Hasselbeck New 'Friend' on Fox & Friends; Carlson Goes Solo on Fox

Elizabeth Hasselbeck presumably will draw on the self-preservation skills that led her to a fourth-place finish on Survivor: The Australian Outback (2001) when she shares the curved couch with co-hosts Steve Doocy and Brian Kilmeade on the top-rated gabfest Fox & Friends this September.

Mediabistro.com's TV Newser blog reports today that the 36-year-old Cranston, R.I., native will join Fair & Balanced Fox News after a 10-year stint as a co-host of ABC's Emmy-winning The View where she often triggered controversy in her role as the blonde Conservative panelist.

"Elizabeth's warm and engaging personality made her a star on The View," said Fox News Chair & CEO Roger Ailes--an expert in warm & fuzzy--in a statement released by Fox. "She has proven to be an excellent conversationalist and I am certain she will make a great addition to our already successful morning franchise," Ailes added.                                                                                          

Hasselbeck, who is married to her Boston College college boyfriend, NFL quarterback Tim Hasselbeck, and is the author of two best-selling celiac diet books, was a keynote speaker at the GOP Conventions in 2004 and 2008 and in October 2008, introduced then-vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin at GOP rallies and Mensa meetings (we may have made that part up).

Hasselbeck supplants Gretchen Carlson on the Fox & Friends couch. Carlson, according to Fox, will host her own one-hour show on Fox at a yet-to-be determined time, after a seven-year stint on Fox & Friends. The show, which has been the top-rated morning cable news program since 2001, is a frequent satiric target of SNL and The Daily Show.

"TUOL" is eager to see how Hasselback adapts to her new co-panelists on Fox & Friends where she, no doubt, like Kate Jackson on the original Charlie's Angels, will come to be known as "the smart one."

UPDATE: Court Shares 'The View' of Hasselbeck in Plagiarism Suit

Cover via AmazonSiding with Survivor veteran and co-host of The View, Elizabeth Hasselbeck, the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts found yesterday that the 33-year-old Hasselbeck did not plagiarize another author's work when she published The G-Free Diet: A Gluten-Free Survival Guide (2009)."

Susan Hassett, self-published author of Living With Celiac Disease, failed to convince the court that Hasselbeck, who suffers from the digestive condition, copied from her work to produce the best-selling G-Free Diet. This was Hassett's second go-around at Hasselbeck after the court dismissed the plaintiff's initial plagiarism claim against Hasselbeck last year(see "TUOL" posts 11/30/09 & 6/24/09).

President Obama Faces Another Disaster: Will Appear on 'The View'

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It's likely to spark a TiVo frenzy among liberals and Tea-Partiers alike Thursday when President Barack Obama appears on ABC's kaffee klatsch The View. Obama will be the first sitting president to appear on a daytime tv talk show (although "TUOL" believes that if President Richard Nixon didn't appear on Truth or Consequences, he should have).

President Obama appeared on The View in March 2008, when he was a U.S. Senator from Illinois. The gabfest's "Red White & View" episodes have been devoted to political discussion and have corralled a number of public officials, including Vice President Joe Biden, who appeared on the program last April.

President Obama will likely discuss the BP Gulf oil disaster and the economy among other topics, with co-hosts Joy Behar, Whoppi Goldberg, Sherri Shepherd and Elizabeth "Did you bring a birth certificate?" Hasselbeck.  The president may also apply his mediation skills to assist Whoppi and Sherri in apportioning the breakfast pastries.

President Obama is expected to enter onstage to the strains of "Hail to the Chief," which has View producers scrambling to come up with a different song to play when Barbara Walters saunters over to the couch.
Pray that it's not a slow news day.

Hasselbeck Hassle-free After Plagiarism Claim Dismissed

A federal judge in Boston has tossed the plagiarism suit against "The View" co-host Elizabeth Hasselbeck brought by Cape Cod author Susan Hassett, who claimed her self-published book, Living with Celiac Disease, was the food source, so to speak, for Hasselbeck's best-selling tome, The G-Free Diet: A Gluten-Free Survival Guide.

The case, Hassett v. Hasselbeck & Center Street Hachette Book Group (Case No. 1:2009cv11063) was dismissed by U.S. District Court Judge Joseph Tauro after Hassett's counsel declined to pursue the claim, raising doubts that the alleged infringement was serious enough to merit monetary damages for Ms. Hassett. See "TUOL" post 6/24/09.

Author's 'View': Hasselbeck Copied Her Book

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Elizabeth Hasselbeck, co-host of ABC's gabfest "The View" and author of The G-Free Diet: A Gluten-Free Survival Guide, has been sued for copyright infringement in the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts by self-published author Susan Hassett.

Hassett, author of Living with Celiac Disease, filed suit on June 22, seeking $3 million from the 32-year-old Hasselbeck and publisher Center Street Hachette Book Group (Case No. 1:2009cv11063). Hassett alleges that in April 2008, she sent Hasselbeck a copy of her book, along with a homemade cooking video, newspaper article and personal note, after learning that the tv host suffers from the autoimmune disorder. According to the complaint, Hasselbeck's best-seller reproduces lists of gluten-containing grains and otherwise allegedly includes numerous instances of paraphrasing and verbatim passages from Hassett's book, though the complaint cites no specific examples.

Hasselbeck has denied the accusation and her publisher released a statement dismissing the allegations as baseless, saying that it had yet to receive a copy of the complaint.

Hasselbeck, a Providence, Rhode Island native, has co-hosted "The View" since 2003. She has parlayed a 4th place finish competing on "Survivor: The Australian Outback" (2001) into a successful television career, appearing most recently on episodes of "Ugly Betty," "Entourage," and the movie "Tyler Perry's Medea Goes to Jail." She is married to NFL quarterback Tim Hasselbeck.

It falls on U.S. District Court Judge Joseph Tauro to separate the wheat from the chaff in this case.