportive of Elizabeth in the past — and will continue to be — regardless of the long-standing issues in our relationship,” he continued.

A source also told the magazine that Cohn “has a strong emotional investment in how the story is told because his primary concern are his kids and he doesn’t want to look like a bad guy when he’s not.” The source added: “It’s a complicated situation since what seems new in the public is a long-standing challenge for them over the years.”

Cohn, 54, and Vargas, 51, have been married since 2002 and have two sons. A rep for Vargas declined to comment. Vargas and Cohn had both been friends with Zukerman and attended spin classes at one of her three Manhattan studios. But we’re told he began an affair with divorced mother-of-two Zukerman while Vargas was seeking treatment for alcohol addiction last fall. A source told us the affair came to light when Cohn and Zukerman were spotted dining together at a restaurant just after Vargas left rehab. “A mutual friend spotted Ruth with Marc and called Elizabeth,” the insider said. A second source added, “It was disgusting that he was with Ruth while Elizabeth was in rehab.” A friend of Cohn claimed that he and Zukerman are “just friends.”

This thread makes no sense. This is a 20/20 anchor - who the fuck cares if she is an alcoholic? This is dumb.

she drinks because she can't have david muir. he doesn't like vagina.

the end.

R38 Very campy when taken out of the film's context. I liked that film at the time but it has aged very poorly.

I wonder if she was cheating on her husband. A lot of straight guys like those Milfy Puerto Rican/Irish types. I could could see her getting railed on the side like Diane Lane did in Unfaithful.

seven year old thread

Elizabeth is now doing a syndicated show called iCrime. She looks older but good. I hope she is sober. I think her kids sided with Marc Cohn didn't they?

[QUOTE]I think her kids sided with Marc Cohn didn't they?

I think so, yes.

I wonder how she’s doing. Her memoir was good but written so soon after she got sober, and she’d already relapsed once.

[quote]I respect and admire her for her courage dealing with her problem.

We need to stop romanticizing and admiring people for dealing with drug and alcohol problems. There is nothing brave or courageous about hitting rock bottom and deciding that you're miserable and need to make a change.

It is not heroic to recognize that you're a mess - and usually it's OTHER people who've had to put up with and point out that you're a mess.

It's fine to be glad she's addressing her problem. It's great that reducing the stigma of being an addict helps more people seek the help they need. But, let's stop implying that there's anything noble, heroic, or courageous about it.

Fascinating

Marc Cohn was fucking around on her when she went to rehab. Not a crime but he's no saint himself.

I wish Barbara would say that to Gayle King. I rarely watch CBS, but there were a few times in the last few months that I caught her on the morning show and she was acting loopy. There was one episode where she was getting al belligerent with a male co-host who didn’t introduce the segment to her liking and she kept at him even after he apologized. She was getting kind of… loud about it and wasting time. There was a split-screen they had to segue to, and you could see the other reporters looking bemused and they hurried to change the subject.

Gurl was drunk, I’m telling you. She went off script and stayed there. Imagine being a producer on that shitshow.

R64 That Puerto Rican/Irish type can be very attractive especially in a woman. Alcoholics women can be big time whores so God knows how she acted when sauced up. She was very attractive when she was younger so I wouldn't be surprised if she bedded some fellow drunks.